Movies John Carpenters Most Underrated Film?

[GoodBadHBK]

I think most would agree his 5 best are

1. Halloween
2. Escape From NY
3. The Thing
4. Big Trouble in Little China
5. They Live

Which film do you think is his next best film or his most underrated that deserves to be in the top 5.

For me the answer could be either Prince, Madness, or Assault.



Edit: Current Rewatch Ranked

1. Assault on Precinct 13
2. In the Mouth of Madness
3. Prince of Darkness
4. The Fog
5. Starman
6. Christine
7. Vampires
8. Escape from LA

Assault, Madness, & Prince are the 3 best for sure

 

[SuperAlly]

Are the first 2 in the poll not highly rated?

 

[UberHere]

Prince of Darkness. I bet most people reading this poll haven’t seen it.

 

[Zer]

Hot take, but I always loved Escape from LA. It's not Lawrence of Arabia and I get that it sucks, but I don't know why it gets so much hate when it should have the 'so bad it's good' energy

 

[Natural Order]

Starman!

Nostalgic flick that gets forgotten about. Also not a typical Carpenter feel

 

[GoodBadHBK]

Starman!

Nostalgic flick that gets forgotten about. Also not a typical Carpenter feel

I thought it was alright/good. Its ET if he was a human and fell in love with Karen Allen.

 

[HOLA]

Hot take, but I always loved Escape from LA. It's not Lawrence of Arabia and I get that it sucks, but I don't know why it gets so much hate when it should have the 'so bad it's good' energy

It's fun.

 

[HHJ]

I very much LOVE Prince of Darkness. Even if that mustache dude and his love interest cant act, it dont ruin the movie at all. The concept, and the soundtrack is fantastic.

The part where the woman pushes the devil's daughter into the mirror and gets dragged to hell is one of the most fucked scenes in movie history.

Plus the implications of the movie, that SHE who was dragged off into darkness, becomes the one the Devil chooses to send back to destroy the world.

The implications that what she does is so bad that scientists in the future subconciously send the image back to people to "alter the events you are seeing"

Makes the mind roam with possibilities!!!

 

[Long Dark Blues]

Starman is his most under-rated.

 

[TheFakeMacoy]

I'm a huge fan of both Prince of Darkness and In the Mouth of Madness.

I think that Sam Neil pushes In the Mouth of Madness to my top pick in this poll. Also, it was filmed in the GTA and you can recognize areas from the film.

 

[Fedorgasm]

 

[Snake989]

Fuck you Padre

 

[AGGAMEMNON66]

I don’t think ‘In the Mouth of Madness’ is underrated. A lot of people know and like that film.


It’s my pick off that list tho for sure.

 

[mikefitfhbender1]

Assault on precinct 13

 

[Gene Tunney]

Assault on Precinct 13 is John Carpenter in the raw. Not a great movie though, in my opinion.

The Fog is very good, but seems to be missing something. It's close.

Christine is a Carpenter classic. To me, it's a little slow and perhaps too long.

Starman is arguably one of Carpenter's best. But Starman is also his most Spielbergian, commercial film. The ending is, in my opinion, one of the best moments in cinematic history. But It does not feel like a Carpenter movie in any respect.

Prince of Darkness is John Carpenter uninhibited. It has the look, the sound, the feel of a great John Carpenter movie.

Memoirs of an Invisible Man is ok.

I haven't seen In the Mouth of Madness in its entirety.

Escape from L.A. is fun. But it needed 1980's production values.

Vampires just needed to be polished. The framework is there.

 

[DanSavage]

His most underrated film didn't even make the list: Eyes of Laura Mars.

It's so underrated most folks don't even know about it or have even heard of it, much less seen it.

Cast included, among others, Faye Dunaway, Tommy Lee Jones, Brad Dourif, Rene Auberjonois, Raul Julia and Frank Adonis.

 

[GoodBadHBK]

His most underrated film didn't even make the list: The Eyes of Laura Mars.

It's so underrated most folks don't even know about it or have even heard of it, much less seen it.

Cast included, among others, Faye Dunaway, Tommy Lee Jones, Brad Dourif, Rene Auberjonois, Raul Julia and Frank Adonis.

IMDB doesn't currently have a plot synopsis, so here's the wikipedia page for the film.

Carpenter didnt direct that film

 

[DanSavage]

Carpenter didnt direct that film

True, but he did write the story and screenplay.

I didn't realize this was only about films he directed.

 

[Belaya Smert]

It will always be They Live


That film will never be appreciated enough as the indictment of society and living in a perishable consumerist surveillance state that we absolutely do. No matter how many reference to it in pop culture and imitations the may exist; you simply can’t do it enough justice in my opinion.

 

[TrueBias]

Underrated for me is almost a toss up between Christine and Prince.

Christine is SUCH a stupid story, but its taken seriously,.good acting, and i fucking love that soundtrack.

Prince of Darkness...I fucking love it and I think its his scariest. The Thing is quite scary, but since its tied with 2 other movies of me favorite movie ranking, ive seen it the most.

Prince to this day disturbs me. Outlandish story about green fluid being held in this ancient church thats pure evil, but what bothers me the most, is that i wanted MORE. This movie being ambiguous always leaves me unsatisfied.

I very much LOVE Prince of Darkness. Even if that mustache dude and his love interest cant act, it dont ruin the movie at all. The concept, and the soundtrack is fantastic.

The part where the woman pushes the devil's daughter into the mirror and gets dragged to hell is one of the most fucked scenes in movie history.

Plus the implications of the movie, that SHE who was dragged off into darkness, becomes the one the Devil chooses to send back to destroy the world.

The implications that what she does is so bad that scientists in the future subconciously send the image back to people to "alter the events you are seeing"

Makes the mind roam with possibilities!!!

Hmm, never thought of that; her being the destroyer. Guess im biased after watching Constantine. Nobody accidentally gets into heaven OR he'll, so I always thought her soul would be saved via resurrection at least. Him dreaming of her at the end is actually only his dreaming and not....damn, whatever cult they speak about....

I really wished we got some more out of this movie.