Precinct 13: The Movies and Music of John Carpenter

Hello out there, and welcome back! As promised, Chris and Nick have returned with an all-new episode to discuss Halloween Ends, the final film in David Gordon Green's sequel trilogy that's now out in theaters and on Peacock. Like every Halloween fan out there, we've got some thoughts on this unique and highly divisive horror film, featuring an original score by John Carpenter (with his usual collaborators Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies) as well as what is -- supposedly -- the very last...

We're BACK -- and sooner, rather than later! After wrapping up the show proper, we promised to check back in any time there was a good reason to do so, and the recent release of Firestarter is exactly that! Why, you ask? Well, most importantly, the Stephen King adaptation features a brand new score composed by none other than John Carpenter, and it features his regular collaborators Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies from his album, soundtrack, and live concert projects. Plus, the film was...

Well, everybody, this is it! On this extra-special (and extra-lengthy) episode of Precinct 13, Chris and Nick reveal the top seven films in their Carpenter rankings -- and cap off our three-part sort-of series finale with a look back at some of our favorite stuff. We also welcome back Megan Mosley, who you might remember from our Halloween and The Fog episodes from way back when, to share her own rankings and thoughts on the Carpenter canon. We hope you enjoy this look back at everything...

The knock-down-drag-out Carpenter-ranking extravaganza continues this week as Chris and Nick share their next round of picks (the middle of their lists) and returning guest Josh Mosley gives us his takes on all 23 films! Once again, the good, the bad, and the silly in the John Carpenter filmography get discussed, along with a few of this year's Oscar nominees, an Elvis impersonator who's got nothing on Kurt Russell, and some further details of your hosts' next podcasting endeavor. This is...

We're back again, and the time has finally come to unveil our rankings of all of the John Carpenter-directed films we've covered since Precinct 13's humble beginnings in the fall of 2019! This week's show is part one of our three-part "final" episode extravaganza (more on that in just a second), and we're welcoming back two-time guest host Alexandra Wiles to share her own rankings of all of the Carpenter films. Chris and Nick, meanwhile, share their bottom eight -- some of which you probably...

Ever wonder what happened before MacReady and the boys went toe-to-toe with alien terror in John Carpenter's 1982 classic The Thing? Well, we didn't really, either, but leave it to Hollywood to show us the mysterious backstory that Carpenter's film left tantalizingly out of reach. 2011's The Thing, a sort of grotesque, body-horror hybrid of prequel and remake, takes place a few days before the original and tells the tale of the Norwegian research base that made the colossal mistake of not...

2011's The Ward may not be one of the heavy hitters in the John Carpenter canon, but does this modestly budgeted return to feature filmmaking nevertheless have something to offer the Master of Horror's fans? Chris and Nick consider that question in a discussion that also touches on the future of Carpenter's directorial career -- and whether or not there'll actually be one! Yes, that's right, folks: this is Carpenter's last film, made an entire decade ago, and it might just end up being the...

Michael Myers is back, and so are we -- it's time to close out another "season of the witch" with an episode about Halloween Kills, the long-awaited (by us, anyway) second entry in David Gordon Green and Danny McBride's sequel trilogy! After debuting to stellar box office numbers and some decidedly mixed reviews from critics and audiences, the new movie has left Chris and Nick with a lot to talk about, so pull that William Shatner mask over your face, grab your favorite piece of cutlery, and...

With the long-awaited sequel Halloween Kills hitting theaters and All Hallow's Eve just a few weeks away, it was the perfect time to revisit one of the most high-profile, critically acclaimed, and financially successful remakes of any film in the John Carpenter catalog. 2018's Halloween, directed by David Gordon Green and co-written by Danny McBride, tosses away all of the franchise's continuity after what was established in Carpenter's original, and it attempts to faithfully capture the...

We're back to working our way through John Carpenter's filmography this week, taking a look at the second and final of Carpenter's Masters of Horror episodes. Pro-Life, from the show's second season, features Ron Perlman in a major role and was written by the team that gave us the earlier Carpenter-directed episode Cigarette Burns. Should be great, right? We'll leave you to find out our thoughts on this film -- and we have plenty of them -- but, suffice it to say, this story about a young...

