We grade three John Carpenter films with friends who don’t pull punches. One of us calls Halloween overrated, another crowns The Thing near-perfect, and They Live sparks a debate on satire versus spectacle and what “waking up” really means.

• how our rubric scores plot, performances, visuals, sound, themes
• Halloween’s pacing, thin character work, iconic camera language
• boogeyman myth versus desire for deeper lore
• They Live’s satire, wrestlers to actors, action drift mid-film
• corporate control, media manipulation, sellout culture
• The Thing’s ambiguity, practical effects, tension by design
• Dean Cundey’s cinematography across Carpenter’s work
• Morricone and Carpenter’s scores shaping genre sound
• final grades for each film and why they differ

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