I’ve been thinking about this for a while and it really hit me how much I a) love John Carpenter movies and b) love the music in his films (which he largely composed himself). It’s mind-boggling to witness how good both these strings to his bow were. How can one man be this good a director and this good a composer!? PS. Listen to the clips at high volume for maximum impact!

Escape from New York

Let’s start with Escape from New York. Awesome movie. But check out that music! Did LCD Soundsystem travel back in time and record this? Cowbells included. Too good.

Assault on Precint 13

Next up, one of my big favs. Assault on Precint 13. Again, brilliant, brooding movie. But the music is the star here. Stunning electronic soundtrack with an immense sense of foreboding… you know something bad is going on here. Whatever you do, don’t buy an ice cream!

Halloween

Halloween has simply terrifying music. Another thing I love about a lot of Carpenter’s music was the relatively minimalist palette. He doesn’t need much to get his message across…

Christine

More dark electronic menace from Carpenter. Kraftwerk anyone?

Let us know if you have some other Carpenter favs or for that matter some other soundtrack composers that blow you away.