Carpenter talks F.E.A.R.

By Ellie Gibson Published 11 October, 2005

As in John, not Karen or Richard.

Legendary horror movie director John Carpenter has declared himself the official spokesman for F.E.A.R., the spooky new PC shooter from Vivendi.

Speaking to US website Gamespot, Carpenter also revealed that he's a huge Metal Gear Solid fan - but that he reckons F.E.A.R. is even better.

"I thought [MGS] was terrific. [Hideo Kojima] wrote me a letter and I praised it. Now this is the first game that's come along that I thought was better than that," he said.

"This game is exceptional... F.E.A.R. is as close as I've come to playing a movie."

Carpenter said it was the game's graphics that first caught his attention, but the gameplay and the atmosphere really sealed the deal: "One of the things a director always tries to do is to get their audience to suspend their disbelief and to invest in the movie emotionally.

"F.E.A.R. does that with a game. To do that, the graphics and the gameplay are the most important things. Their hyperrealism and their fluidity makes you forget about having to deal with the controller and allows you to just start projecting onto the screen. It's just immersive," he explained.

So what other games does Carpenter like? Well, he first got into gaming thanks to Sonic the Hedgehog, but these days Doom 3 and the Silent Hill games are firm favourites. And despite F.E.A.R. being so ace he reckons there's always room to take the horror genre further - "As long as you have a good idea."

"Nowadays it's called intellectual property, but in the old days, the old school used to call it ideas and stories," Carpenter said.

"If that's good and sound, as far as the technology will let you go, that's where you go."

Carpenter also confirmed that his new project, Psychopath, will be both a game and a film - but that it'll hit consoles before it hits cinemas. "There are different rules for each medium," he said.

"The form, the language, the approach... Movies are much different than games. Games are much different than movies. But each is an art form when it's done right."

You can read the full interview over at Gamespot.

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (43) Latest comment 6 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • space_ace #1 6 years ago

    carpenter=god

  • PearOfAnguish #2 6 years ago

    John, when you stop making shite like Ghosts of Mars and Vampires, then you can call yourself a director again.

    I thought [MGS] was terrific. [Hideo Kojima] wrote me a letter and I praised it.

    Eh? You praised the game after he wrote you a letter, or you were impressed with his letter writing abilities?


  • johnnyjetlag #3 6 years ago

    Top man that John Carpenter - Pliskin, MacReady, Myers - marvellous!

  • Bezzy #4 6 years ago

    I liked what he said at the end about games being different than movies.. different approaches.

    But, I just don't see F.E.A.R. particularly embracing that mantra.

    Not that it has to, or that it must be an aim... err. Just sayin'.
    Edited by 1 at 11/10/05 @ 14:38

  • oceanmotion #5 6 years ago

    Most of Carpenter's movies are rubbish. Can someone name the good ones

  • templar-wizard #6 6 years ago

    WooHoo you are a fool.

  • space_ace #7 6 years ago

    ghosts of mars, excellent film about conformity (among other things, which is also a lot of fun!

  • kangarootoo #8 6 years ago

    "Now this is the first game that's come along that I thought was better than that,"

    Hmmm, I'm not much of an MGS fan, but then I'll let him off because he's John Carpenter.

    @PearOfAnguish

    " John, when you stop making shite like Ghosts of Mars and Vampires"

    Clear your desk, you're fired (actually I've not seen Ghosts of Mars) ;)

    @WooHoo!!!

    " Most of Carpenter's movies are rubbish. Can someone name the good ones"

    Vampires for one. I know it sucks, but thats the point. James Woods making repeated crap jokes and people saying "God Dammit!" a lot or professing how they "came through" for someone when needed is what these sorts of films are about.

  • knif3r #9 6 years ago

    best carpenter flick: The Thing (still holds it's own today)
    worst carpenter flick: Ghosts of Mars (bad taste rock just doesn't belong in a Sci-Fi horror)

  • Gurgeh #10 6 years ago

    Carpenter films

    Assault on Precint 13, Escape from New York, Halloween, Christine (oops and the Thing)

    and my favourite Dark Star (co-written with Dan O'Bannon who went on to write the screenplay for Alien. One of the comedy bits in Dark Star has O'Bannon hunting for an alien that's got loose on the spaceship...)



