The world of Horror gained a legend on the 16th January 1948. John Howard Carpenter was born on that day in the village of Carthage, New York, USA and he would become one of the most influential filmmakers in the genre.

At 5 years old, his family moved to Kentucky when his father accepted a job at the University. He would develop an interest in films from an early age, including films from The Golden Age of Hollywood and low-budget horror films.

He began making his own short films with an 8mm camera when he was young, including a claymation Godzilla film.

He would attend the same university that his father worked in studying English but transferred to USC School of Cinematic Arts to study filmmaking in 1968 and would drop out before completing the course to make his first feature.

The feature, Dark Star, was an independent Sci-Fi Comedy that he co-wrote with Dan O’Bannon who would go on to write Alien. It started out as a student production in 1970 but after re-shoots, it was a feature-length film by 1974, going on a limited release in 1975. It had a full budget of $60,000 and was played from time to time in cinemas until 1980, later finding a cult following on home video release.

His breakthrough came with the groundbreaking 1978 film Halloween. This is the film that launched Jamie-Lee Curtis into stardom. Made on a budget of $325,000 and an independent movie it still made a box office of $90 million. Halloween became an instant hit and spawned one of the largest and most successful franchises. Reinventing the slasher genre and sparking interest in that sub-genre.

He would not direct another Halloween film but was involved as producer and composer on Halloween 2 and 3.

He would work with Jamie-Lee again two years later when he directed another classic The Fog. Then two years after that, he would remake one of the films that inspired him as a child, The Thing From Another World, which he would title as The Thing, which made his third cult hit in the genre.

Carpenter has worked as a filmmaker and composer regularly for all these years. But has not been behind the camera as a Director since 2010’s The Ward.