John Carpenter has been thinking about death lately. Not in the way you imagine

John Carpenter has this 1 recurring nightmare.

“I’m successful a huge, monolithic municipality I don’t truly know,” helium says, “and I’m looking for the movie district. And inevitably each the theaters are closed down. They’re each closed down. That’s what the imagination is.”

I’m visiting Carpenter astatine his longtime accumulation location successful Hollywood connected 1 of L.A.’s unjustly sunny October afternoons. A vintage “Halloween” pinball instrumentality and a life-size Nosferatu hover adjacent his casual chair. I archer him I don’t deliberation Freud would person excessively overmuch occupation interpreting that peculiar dream.

“No, I know,” helium says, laughing. “I don’t person excessively overmuch occupation with that either.”

Nonetheless, it genuinely haunts him — “and it has haunted maine implicit the years for galore dreams successful a row,” helium continues. “I’m either with household oregon a group, and I spell disconnected to bash thing and I get wholly lost. [Freud] wouldn’t person excessively overmuch occupation figuring that retired either. I mean, nary of this is precise mysterious.”

Carpenter is simply a gruff but approachable 77 these days, his vocation arsenic a movie manager receding successful the rearview. The past diagnostic helium made was 2010’s “The Ward.” His unofficial status was partially chosen, partially imposed by a capricious industry. The large movie poster creator Drew Struzan died 2 days earlier I visited — Carpenter says helium ne'er met Struzan but loved his work, particularly his striking coating for the director’s icy 1982 carnal movie “The Thing” — and I enactment however that full endeavor of selling a movie with a portion of handmade creation is simply a mislaid one.

“The full movie concern that I knew, that I grew up with, is gone,” helium replies. “All gone.”

John Carpenter with John Mulaney, appearing arsenic a portion of “Everybody’s successful L.A.” astatine the Sunset Gower Studios successful May 2024.

(Adam Rose / Netflix)

It hasn’t, thankfully, made him privation to flight from L.A. He inactive lives present with his wife, Sandy King, who runs the graphic caller imprint Storm King Comics, which Carpenter contributes to. He gamely appeared connected John Mulaney’s “Everybody’s successful L.A.” bid connected Netflix and, earlier this year, the Los Angeles Film Critics Assn. gave him a Career Achievement Award — a belated lovefest for a seasoned who was sidelined aft “The Thing” flopped, formed retired into indie acheronian and was ne'er personally nominated for an Oscar.

The happening that does support Carpenter engaged these days (other than watching Warriors hoops and playing videogames) is the happening that mightiness person an adjacent bigger taste footprint than his movies: his music. With his big lad Cody and godson, Daniel Davies, Carpenter is erstwhile again performing unrecorded concerts of his movie scores and instrumental albums successful a tally astatine downtown’s Belasco this play and next.

The synthy, hypnotic scores that became his signature successful films similar “Halloween” and “Escape from New York” not lone outnumber his output arsenic a manager — he’s scored movies for respective different filmmakers and precocious made a handshake woody successful nationalist to people Bong Joon Ho’s adjacent diagnostic — but their power and popularity are overmuch much evident successful 2025 than the benignant of his image-making.

From “Stranger Things” to “F1,” Carpenter’s minimalist palette of retro electronica combined with the groove-based, trancelike ethos of his euphony (which present includes 4 “Lost Themes” records) is the coin of the realm truthful galore modern artists are chasing.

Very fewer composers contiguous are trying to dependable similar John Williams; galore of them privation to dependable similar John Carpenter. The Kentucky-raised skeptic with the agelong achromatic hairsbreadth doesn’t judge maine erstwhile I explicit this.

“Well, see, I indispensable beryllium stupid,” helium says, “because I don’t get it.”

“The existent evil successful the satellite comes from people,” says Carpenter. “I cognize that nature’s beauteous rough, but not similar men.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

Carpenter is speedy to enactment himself down. He ever says that helium scored his ain films due to the fact that helium was the lone composer helium could afford, and that helium lone utilized synths due to the fact that they were inexpensive and helium couldn’t decently constitute euphony for an orchestra. When I archer him that Daniel Wyman, the instrumentalist who helped programme and execute the “Halloween” people successful 1978, praised Carpenter’s innate cognition of the “circle of fifths” and secondary dominants — bedrocks of Western philharmonic mentation that allowed Carpenter’s scores to support the hostility cooking — helium huffs.

“I person nary thought what he’s talking about,” Carpenter says, halfway betwixt self-deprecation and thing much rascally. “It each comes, probably, from the years I spent successful our beforehand country with my begetter and listening to classical music. I’m definite I’m conscionable digging this s— out.”

Whether by osmosis oregon genetics oregon perchance achromatic magic, Carpenter intelligibly absorbed his powers from his father, Dr. Howard Carpenter, a classically trained violinist and composer. Classical euphony filled the puerility location successful Bowling Green and for young John it was each astir “Bach, Bach and Bach. He’s my favorite. I conscionable can’t get capable of Johann there.”

It makes sense. Bach’s euphony has a circular spell prime and the tube organ, resounding with reverb successful gargantuan cathedrals, was the archetypal synthesizer.

“He’s the Rock of Ages of music,” says Carpenter, who peculiarly loves the fugue nicknamed “St. Anne” and the Toccata and Fugue successful D Minor. “Everybody would spell backmost to Mozart oregon Beethoven. They are astonishing — Beethoven is particularly astonishing — but they’re not my style. I don’t consciousness it similar I bash with Bach. I instantly got him.”

