CecilT said:
Nothing happened to John Carpenter, the industry changed. He was fine making smaller films (comparatively) but the industry was moving towards making nothing but giant tentpole films of the big genres.
Ghosts of Mars had good ideas but was undone but studio involvement. He is a director that really should be given the majority of control (I think his track record speaks for itself) but you had the idiots in charge that thought they knew better than a veteran of the industry that has some of the greatest movies ever made.
Why do you think he retired after Ghosts of Mars? He was sick of the studio nonsense. He wanted to make the movies as he wanted to make them but it was no longer worth it for him if in the end, he wasn't getting his proper say.
He is a director who flourishes when he has control but now we live in an age where even independent films have $10 million dollar budgets and unrealistic expectations.
That may be a big part of it, but I?m not sure, if it?s entirely the industry, that?s to blame.
Don?t get me wrong, I loved his movies, with every string of my heart, but the last one I was happy with, was "In the mouth of madness".
"Village of the damned" was mediocre, "Escape from L.A." , "Vampires" and "Ghosts of Mars" where really painfull to watch.
I really couldn?t bring myself, to watch his last movie "The Ward".
I would really love to see a juicy small-budget-shocker from him again.
By the way, the best Carpenter-Movie the Carpenter never made, was last years "It Follows".
It had so much of the atmosphere, that made his classics so great.