John Howard Carpenter (born January 16, 1948) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, editor, and composer. Although Carpenter has worked in numerous film genres, he's most commonly associated with horror and science fiction films from the 70s and 80s. He particularly achieved international success with the thriller movies 'Halloween' (1978) and 'Escape from New York' (1981). Some of the films in Carpenter's career have been critical and commercial failures, with two notable exceptions mentioned above.