I took my seat at 7:40pm; my hearing leaked into the conversations of others all of which were discussing the works of John Carpenter and in great detail. This was not just any old crowd of people who were familiar with Carpenters work; this was a crowd of lifelong fans who knew every little bit of detail and were salivating at the realisation that an icon was about to grace them with his presence.
The lights went down and the audience erupted and audible screams of "I love you John" fired out of a middle aged man nearby; maybe it was my friend who shouted it or maybe it was somebody three rows down...I will never know as my attention was fully drawn to the stage, not wanting to miss the exact second this Horror legend appeared.
As soon as he did, the eruption turned into what could have been an earthquake and much like I felt when the gentleman professed his love for the 68 year old director.
Not a word was spoken and the crowd respectfully came to an eerie silence, not dissimilar to the atmosphere created in Carpenters work as a slow ambience began to haunt the room and the theme from 'Escape From New York' started to play, and thus the performance begun. A projector started playing the highlights of each movie that he performed, giving the show a different kind of feel.
This was not a show promoting John Carpenter himself nor was it a show that was celebrating his movies, this was a celebration of the connection and importance between Music and horror movies.
Any one of these themes played alongside any other movie that he had made would not have worked; it was a fine display of how a filmmaker had taken up the role of composer for his own projects and captured the visuals through music in a way that only the original author could. This was also a rather clever move; for those familiar with Carpenters soundtracks you could note that his work can be somewhat repetitive due to the lack of progression, zero vocals and and overused arpeggios but with the movies on display throughout the night, if the music itself was losing your attention then you can guarantee that the fine works of art on screen were not.
All the familiar hits were on display here, though in no specific order. 'Halloween', 'Big Trouble in Little China', 'Assault on Precinct 13', 'Christine' and even lesser known movies such as 'Prince of Darkness' and 'In the Mouth of Madness' popped up throughout the night as well as introducing many of the audience members to some of the more recent music from Carpenters album 'Lost Themes'.
Carpenters weaker movies were absent from the set, there was no 'Village of the Damned', 'Vampires' or 'Ghosts of Mars' and I can't say I missed them. Another thing absent from the night was Carpenter himself; few words were spoken and there was no interaction with the audience, this furthers my point that the night was about the connection between his music and his movies together as one.
Carpenter was no mannequin in terms of performance though, he would still point to random individuals, myself not being a lucky member, to show that he was having fun as he swayed side to side like a grand wizard displaying his magic to the fans before reminding them with intense seriousness that in his old age he is still in love with horror and believes it will last forever; never before has a truer statement been made.
Horror has been with film since the very beginning and has evolved with every single generation into something different. Will it progress for a further generation into something else?
Carpenter believes it will and I agree, despite winning an Academy Award for his first work as a co-writer and editor for 'The Resurrection of Broncho Billy' which was a western, Carpenter fell in love with horror and found his footing in a genre that badly needed something new...what the world can now see looking back is that that 'new' wasn't a series of movies from John Carpenter, but the man himself.
