Last Updated on 1 December 2023

The following list is the Official Definitive List of the 20 best John Carpenter movies of all time.

I found 41 different ranked lists online of “best John Carpenter movies of all time,” many included every movie he directed in the ranking, and pulled them all into Excel and merged them all to get this definitive compilation.  See my Methodology page for the research process that was used, including links to all 41 lists that were averaged.

  1. The Thing (1982)
  2. Halloween (1978)
  3. Escape From New York (1981)
  4. They Live (1988)
  5. Big Trouble in Little China (1986)
  6. Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)
  7. In the Mouth of Madness (1994)
  8. The Fog (1980)
  9. Christine (1983)
  10. Starman (1984)
  11. Prince of Darkness (1987)
  12. Dark Star (1974)
  13. Vampires (1998)
  14. Village of the Damned (1995)
  15. Escape from L.A. (1996)
  16. The Ward (2010)
  17. Memoirs of an Invisible Man (1992)
  18. Ghosts of Mars (2001)
  19. Someone’s Watching Me! (1978)
  20. Elvis (1979)

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