Editing John Carpenter (section)

===1970s: From student films to theatrical releases===
Carpenter's first major film as director, ''[[Dark Star (film)|Dark Star]]'' (1974), was a science-fiction comedy that he co-wrote with [[Dan O'Bannon]] (who later went on to write ''[[Alien (film)|Alien]]'', borrowing freely from much of ''Dark Star''). The film reportedly cost only $60,000 and was difficult to make as both Carpenter and O'Bannon completed the film by multitasking, with Carpenter doing the musical score as well as the writing, producing, and directing, while O'Bannon acted in the film and did the special effects (which caught the attention of [[George Lucas]] who hired him to work with the special effects for the film ''[[Star Wars (film)|Star Wars]]''). Carpenter received praise for his ability to make low-budget films.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.theofficialjohncarpenter.com/pages/press/londtimes780308.html |title=John Carpenter: Press: London Times: 3–8–78 |website=TheOfficialJohnCarpenter.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151210213135/http://www.theofficialjohncarpenter.com/pages/press/londtimes780308.html |archive-date=December 10, 2015 |date=March 8, 1978 |access-date=March 7, 2015 }}</ref>

Carpenter's next film was ''[[Assault on Precinct 13 (1976 film)|Assault on Precinct 13]]'' (1976), a low-budget thriller influenced by the films of [[Howard Hawks]], particularly ''[[Rio Bravo (1959 film)|Rio Bravo]]''. As with ''Dark Star'', Carpenter was responsible for many aspects of the film's creation. He not only wrote, directed, and scored it, but also edited the film using the pseudonym "John T. Chance" (the name of [[John Wayne]]'s character in ''Rio Bravo''). Carpenter has said that he considers ''Assault on Precinct 13'' to have been his first real film because it was the first film that he filmed on a schedule.<ref>{{cite web|last=Goldwasser |first=Dan |url=http://www.soundtrack.net/features/article/?id=12 |title=John Carpenter – Interview |publisher=Soundtrack.net |date=May 9, 2012 |access-date=March 7, 2015}}</ref> The film was the first time Carpenter worked with [[Debra Hill]], who would collaborate with Carpenter on some of his most well-known films.

Carpenter assembled a main cast that consisted of experienced but relatively obscure actors. The two main actors were [[Austin Stoker]], who had appeared previously in science fiction, disaster, and [[blaxploitation]] films, and [[Darwin Joston]], who had worked primarily for television and had once been Carpenter's next-door neighbor.<ref>Q & A session with John Carpenter and Austin Stoker at American Cinematheque's 2002 John Carpenter retrospective, in the ''Assault on Precinct 13'' 2003 special edition DVD.</ref>

The film received a critical reassessment in the United States, where it is now generally regarded as one of the best [[exploitation film]]s of the 1970s.<ref name=stills>Production Gallery (included in the 2003 special edition Region 1 DVD of ''Assault on Precinct 13''). 2003.</ref>

Carpenter both wrote and directed the Lauren Hutton thriller ''[[Someone's Watching Me!]]''. This television film is the tale of a single, working woman who, soon after arriving in L.A., discovers that she is being [[stalking|stalked]].

''[[Eyes of Laura Mars]]'', a 1978 [[thriller film|thriller]] featuring [[Faye Dunaway]] and [[Tommy Lee Jones]] and directed by [[Irvin Kershner]], was adapted (in collaboration with [[David Zelag Goodman]]) from a [[spec script]] titled ''Eyes'', written by Carpenter, and would become Carpenter's first major studio film of his career.

''[[Halloween (1978 film)|Halloween]]'' (1978) was a commercial success and helped develop the [[slasher film|slasher]] genre. Originally an idea suggested by producer [[Irwin Yablans]] (titled ''The Babysitter Murders''), who thought of a film about babysitters being menaced by a stalker, Carpenter took the idea and another suggestion from Yablans that it occur during Halloween and developed a story.<ref name="scifi1">{{cite web |url=http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue339/interview.html |title=Syfy – Watch Full Episodes &#124; Imagine Greater |publisher=Scifi.com |access-date=March 7, 2015 |archive-date=February 10, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060210135124/http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue339/interview.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> Carpenter said of the basic concept: "Halloween night. It has never been the theme in a film. My idea was to do an old haunted house film."<ref name="theofficialjohncarpenter.com">{{cite magazine |url=http://www.theofficialjohncarpenter.com/pages/press/rollingstone790628.html |title=John Carpenter: Press: Rolling Stone: 6–28–79 |magazine= Rolling Stone | via = Theofficialjohncarpenter.com |date=June 28, 1979 |access-date=March 7, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150228140340/http://www.theofficialjohncarpenter.com/pages/press/rollingstone790628.html |archive-date=February 28, 2015 }}</ref>

