The Master of horror John Carpenter is a man of many talents. While he’s largely known for his directing and writing of horror films, he hasn’t actually directed a film since “The Ward” (2001). Hell, he hasn’t even written a film since “Ghosts of Mars.” The legend spends more time as a composer and musician these days. Instead of releasing films he’s been dropping albums, soundtracks, and EPs like a boss. When he’s not doing that, he’s investing time in one of his other favorite hobbies- video games. As we know, there’s a wee bit of an intersection between films and games, and one game in particular that Carpenter seems like he’d enjoy making into a film.
Despite being 74 years old, Carpenter is an avid fan of video games in perhaps more of a sense than you’d think. Personally, I discovered this almost four years ago now thanks to stumbling upon this tweet from him.
Yup, at first I had to check to make sure this was the same John Carpenter I thought it was and yes, it is indeed the man who directed “Halloween” and “Big Trouble in Little China.” I did not expect him to be using the term, “glitchathon” at all, let alone in an appropriate manner. A couple Google searches later and I was going down a rabbit hole where Carpenter was talking about how “Sonic The Hedgehog” got him into gaming when it first came out and he never looked back. The best part about reading him talk about games is how he doesn’t come across like the Steve Buscemi “How do you do, fellow kids” meme. Carpenter legitimately enjoys video games.
Carpenter recently discussed gaming quite a bit. He’s spent so much time playing “Fallout 76,” he flat-out refuses to say just how many hours he’s put into the game. He also name drops a few series he enjoys including “Assassin’s Creed,” “Ratchet & Clank,” “Jak and Daxter,” and the “Horizon” series, consisting of “Horizon: Zero Dawn” and “Horizon: Forbidden West.” He even goes so far as to say that he enjoys gaming more so than directing, considering how much more fun and relaxing gaming is.
That being said, when the subject of helming a movie based off a game comes up, there’s only one title Carpenter has in mind. Which one? 2008’s “Dead Space.”
The original title dropped for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360. It was a massive critical and commercial success. The sci-fi, survival-horror action game could probably best be described as “Resident Evil 4” on a demonic alien infested ship. There’s a lot more to it than that actually, but many of the things that made it so success can have parallels drawn back to the playstyle of “Resident Evil 4” and the bleak atmosphere of an abandoned ship in deep space aside from a powerful demonic horde.
It’s kind of fitting that Carpenter would want to turn this into a movie since an argument could be made that “Dead Space” is effectively the closest thing the world ever got to an official “Event Horizon” video game. The 1997 film is also a slice of sci-fi horror aboard an abandoned ship , staring into what is essentially, the maw of Hell. It would be pretty amazing to see Carpenter turn the game into his own idea of a film with the various elements. [Editor’s note: You know, like a “Hellraiser” film. Since the engine room of the Event Horizon ship is pretty much the inside of a puzzlebox.]
Even if we never see a film from Carpenter about “Dead Space,” fans of the series finally have cause to rejoice as the series is being brought back from the dead in two ways.
A remake of the first “Dead Space” title is making its way to current gen consoles. One of the creators of the series, Glen Schofield, was able to form his own team to develop a spiritual successor to the franchise, “The Calisto Protocol” that will be debuting in December of 2022.
We wouldn’t be surprised if John Carpenter starts playing both of them. Keep an eye out for the new documentary, “John Carpenter Live: Behind the Scenes.”
