John Carpenter carps on Friday the 13th

Last Updated on July 31, 2021

John Carpenter is back, y'all. Although the HALLOWEEN director hasn't made a film since 2010's THE WARD, he's rising again in a big way with his two LOST THEMES albums and an impending tour (full disclosure: I had the pleasure of attending his rehearsal show and it was magnificent), not to mention the announcement that he will be producing Blumhouse's upcoming HALLOWEEN picture. So it's no surprise that he landed a guest slot on the popular Bret Easton Ellis podcast to talk about cinema.

What is a surprise is that the notoriously curmudgeonly director recognized the influence his filmmaking had on the slasher genre of the 1980's, particularly FRIDAY THE 13TH. Predictably, he didn't have much nice to say.

When Ellis noted that "You've said that the Texas Chain Saw Massacre is like actual sex, and by comparison Friday the 13th is masturbation," Carpenter responded: "Or a handjob."

He also went on to say:

One springs from an organic idea and has a truly artist's eye working. And FRIDAY THE 13TH, I feel, affects me as very cynical. It's very cynical moviemaking. It just doesn't rise above its cheapness. I think the reason that all these slasher movies came in the 80's was a lot of folks said "Look at that HALLOWEEN movie. It was made for peanuts, and look at the money it's made! We can make money like that. That's what the teenagers want to see." So they just started making them, cranking them out…most of them were awful.

Honestly, even as a die-hard FRIDAY THE 13TH fan, I can hardly argue against his statements. They're shallow but they're fun. What really delights me with this quote is the implication that Carpenter has actually sat through at least a couple of these. Now there's a fascinating mental image.