Ranking: Every John Carpenter Movie from Worst to Best

Artwork by Steven Fiche.

Welcome to Dissected, where we disassemble a band’s catalog, a director’s filmography, or some other critical pop-culture collection in the abstract. It’s exact science by way of a few beers. This time, we sort through the best and worst of The Master of Horror.

Dark streets, empty lawns, singing trees, and the nauseating pulse of synths — you’re watching a John Carpenter film. Chances are the Master of Horror was responsible for a few of your earliest childhood nightmares. He’s more or less the Ray Bradbury of filmmaking, an underrated visionary who can conjure up a brand of fear that’s both out of this world and within your reach.

As director David Gordon Green gets set to pit Laurie Strode against Michael Myers one final time this Halloween, we’re counting the bodies (um, the days) by unleashing the latest installment of our Filmography podcast series. It’ll be a weekly deep-dive into all things John Carpenter and the ultimate way to hone up on the Master of Horror before Halloween arrives in theaters.

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In celebration, we’ve resurrected this original breakdown of Carpenter’s filmography, where we first faced all the terror that lies within and shared our findings with you. In the past, this would be the part where we’d tell you that “everyone’s entitled to one good scare.” Well, with this Dissected and our new John Carpenter Filmography series, we’re happy to spot you at least two.

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