John Carpenter vs Wes Craven

[Agent Mulder's Hair]

Which director's overall body of work do you prefer?

Both men worked in the same horror/thriller genre. Both created more than 1 iconic character. And both made more than 1 all time classic film. And yeah both guys also directed their share of duds.


I'm only listing the good flicks, and I'm listing them from best to worst (imo).





Wes Craven -

Scream (1996)
Nightmare On Elm Street (1984)
Red Eye (2005)
Cursed (2005)
New Nightmare (1994)
Swamp Thing (1982)
The Last House On The Left (1972)
The Hills Have Eyes (1977)
Shocker (1989)
Nightmare On Elm Street 3 (1987)
The Serpent and The Rainbow (1988)


Iconic characters created:

Freddy Krueger
Ghostface Killer








John Carpenter -

The Thing (1982)
Big Trouble In Little China (1986)
They Live (1988)
Halloween (1978)
Christine (1983)
Starman (1984)
Escape From New York (1981)
The Fog (1980)
Assault On Precinct 13 (1976)



Iconic characters created:

Michael Myers
Jack Burton
Snake Plissken









Overall I'd probably go with Carpenter. His classics tend to outweigh Craven's classics, to me. But the real tossup for me is Carpenter's best movie vs Craven's best movie....Scream vs The Thing. Damn I can't even call a winner between those 2. Also their best characters....Freddy vs Michael Myers....for me Freddy takes that one hands down. And I like Jack Burton more than Freddy but Burton wasn't anywhere near as popular as Freddy was.


And I gotta say I was a Wes Craven fan since I was a kid but I had no idea until making this thread that he'd directed so many movies that I've seen and that his career started way back in the early 70's. I didn't list nearly everything he's done but you should check out his filmography.

 

[LEGS MAHONEY]

hmm have to go with carpenter

 

[HARRISON_3]

Edited.

Tough call now.

Christine and They Live are great.

But hard to vote against Freddy Krueger and his other work.

I still throw on the Twilight Zone movie from time to time, too.

Also, as previously mentioned, Serpent and the Rainbow is underrated.

Those two are pretty close to even, IMO.

 

[chickenluver]

I haven't seen many from either, but I like The Thing much more than anything I've seen by Craven.

 

[chickenluver]

@HARRISON_3 Hellraiser was Clive Barker not Wes Craven. Good movie though.

 

[HHJ]

Gotta go with Carpenter,but Serpent and the Rainbow is super underrated and doesn't get enough love

 

[HARRISON_3]

@HARRISON_3 Hellraiser was Clive Barker not Wes Craven. Good movie though.

Goddamnit.

You're right. I'll update.

 

[Hogey]

Carpenter. Some of my favorite movies of all time are by carpenter

 

[Agent Mulder's Hair]

Serpent and the Rainbow is super underrated and doesn't get enough love

I saw it when it first came out and I remember hating it. But I was a kid and I only knew Craven for the Nightmare series, so I was expecting something along those lines.

But I've heard people mention it on here and say it's pretty good. Might rewatch it someday.

 

[HHJ]

I saw it when it first came out and I remember hating it. But I was a kid and I only knew Craven for the Nightmare series, so I was expecting something along those lines. I've heard people mention it on here and say it's pretty good.

It just plays on that terrifying fear of being buried alive...that plus the hallucinations and so on. It got to me.

 

[Agent Mulder's Hair]

I still throw on the Twilight Zone movie from time to time, too.

That scene at the beginning with Dan Akroyd and his buddy in the car....that legit scared me when I first saw it.

I didn't even know Craven directed that until I looked it up tonight.




Edit: ok apparently Craven didn't direct the movie I was thinking of, I guess he directed a few episodes of the revival series in the mid 80's

 

[Bob Gray]

Wes Craven is pretty overrated. He basically has 2 great films in Nightmare and Scream. Everything else ranges from terrible to decent.

But for awhile Carpenter was shitting pure gold. Something like 79-91 was a pretty enviable streak.

Halloween
The Thing
Escape from NewYork
Christine
Big Trouble in Little China
Prince of Darkness
They Live
In the Mouth of Madness
Village of the Damned

And in between those his "worst" movies are like The Fog and Starman, the latter of which I consider pretty underrated.

Sorry. That body of work walks Cravens body of work into the back alley, knees it in the balls a bunch of times, suplexes it onto the concrete and then throws into a dumpster.

Honestly, many of the movies TS has listed for this thread are garbage. Shocker? Cursed? gtfo. Utter crap. Wisely, Deadly Friend isnt even mentioned. Now, when Carpenter fell off he fell off pretty hard and never recovered (right around Escape from L.A). Although I thought The Ward wasnt bad but nothing special.

 

[Kardashians]

wes craven tbh. tho im not gonna lie, im really not that big on either guy.

 

[HHJ]

Prince of Darkness is my shit.

 

[Agent Mulder's Hair]

And in between those his "worst" movies are like The Fog and Starman, the latter of which I consider pretty underrated.

Starman was really good. And personally I like The Fog. Maybe just for the creepy atmosphere of it, but I dig it.

Honestly, many of the movies TS has listed for this thread are garbage. Shocker? Cursed? gtfo. Utter crap. .

It's been many years since I saw Shocker but I remember thinking it was corny, but still kind of enjoyable.

Cursed on the other hand, was really enjoyable. Craven was still working in the same vein of Scream, with legit horror combined with legit humor and meta aspects, but Cursed included a supernatural element, which Scream didn't have. It was nowhere near the level of Scream.....not much is. But I really liked Cursed. And Scott Baio man....Scott Baio! come on!

 

[HHJ]

I never liked Scream at all other than that Neve Campbell is really hot.

 

[Agent Mulder's Hair]

I never liked Scream at all other than that Neve Campbell is really hot.

HHJ, you must not have seen Scream back in 96, or you must not have been a teenager back in 96. That's the only way I can imagine anybody not liking Scream. When it first came out, it was game changing.

 

[HHJ]

I haven't watched it since it came out,so my memory is hazy at this point,admittedly.

 

[LEGS MAHONEY]

Prince of Darkness is my shit.

<{monica}>

One of the best horror movies.

 

[HHJ]

HHJ, you must not have seen Scream back in 96, or you must not have been a teenager back in 96. That's the only way I can imagine anybody not liking Scream. When it first came out, it was game changing.

I was 16 when I saw it,but...eh