You are advised to fast forward through the first 20 minutes or so of Bret Easton Ellis’ most recent podcast. Even if you hate overwrought PC culture, or have sympathy as such but think it’s gone too far, Ellis’ smug, disheartening anti-take on the #OscarSoWhite campaign is unfortunate. But even as he leads the witness nearly in every interview —lobbing softballs at his interviewees softballs in service of his various anti-SJW, anti-millennial screeds (which have nothing to do with movies)— he scores great guests on his podcast and admittedly leads a great conversation when he sticks to movies.
His latest guest is John Carpenter, the filmmaker behind “Halloween,” “Escape From New York,” “The Thing,” “Big Trouble In Little China” and more.
READ MORE: The Essentials: 7 Great John Carpenter Movies
The conversation runs the gamut of Carpenter’s career, including soundtrack albums conceived for movies that don’t exist (“It’s for driving the dark streets of L.A. at night”), the late fallout of “Heaven’s Gate” that killed “big studio auteurism,” the pessimism of horror films in the 1970s, “The Revenant,” and much more. It’s a compelling interview and you should definitely listen to it (again, minus the first 20 minutes). Here’s a few brief highlights.
The influence of “Halloween” and slasher films. Carpenter says that as a horror film, “Friday The 13th” only delivers a “handjob”
” ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ was a comedy. No one seems to realize how funny it is!” he said. “You’re both the victim and you’re Leatherface.”
Carpenter also delineated the strength of a horror film like that Tobe Hooper classic, particularly when compared to the lesser likes of “Friday The 13th”. And to paraphrase the filmmaker, he once said that the “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” is like actual sex, while “Friday The 13th” is masturbation.
“Or a handjob!” he said. The difference between the two movies? “One springs from an organic idea and has a truly artistic eye working it. And ‘Friday The 13th,’ I feel [strikes] me as very cynical. It’s very cynical moviemaking, and it doesn’t rise above its cheapness.”
The point is hard to argue, but maybe the filmmakers behind that franchise will finally get it right —another “Friday The 13th” reboot is in the works, and this one is going to apparently be an “origin story”).
Addressing the contrasting rumors that he either became quite wealthy or screwed out of money on “Halloween,” even though it was extremely low budget and made millions.
The latter rumor began after Carpenter was asked to do another ‘Halloween’ movie several decades later and he apparently said, “Sure, if you pay me $10 million.”
“It’s true. I did ask for $10 million,” he chuckled. “But I made a lot of money on ‘Halloween.’ It was incredibly lucrative. They couldn’t hide it because it was such a cheap film. There are a lot of pirates in this business, and they love to reward themselves and they love to steal money. And they always steal money, but I managed to come away very well on that movie. I can’t complain.”
As polarizing as Ellis is, he knows how to steer a conversation. Other topics broached include: Carpenter believing Michael Cimino received a raw deal on “Heaven’s Gate” and his mixed reaction on “The Revenant.”
