John Carpenter Weighs in With His Thoughts on ‘Friday the 13th’

By JonathanBarkan on May 27, 2016

John Carpenter created one of the most iconic slashers of all time with 1978’s Halloween. And just like Hollywood does today, they saw a movie that was made for practically pennies (in their mind) and they wanted to cash in on that by making more just like it. Hence, we got Friday the 13th shortly thereafter.

When Carpenter looks back on such films, he admits that he thinks “…most of them were awful“, which is honestly true. Just like with any decade/era, only a few films rise above the rest and become memorable and iconic, Friday the 13th being one of them. But that doesn’t mean he’s a fan of that film or, it seems, that series.

Appearing on author Brett Easton Ellis’ podcast, Carpenter explained (courtesy of HitFix):

One springs from an organic idea and has a truly artist’s eye working. And ‘Friday the 13th’, I feel, affects me as very cynical. It’s very cynical moviemaking. It just doesn’t rise above its cheapness. I think the reason that all these slasher movies came in the ’80s was a lot of folks said “look at that ‘Halloween’ movie. It was made for peanuts, and look at the money it’s made! We can make money like that. That’s what the teenagers want to see.” So they just started making them, cranking them out…most of them were awful.

You can listen to the full podcast right here.

What do you think? Is there something to what Carpenter is saying or is he just full of himself? Weigh in with your thoughts in the comments below!