We're back from a brief late-summer hiatus with lots of new music in the John Carpenter universe to talk about! Our "feature presentation" of this episode, so to speak, is a track-by-track breakdown of the recently released tribute album The Way of Darkness, out now on Italian label Rustblade Records. This album features ten tracks of familiar Carpenter tracks from his movie scores and non-film albums, re-imagined and re-recorded by a selection of artists in the electronic music genre --...

What the hell is El Diablo, you ask? Why, it's a made-for-HBO film from 1990 co-written by none other than John Carpenter and Tommy Lee Wallace (as well as Christine screenwriter Bill Phillips). And, at least according to us, it's awesome! This week, Chris and Nick check out a largely forgotten chapter in the history of Carpenter's filmmaking career, a hilarious and surprisingly dark comedy/western featuring Anthony Edwards and Louis Gossett, Jr. -- alongside an impressive supporting cast of...

Yep, we did it again! After tackling the limp Carpenter retread that was 2005's The Fog, we simply couldn't leave that same year's version of our show's namesake on the table. So, Chris, Nick, and special guest Alexandra Wiles checked out director Jean-Francois Richet's Assault on Precinct 13, and, it turns out, we had a lot to discuss about it! Unlike some remakes, this one at least has the guts to try something different from Carpenter's original, swapping out its L.A. setting for a cold...

We're back, and we've got a real barnburner (cigarette burner?) for you this time! Chris, Nick, and returning guest co-host Josh Mosley have A LOT to unpack about John Carpenter's first of two episodes of the sadly defunct Showtime anthology series Masters of Horror. With its In the Mouth of Madness-style plot, its graphic bloodletting, and its unique ideas on the medium of film, Cigarette Burns certainly stands out in the Carpenter filmography -- this is definitely not a case of late-career...

This week, we're headed back to good old Antonio Bay... But, this time around, it's not quite the same place that John Carpenter introduced us to in his classic 1980 chiller. No, against our better judgment (seriously, this thing has a 4% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes!), we've decided to take a look at director Rupert Wainwright's 2005 remake of The Fog to see if there's anything in it that's worth seeing for die-hard Carpenter fans like ourselves. You'll have to listen to find out,...

On our latest episode, it's finally time to take a look at John Carpenter's post-millennial moviemaking career, beginning with his 2001 effort Ghosts of Mars. This sci-fi/action/horror romp marks Carpenter's last foray into directing (relatively) big-budget studio movies to date, and while the film didn't set the world on fire critically or commercially, it did receive a memorable thumbs-up review from Roger Ebert. The film stars Ice Cube and Natasha Henstridge alongside a stacked cast of...

Last episode, we sank our fangs into John Carpenter's late 90s horror/western Vampires, a modest box-office hit that paid tribute to some of the director's biggest cinematic inspirations. In keeping with Carpenter's tradition of not caring all that much about making sequels to his own movies, he handed the reins down to his longtime friend and collaborator Tommy Lee Wallace (director of Halloween III: Season of the Witch) for a direct-to-DVD sequel in 2002. Vampires: Los Muertos takes place...

It's back to the movies and back to 1998 on the latest Precinct 13, as Chris and Nick sink their fangs into John Carpenter's action/horror/western hybrid, Vampires. Starring James Woods as the leader of a wild bunch of slayers hired by the Catholic church to exterminate the unholy undead, this film was a rare commercial success for Carpenter in the 90s. But, with last-minute studio-imposed budget cuts, a tangle with the MPAA over its bloody mayhem, and the blockbuster Blade breathing down...

This week, it's a first here on Precinct 13: a look at one of John Carpenter's forays into writing for the comics world. The Joker: Year of the Villain #1 is a one-shot entry into the DC Comics canon that Carpenter co-wrote with Borderlands writer Anthony Burch in 2019; it was released right around the same time that movie audiences were turning out en masse to see Joaquin Phoenix's interpretation of the infamous Batman villain. Our discussion of this unique Carpenter work also gets into the...

Among the many things we'd been looking forward to in the year of 2021 was the release of Lost Themes III: Alive After Death, the third collection of John Carpenter's original, non-soundtrack musical compositions. And, now that it's here, we can safely say -- and Chris DOES say so, more than once -- that this album is an absolute banger! We got to hear a lot of these tracks when they were released as singles last year, but your humble hosts and Carpenter aficionados think this album is best...