At a certain point in a successful entertainment career, keeping up with the lingo associated with a genre you revolutionized just isn’t the most relevant thing in the world. John Carpenter, the master of horror who provided the score for the new Halloween films, hasn’t heard of so-called “elevated horror,” he tells The A.V. Club in a new interview.
Although the term has gained prominence with the rise of meditative, clearly metaphorical horror favored by studios like A24, Carpenter still isn’t clear on what exactly makes horror “elevated.”
“I don’t know what that means,” Carpenter responds when The AVC’s William Hughes asks if he’s familiar with the phrase. “I mean, I can guess what it means, but I don’t really know.” When presented with recent examples of the en-vogue genre like Midsommar and Hereditary, Carpenter’s response is even clearer: “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
The disconnect certainly isn’t because metaphor in horror is lost on Carpenter, something he quickly clarifies. A clear, outlined metaphorical message is one thing—personally, Carpenter just prefers to deal in themes.
“I hear you. There’s metaphorical horror,” Carpenter allows. “But all movies have … they don’t have messages. They have themes. Thematic material, and some horror films have thematic material. The good ones do.”
Carpenter’s criteria for “good ones” remains slightly mysterious. Although he shouts out 2008's vampire drama Let The Right One In as a “really interesting” film that “covered new ground,” he only hints cryptically at exactly what other movies he’s been keeping up with.
“Some of them,” Carpenter responds when asked if he keeps up with any new horror movies (besides films he’s worked on). “Not all of them, but some of them I do, sure.”
Check out Carpenter’s full interview with The A.V. Club here.