Am I Becoming a Movie Guy Now?

I’ve never been a movie guy. TV shows, sure. Creative, artsy stuff, sure. But movies, especially the genre and cult stuff most people my age grew up obsessing over, somehow passed me by. I saw the normal 80s and 90s stuff everyone saw. The Sandlot, Goonies, Rookie of the Year, 3 Ninjas, Sidekicks, Karate Kid. Loved all of it. But when I hit my teens I never went deeper into sci fi or horror the way a lot of people did. I haven’t seen a single Star Wars movie. That’s a real fact about me and I bring it up at parties because it always gets a reaction.

That started to change last month when I watched John Carpenter’s They Live.

I was watching a political podcast on YouTube and they brought it up, talking about the anti capitalist, anti establishment themes running through it. It’s basically a cult classic for people who think like that. And I realized I hadn’t seen it. Felt wrong honestly. Then I found out it was John Carpenter and something clicked. Wait, what else has this guy made that I’ve never seen? I knew he was more than just Halloween, but I’d never actually looked past that. Rabbit hole opened up immediately.

Rewiring my brain for good movies

Watching it was a crash course in rewiring my brain. The pacing is slow. There’s a long opening credits sequence with Carpenter’s own score just sitting there. Big gaps in the story, characters with almost no backstory explained to you. Things get drawn out way longer than I’m used to, like that fight between Nada and Frank that people still argue about online. But it’s drawn out on purpose. It’s building something. It felt like a breath of fresh air and an emotional rollercoaster at the same time, which is not something I get from most movies now. Everything today feels cookie cutter, over engineered, over explained, like it’s terrified you might have to think for yourself for a second.

🔗👉 If you want to read my full movie review, check it out here.

I know how that sounds. Old man yells at cloud. But that’s genuinely where I’m at.

So today I’m kicking off the real project. Watching my way through John Carpenter’s whole filmography. No particular order, just picking the next one based on how I feel. Since it’s halloween season (and yes, I start celebrating halloween on August 1, get over it), I’ll get to the classic horror ones, but I’m starting with the fringe stuff first.

Halloween season for me isn’t just horror movies anyway. It’s autumn. Darker light, slower pace, everything a little more ambient. So this felt like the right time to finally do this, not because I planned it that way, but because it’s exactly the mood I already live in every fall.

I’ll be posting reviews as I go. You can also follow me on Letterboxd if you’re into that.