    Edited by 1 at 11/10/05 @ 15:02

  • OllyJ #11 6 years ago

    Big trouble in little China....one of the best films ever made.

  • Chtulie #12 6 years ago

    " Movies are much different than games. Games are much different than movies."
    the grammar may be poor, but he seems to know more of game design then quite a few game designers out there.

    also:
    The original Assault on Precinct 13 of course, not the shitty remake,
    and In the Mouth of Madness is a movie like no other, and probably the only true H.P. Lovecraft film.
    And They Live is all sorts of awesome.

  • knif3r #13 6 years ago

    bugger, forgot about Big Trouble

    I second OllyJ - I've seen BTILC about 20 times - it.never.grows.old

  • kangarootoo #14 6 years ago

    Wow, I'd forgotten about all the old classics Carpenter did.

    Half the time when he writes his own tunes, they end up being a bit "classic rock anthems vol.3". In the Mouth of Madness had its fair share of that. I think he did the music for Assault on P13 too, but he had obviously just a synthesiser [sic] for Xmas and his guitar was gathering dust somewhere.

  • Lost_in_Darkness #15 6 years ago

    John Carpenter, born 1948. Officially the oldest gamer alive.

    ok maybe not, but definately the oldest i've ever heard of....who plays current and upcoming games.

  • ACiD #16 6 years ago

    the theme for escape from new york is unbeatable. A bit like a sinister elevator tune.

    give this man a casio keyboard and he knows no boundaries.

  • rocketScience #17 6 years ago

    OK, anyone else thinking a Snake Plissken game based on the FEAR engine would wipe the floor with Duke Nukem?

  • souljah #18 6 years ago

    Wonder if I send him a letter about the shelving unit I assembled over the weekend whether he'll praise it for me.

  • Huntcjna #19 6 years ago

    Assault on Precinct 13 is absolutely awesome and no I don't mean the shitty ethan hawke remake

  • Universal_Hamster #20 6 years ago

    The Thing = Strong candidate for best horror film ever.

    Though I dont think Halloween holds up all that well...

  • Spanky #21 6 years ago

    Mouth of Madness was gaaaarbage and had no element of lovecraftian fiction present. It was Stephen King all the way.

    Nobody mentioned They Live, that film rocks, rocks on socks! The Thing, Escape from NY, They Live, brilliant, that's it for Carpenter the rest were beyond woeful.

  • afray #22 6 years ago

    *sticks hot wire into chtulie's blood specimin*

    You trippin'? The Precinct 13 is one of the best remakes you could hope to see. It's intelligent, witty, beautfully-shot (the long-distance, snow-drenched shot when the surrounding goons start to fire, and all you can here is faint pops, is jaw-dropping), well-acted and, above all, the action is really niiiice. The original is great, but this is a different film -- and not worse for it. Someone back me up.

  • Universal_Hamster #23 6 years ago

    Yes! They Live! Best and funniest fight scene ever, plus it has the line, "I came here to kick ass and chew bubblegum, and Im all out of gum."
    Qua-li-ty

  • kingbaggot #24 6 years ago

    hasn't made an entertaining film since 'mouth of madness' . last proper 'good' film was They Live. deserves his place in the hall of heroes though for his first ten years post 'Dark Star', and don't forget he was the first guy in the west to go goofy for supernatural asian chop-socky when he made 'big trouble in little china' and was a great one for mixing his horror with sci-fi as in 'Prince of Darkness' . also didn't he do the music for 'The sentinel reurns' on the pc? . This PR piece is pure codswallop though, he should pick a better game to reap praise on than this drekky looking fps Asian horror rip-off. The multiplayer is noice though. *sigh*.

  • Mr_Whacker #25 6 years ago

    Yes he did contribute music for Sentinel Returns (on PS1 too). He does a lot of the music for his movies - Halloween being the classic. Still makes me shiver.

  • kangarootoo #26 6 years ago

    Christ I forgot about They Live too. This guy has been working hard.

    "The original is great, but this is a different film -- and not worse for it. Someone back me up. "

    I'll back you up on that. I thought the new AoP13 was very good. Much dryer and darker than I was expecting. That bit where the person sitting on the floor outside got shot that you really didn't think would get shot (nonsense talk to avoid spoliers) was really bold and very much conveyed the cold nature of the assailants.

