John Carpenter

John Carpenter is an American film director and composer best known for creating the Halloween franchise. He was born on January 16th in Carthage, New York. Carpenter's earliest work comprised a series of shorts based on classic atomic-era sci-fi horror such as Revenge of the Collosal Beasts, Terror from Space and Gorgon, the Space Monster. His first full directorial debut was the 1976 action film Assault on Precinct 13, which he also wrote. His first genre film was the 1978 slasher Halloween, a film whose popularity would spawn seven sequels and three remakes. Carpenter collaborated on Halloween with Debra Hill, who also worked with him on Assault on Precinct 13. Carpenter also composed the film score for Halloween, which consisted of a simple, yet haunting 10/8 meter melody that would become one of the most recognizable scores in horror film history. Although Halloween is arguably Carpenter's most famous film, he only directed the first movie and had minimal involvement with the sequels. Over the next twenty years, Carpenter's work remained locked in the horror genre, though he did enjoy some non-genre hits such as the Escape From New York franchise. In 2005, Carpenter was one of many genre directors who contributed their talents to the Masters of Horror mini-movies. Carpenter directed the 2005 episode "Cigarette Burns" and the 2006 episode "Pro-Life".