Film director [[Bob Clark]] suggested in an interview released in 2005<ref name="Bob Clark Interview">{{cite web|url=http://www.iconsoffright.com/IV_BClark.htm|title=Bob Clark Interview |date=May 2005 |access-date=February 22, 2020 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200222200805/http://www.iconsoffright.com/IV_BClark.htm |archive-date=February 22, 2020 }}</ref>  that Carpenter had asked him for his own ideas for a sequel to his 1974 film ''[[Black Christmas (1974 film)|Black Christmas]]'' (written by Roy Moore) that featured an unseen and motiveless killer murdering students in a university sorority house. As also stated in the 2009 documentary ''Clarkworld'' (written and directed by Clark's former production designer Deren Abram after Clark's tragic death in 2007), Carpenter directly asked Clark about his thoughts on developing the anonymous slasher in '' Black Christmas'': 
{{blockquote|...I did a film about three years later, started a film with John Carpenter, it was his first film for Warner Bros. (which picked up 'Black Christmas'), he asked me if I was ever gonna do a sequel, and I said no. I was through with horror, I didn't come into the business to do just horror. He said, "Well, what would you do if you did do a sequel?" I said it would be the next year, and the guy would have actually been caught, escape from a mental institution, go back to the house, and they would start all over again. And I would call it 'Halloween'. The truth is John didn't copy 'Black Christmas', he wrote a script, directed the script, did the casting. 'Halloween' is his movie, and besides, the script came to him already titled anyway. He liked 'Black Christmas' and may have been influenced by it, but John Carpenter did not copy the idea. Fifteen other people had thought to do a movie called 'Halloween,' but the script came to John with that title on it.

|author = Bob Clark, 2005
|source = <ref name="Bob Clark Interview"/>}} 
The film was written by Carpenter and Debra Hill with Carpenter stating that the music was inspired by both [[Dario Argento]]'s ''[[Suspiria]]'' (which also influenced the film's slightly surreal color scheme) and [[William Friedkin]]'s ''[[The Exorcist (film)|The Exorcist]]''.<ref name="theofficialjohncarpenter.com"/>

Carpenter again worked with a relatively small budget, $300,000.<ref>Audio commentary by John Carpenter and Debra Hill in ''The Fog'', 2002 special edition DVD</ref> The film grossed more than $65 million initially, making it one of the most successful [[independent films]] of all time.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.houseofhorrors.com/halloween.htm |title=Halloween |publisher=Houseofhorrors.com |access-date=March 7, 2015 |archive-date=April 6, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150406044152/http://www.houseofhorrors.com/halloween.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Carpenter has described ''Halloween'' as "true crass exploitation. I decided to make a film I would love to have seen as a kid, full of cheap tricks like a haunted house at a fair where you walk down the corridor and things jump out at you".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.theofficialjohncarpenter.com/pages/press/chic0879.html |title=John Carpenter: Press: Chic Magazine: August 1979 |publisher=Theofficialjohncarpenter.com |access-date=March 7, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151104192729/http://www.theofficialjohncarpenter.com/pages/press/chic0879.html |archive-date=November 4, 2015 }}</ref> The film has often been cited{{by whom|date=December 2012}} as an [[allegory]] on the virtue of sexual purity and the danger of casual sex, although Carpenter has explained that this was not his intent: "It has been suggested that I was making some kind of moral statement. Believe me, I'm not. In ''Halloween'', I viewed the characters as simply normal teenagers."<ref name="scifi1"/>

In addition to the film's critical and commercial success, Carpenter's self-composed "Halloween Theme" became recognizable apart from the film.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.furious.com/perfect/johncarpenter.html |title=Killing His Contemporaries: Dissecting The Musical Worlds Of John Carpenter |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060613073207/http://furious.com/perfect/johncarpenter.html |archive-date=June 13, 2006 }}</ref>

In 1979, Carpenter began what was to be the first of several collaborations with actor [[Kurt Russell]] when he directed the television film ''[[Elvis (1979 film)|Elvis]]''.