John Carpenter built a career out of being unafraid to tackle new genres, subjects, and narrative material. From engineering the archetypal slasher in Halloween to exploring nauseating body horror in The Thing, the iconic director has a well-deserved reputation for crafting a filmography full of one unforgettable movie after another.
Yet even when held up to his work on movies like Big Trouble in Little China and They Live, Escape from New York, released 45 years ago today, remains one of Carpenter’s most unique and difficult-to-classify films. A fast-paced sci-fi action epic that set the boundaries for the modern post-apocalyptic genre, Escape from New York might be the most distinctly '80s movie ever created, right down to its synthesizer-forward score, heavy-handed dialogue, and impractical if eye-catching array of costumes.
