John Carpenter would be willing to return to direct a film if it was “the right one”

One of the most prolific icons in horror, John Carpenter, has returned with the new television series John Carpenter’s Suburban Screams. His new show blurs the line between narrative and documentary as the anthology show interviews the subjects of its terrifying stories. Although the review by our own Alex Maidy states that the series barely exceeds that of a Dateline or Unsolved Mysteries dramatization show, it has the distinction of being directed by Carpenter himself. When it comes to returning to feature films, the horror maestro spoke with the L.A. Times and considered directing again for the right project.

According to ComingSoon.net, Carpenter is open to doing a movie, but the freedom and purity of making music is too seductive. ”Get the right one or the right budget — yeah, I’ll do it. I don’t want to work that much, though. Compared to music, it’s so different because music is the purest art form there is. You don’t have to talk about it, you don’t have to explain it. I can play it, and somebody in Indonesia can just feel it. Across time, I can listen to Bach’s St. Anne and tears come to my eyes just like when I first heard it, it’s so profound. A human being wrote that. Wow. There’s no comparison to that in any other form. But unfortunately, I fell in love with movies, which is the craziest, silliest art form there is.”

Carpenter’s last feature was 2010’s The Ward, and has since concentrated on making music and performing in concert. The director is famous for composing scores for his own films, so music is something that has always been in his heart, even forming a band with Michael Myers himself, Nick Castle, and Tommy Lee Wallace called The Coup De Villes. Carpenter would return to Hollywood to compose new music for the David Gordon Green Halloween trilogy, but he remains burnt out with the studio system so much that he found it to be a joy to direct Suburban Screams remotely.

When he was inquired about how he used to deal with the stress of making Hollywood movies, Carpenter remarked, ”Not very well! I was a chain smoker, which had a terrible effect on my health. I was too stressed. I had to stop making movies for a bit. I had to have some space. You know, I am closer to the end than I was. I think about that now. I think about nothingness; what’s next. Anyway. I’ve got to tell you, I’m lucky as hell. I’m lucky.”