An archive text from 2018.
John Carpenter in an interview: “I do the new ‘Halloween’ soundtrack”
With “Halloween”, “The Fog – Fog of horror “and” The thing from another world “created John Carpenter classics of the horror film over the past 45 years. On January 16, he turned 70 – and he is as busy as it has not been for a long time: as a Schleawei pop star, he performs the electronic soundtracks he composed live and has published three albums, one with his film music in the past two years. Now Carpenter returns to “Halloween”: he produces the remake of his most famous film – and in turn composes the score.
For your “Anthology 1974–1998” you have re -recorded the “Halloween” score. How do you write music that causes heartbeat?
Does she make her nervous? Very good! But nobody can answer why you are frightened by music. The 5/4 time of the piece is praised, but what does that tell us?
Did she really inspire Mike Oldfield’s “Tubular Bells”, which was used in “The Exorcist”?
You can see: Music, as peaceful as this, find new meaning in other contexts. But I can’t even play properly! My father was a music professor, taught me the violin, but I discovered the synthesizers. With my early work, “Assault – attack at night” and “Halloween”, I lacked the money, I recorded the scores within three days.
They always say they couldn’t play, their compositions – some world -famous – are emergency births. They flirt.
Really not. For “Das Ding” (1982) and “Starman” (1984) I was finally able to hire two masters: Ennio Morricone and Jack Nitzsche, I was happy. My own soundtracks would not have gotten better if I had had more time.
There were rumors that they had not understood themselves with Morricone, and his electronic score, which sounded little after him, was the result of strong influence.
We got along well, and if we didn’t get along, only because we speak two different languages. I can’t do Italian, he is not English. His soundtrack is wonderful, but when I cut the material, I noticed that some scenes did more, subtle music well, so I got to work.
They also work with rock musicians.
Dave Davies, the Kinks guitarist, played the reef in 1994 in “The Powers of Insanity”. Now his son Daniel – my godchild – belongs to my band. Also a fantastic guitarist. This father-son team brought something that could not be bought: a drive.
This year “you live” celebrates 30th anniversary. It is considered a comment on the Turbo -capitalist Reagan – era: extraterrestrials dominate us through secret purchase commands. Where are the directors who comment on Trump with their films today?
Wait off, he has only been in office for a year. Turning takes. That is still coming. My studio wished in 1988 a traditional “invasion movie”: kill people, “war of worlds”, but this idea was too simple for me. I found that if the aliens already landed, then their motivation should be power by gaining money. I occupied Roddy Piper, the wrestler, in a role as a simple worker because it did not yet exist in the infiltration science fiction. I showed the lower class instead of a middle class. In works such as “Invasion of the body eaters”, doctors are the main characters – because they can explain the extraterrestrial extraterrestrial. I was just surprised that critics were the capitalism messages, “obey!”, “Consume!”, As subliminal. The commands were large printed on all billboards. Well, the film came to first place on the box office charts.
For the new music video for “Christine”, they initiated again for the first time since 2010. They used the classic car from her film from 1983, the Plymouth Fury, obsessed by the devil, a murder machine that now follows a young woman.
The revival of “Christine” was a lot of fun, but the damn cart just never wanted to start when filming! A Pain in the bum! Christine still had the darkened windows. Who knows what happens behind their closed car doors.
They hate watching their films because they would do so many differently today. For example?
I am not a perfectionist, but I am extremely paying attention to my mistakes. In the “village of the damned” Christopher Reeve and one of the obsessed children go to a cemetery, it was a wonderful, sunny day. I just let the whole thing run, the light played in the grass. I wondered: When should I call “cut”, should I even speed up the scene? These are things that are now concerned with me, maybe never stand out.
One of her film errors led to the most discussed question of horror cinema: “Is Childs or McReady the ‘thing'”? The film end of the “thing from another world” shows two survivors, but because the scene lighting of both performers was different, many concluded that one of the two has infected themselves with the monster virus.
I am proud that the fans are discussing it, I don’t see that as a mistake.
In an interview with Rolling Stone four years ago, they accidentally revealed when they said that one of the two infected …
I have what? No, there is no certainty about whether and whether who has infected at all. The film does not allow any conclusions to be drawn. Point. Like the alleged crash of a UFO in Roswell: nobody knows the answer.
In any case, McReady is not the “thing”, that’s what it looks like!
Aha. How do you want to know that?
He blows up the end monster, and before it is over, he sits exhausted in the snow.
Interesting. But did you notice that there was a cut? So what happened in between? McReady may just pretend to be a person.
If McReady were that “thing”, would he, all alone in the picture, act? Who should he pull this show for – the viewer? In addition, he would have attacked the only survivor, child.
Mmh mhm. And do you know where from?
It corresponds to the previous behavior of the monster in the film. What should it wait? If at all, Childs is the “thing” – his human opponent McReady is defenseless and freezing.
But I didn’t show a one-to-one attack beforehand.
Her myth draws from these eternal discussions of the horror nerds. Why do you dampen expectations yourself, prevent vague interpretations?
It honors me that the fans are breeding about it! But the question of the end is completely meaningless, dud. And I don’t care personally. My friends say: McReady is the “thing”. We only know one thing: the monster lives on. A “The Thing” board game has recently appeared: dice the fate again!
Your most famous film will be 40: “Halloween”. Did William Shatner ever thank you?
One Captain-Kirk-Karnevalsmask from the grave table became the famous mask of the Halloween murderer Michael Myers! Shatner is a real colonel. For so long, maybe he will live forever. The mask was terribly cheap and missed its original purpose – who recognizes similarities between Kirk and Myers? Well, we bleached the rubber, enlarged the eye holes …
Jamie Lee Curtis played the opponent. With it the misleading term “scream queen” was established …
Absolutely misleading! And a cliché. Jamie Lee didn’t scream all the time, she acted planned. A strong female figure.
Now a new “Halloween” will come to the cinema – the eleventh, but the one with great excitement. Curtis plays the main role again.
I tell you: I’m on board again, I write the soundtrack!
With the directors George A. Romero and Tobe Hooper and the actor Harry Dean Stanton, close friends died in 2017.
We all move towards “Great Screening Room in the Sky”. Harry Dean, whom I occupied in “Christine” and “the rattlesnake”, was there for so long, was 91, drove himself in Hollywood before the New Hollywood. He sings in countless films – sometimes I thought he just took rolls to sing! Always a guitar at hand. Finally, I spoke to him on a film that he made with Steven Seagal. He asked: “And? How did you like … how do I sing in it?” He was a Southern Boy, obsessed with singing. And he smoked. Huge amounts of marijuana. I also appreciated that on him. In my “rattlesnake” he played a man named Brain, the name was the program. Brain was a poet, thought he was Lord Byron.
Her concerts begin with “Escape from New York” (German “The Rattle Snake”) and a setting of the Twin Towers from 1981.
The Manhattan in my future scenario was a prison for serious criminals (is silent for a long time). It hurts that the twin storms are no longer there. In the film, our hero lands on a skyscraper with a plane. After Nine Eleven, the film was banished from US television.
At their concerts, they stand behind the synthesizer, on the screens behind they take place. They chew calmly chewing gum for 90 minutes. Do you think of your films?
For God’s sake, no! I only have one thought: hopefully I won’t long for the songs! Sometimes I look in the front row. I flirt with the girls. And when the audience groanes, I know that it is because of the horror on the canvas behind me.
Are you ever turning a movie again?
There are no concrete plans, but who knows. Hey Manand if not? I’m 70 now and I’ve worked all my life.