  • ST.. #27 6 years ago

    oh! a They Live game please.....and remake DarkStar with a big fat budget....P.S. I love you John.

  • kangarootoo #28 6 years ago

    Why thanks, I love you too ;)

  • space_ace #29 6 years ago

    at one time, mamoru oshii was supposed to make a snake plissken prequel... whatever happened to that too?!

  • Tyronne #30 6 years ago

    Carpenter can say anything he likes but please no more guitar movie songtracks,or one that sounds like a paraplegic is having their first go of a synth.

  • Xerx3s #31 6 years ago

    "Big trouble in little China" - Somehow always reminds me of Little Big Adventure. Weird. Perhaps because Little is in it.... Reminds me, they should port it to XBLa.

    This Dark Star thing, is it any good? Sounds interesting and i havent seen it yet. (due to the absolute lack of anything remotely beeing good, ive decided to start watch old movies that ive missed out on and asian movies).

  • Whizzo #32 6 years ago

    This Dark Star thing, is it any good?

    Just a bit, without it there'd have been no Alien movies and Red Dwarf probably wouldn't have existed either. It's [expletive deleted] great.

    Can you guess one of my favourite parts of the film? :-)

  • GitSomE_UK #33 6 years ago

    John Carpenter is the bollocks... if it's good enough for him it'll do for me.

    All those who are dissing him... respect this man for without his vision and the inspiration he has given to others LOTS and I mean LOTS of the films, games and books you enjoy today would not be around.

    /Goes to watch Escape from NY on DVD

  • Sko #34 6 years ago

    /goes to bury Escape From LA in the desert...

    /...alongside Ghosts Of Mars...

    /...and Vampires...

    /...and Village Of The Damned.

    "Hey John, look! A zeppelin!"

    /hides Carpenter's synthesiser.

  • Talha #35 6 years ago

    Hey guys, let off on John Carpenter! His only fault is having appeared in an EG news item, methinks. The real question is, is FEAR as good a game as it is cracked up to be? While the world is singing its praises, I failed to be impressed by the demo though the physics of the, er, protagonist are impressive - you no longer feel like you are gliding around. Enemy AI is impressive too, but the rest is pretty familiar.

  • Tyronne #36 6 years ago

    End of the day I will be buying F.E.A.R if anything on the strength of the demo,but if anything because it begins to show the maturity of how games can be,compared to how a good many still see them in regards to simple little sprites jumping over mushrooms.

  • Talha #37 6 years ago

    @Tyronne: You just triggered World War III mate. Though I will join you in your bunker!

  • Bezzy #38 6 years ago

    Tyronne....

    >:/

    nothing.

  • Sko #39 6 years ago

    " Hey guys, let off on John Carpenter! His only fault is having appeared in an EG news item, methinks."
    I guess the point is that he's clearly lost his handle on what makes for a good film, an area he used to regularly 'knock one out of the park'. And now he wants to tell us about games? Okaaay.

    Good luck to him, mind. I always hope he'll return to form one day (although I do also hope his synth is involved in a devastating head-on train-related accident though...).

  • arty #40 6 years ago

    Did everyone forget "The Fog"? Jeez.

  • afray #41 6 years ago

    Kanga-"That bit where the person sitting on the floor outside got shot that you really didn't think would get shot (nonsense talk to avoid spoliers) was really bold and very much conveyed the cold nature of the assailants."

    I know what you're talking about. Was definitely one of those "sit-up" moments that hardly appear in Hollywood films these days.

  • BBIAJ #42 6 years ago

    Darn it Samantha! I read all the way to the bottom of the comments, thinking "Oh goody, no-one's mentioned The Fog yet! I'll bring it up and look like a JC lovin' film guruing God!" But I was too late. By several hours it turns out...

    Anyway. Yes, The Fog. Scared me witless as a little'un, watching it one day on video when I had the day off school, and was home alone. I remember how quiet the opening scene was, and, thinking there was a problem with the audio on the tape, turned the volume on my TV right up. Then all of a sudden; "SNAP!!!" The old timer grabs at the watch dangling on the screen, and I damn near shat a brick. Classic.

  • Sko #43 6 years ago

    Oooh, can't wait for the remake. It's got Superman in it.

    /sarcasm off.