Carpenter was besides a movie people freak since Day 1. He cites the aboriginal physics euphony successful 1956’s “Forbidden Planet” and claims Bernard Herrmann and Dimitri Tiomkin arsenic his 2 all-time favorites. Just listen, helium says, to the mode Tiomkin’s euphony transitions from the westerny fanfare nether the Winchester Pictures logo to the swirling, menacing orchestral tempest that accompanies “The Thing From Another World” rubric paper successful that 1951 sci-fi representation that Carpenter remixed arsenic “The Thing.”

“The euphony is truthful weird, I cannot travel it,” helium says. “But I emotion it.”

Yet Carpenter feels much personally indebted to stone ‘n’ roll: the Beatles, the Stones, the Doors. He wanted to beryllium a stone prima ever since helium grew his hairsbreadth agelong and bought a guitar successful precocious school. He sang and performed R&B and psychedelic stone for sororities connected the Western Kentucky field arsenic good arsenic connected a circuit of the U.S. Army bases successful Germany. He formed the stone trio Coupe de Villes with his buddies astatine USC and they made an medium and played wrapper parties.

He besides kept soaking up modern influences, listening to Warren Zevon’s “Werewolves of London” portion determination scouting for “Halloween.” Peter Fonda aboriginal introduced Carpenter to Zevon and helium wanted the manager to accommodate the opus into a movie that ne'er happened (starring Fonda arsenic the werewolf, but “this clip helium gets the girl,” Carpenter recalls). In the ’80s helium blasted Metallica with his 2 boys and helium inactive loves Devo.

It’s incredibly uncommon for a movie manager to people their ain films, rarer inactive for 1 to walk decades connected signifier arsenic a performing musician. The requisite personalities would look diametrical.

“My dada was a performing musician, truthful it was conscionable portion of the family,” Carpenter says. However, until 2016, erstwhile Carpenter archetypal toured with his music, helium was consumed with signifier fright. “I had an incidental erstwhile I was successful a play successful precocious school,” helium says. “I went up and I forgot my lines. Shame descended upon maine and I had a pugnacious time. I was frightened each the time.”

The manager credits his touring drummer, Scott Seiver, for helping him bushed it.

“Your adrenaline carries you to different satellite erstwhile that happening starts,” helium sighs with pleasure. “You perceive a partition of screaming people. It’s a large time.”

He pushes backmost against the thought that directors “hide down the camera.”

“The pressure, that’s the biggest thing,” Carpenter says. “You enactment yourself nether unit from the studio, you’re carrying each this money, crew, you privation to beryllium connected time.”

He remembers seeing immoderate haggard making-of footage of himself successful post-production connected “Ghost of Mars” successful 2001 and thinking: Oh my God, this feline is successful trouble. “I had to stop,” helium says. “I can’t bash this to myself anymore. I can’t instrumentality this benignant of accent — it’ll termination you, arsenic it has truthful galore different directors. The euphony came on and it’s from God. It’s a blessing.”

John Carpenter is grateful but helium doesn’t judge successful God. He believes that, erstwhile we die, “we conscionable disperse — our vigor disperses, and we instrumentality to what we were. We’re each stardust up determination and the acheronian created us, successful a sense. So that’s what we person to marque bid with. I constituent up to the infinite, the abstraction betwixt stars. But things halt erstwhile you die. Your bosom stops, encephalon — everything stops. You get cold. Your vigor dissipates and it just... ends. The End.”

This is not precisely a peaceful thought for him.

“I mean, I don’t privation to die,” helium adds. “I’m not looking guardant to that. But what tin you do? I can’t power it. But that’s what I judge and I’m unsocial successful it. I can’t enactment that connected anybody else. Everybody has their ain beliefs, their ain gods, their ain afterlife.”

He describes himself arsenic a “long-term optimist but a short-term pessimist.”

“I person hope,” helium says, “put it that way.” Yet helium looks astir and sees a batch of evil.

“The existent evil successful the satellite comes from people,” says Carpenter, who has agelong utilized cinematic allegories to skewer capitalist pigs and bloodthirsty governments. “I cognize that nature’s beauteous rough, but not similar men. You spot pictures of lions taking down their prey and you spot the look of the prey and you say: ‘Oh, man.’ Humans bash things similar that and bask it. Or they bash things similar that for powerfulness oregon pleasure. Humans are evil but they’re susceptible of monolithic bully — and they’re susceptible of the top creation signifier we have: music.”

The greatest?

“You don’t person to speech astir it. You conscionable beryllium and perceive to it. It’s not my favorite,” helium clarifies, alluding to his archetypal love, cinema — “but it’s the 1 that transcends centuries.”

Music has ever been kinder to him than the movie business. That concern precocious reared its disfigured caput erstwhile A24 tossed his completed people for “Death of a Unicorn.” (At slightest helium owns the rights and volition beryllium putting it retired sometime soon.) In summation to the precocious helium gets from playing live, helium is presently moving connected a dense metallic conception medium implicit with dialogue. It’s called “Cathedral” and he’ll beryllium playing immoderate of it astatine the Belasco.

It’s fundamentally a movie successful euphony form, based connected a imagination Carpenter had. Though not 1 helium finds scary. What scares Carpenter, it seems, is not being successful control.

That happened to him successful the movie world, it’s happening much and much arsenic what helium calls the “frailties of age” equine and it happens successful that nightmare astir getting mislaid successful a large metropolis and not uncovering immoderate theaters.

“But I can’t bash thing astir it,” helium says. “What tin I do? See, the lone happening I tin bash is what I tin control: music. And watching basketball.”