Take This Invaluable Filmmaking Advice From John Carpenter

If you're a horror fan like me, John Carpenter's Halloween is bound to be an iconic entry in your repertoire of annual October scary movie watches. Not only did Halloween kickstart the '80s slasher frenzy, its also an extremely well-made movie. The bells and whistles, however, are quite simple—and particularly low on gore.

Utilizing suspenseful filmmaking techniques Carpenter made Michael Meyers one of the most terrifying horror icons of all time. Known in the credits as "The Shape", Michael credited an essence of terror by simply lurking behind bushes and distantly stalking his prey for much of the runtime of Halloween. Because of this reservation, his kills and terror became all the more impactful when he inevitably commits his babysitter murder spree in the third act.

Even more impressive, as explored below, Halloween was so barebones that Carpenter famously simply spray painted a William Shatner mask white, and created his (still iconic) Halloween theme score from a basic bongo rhythm he adapted from to the piano.

All this to say: sometimes, especially in indie filmmaking, simplicity and basic technique go a lot farther than a giant budget. The original Halloween was made for $325,000—an incredibly small amount in the grand scheme of filmmaking.

Below, check out John Carpenter chat about what made him the filmmaker he is today.