‘Suburban Screams’: John Carpenter Back In The Directors Chair

  • Posted On:October 12, 2023

Peacock’s upcoming anthology Suburban Screams has an episode based on the true-crime account of a woman’s experience with a phone stalker, which  has drawn the legendary horror filmmaker John Carpenter back to the directors chair.  He also produced the series and composed its theme.

John Carpenter, mostly retired now, looked back on his career and had an interview with Los Angeles Times to promote the anthology ‘Suburban Screams’. He said:  “I’ve had the greatest life because all I wanted to do when I was a kid is be a movie director. And I got to be, and it was unbelievable. I prepared for it. I went to school for it. I’m lucky. A lot of people aren’t so lucky. So I have nothing to complain about.” 

Now with Suburban Screams, he adds a reality based docu-series  and regarding the directing offer “It was an offer from the company that produces it. They don’t want me to say ‘reality,’ but it’s true stories. These are all true stories dug up by researchers, and the one I chose was a phone stalker because I connected to it. They’re creepy stories.” The complex nature of the shoot intrigued him. “I shouldn’t say this, but they’re shot on reality show budgets, which is a challenge. I did not [conduct the interviews]. I was there, but I was watching the interview. I needed a really great actress [Julie Stevens], and I found her. That takes care of about 90% of my problem. This poor girl. Six years she’s been stalked, but they can’t find who it is. So I listened to her story. We hit the points that are going to translate into a visual story. Poor thing.”

John Carpenter’s ‘Suburban Screams’ streams on Peacock starting this Friday.

To read the full interview with Los Angeles Times click on the link below
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2023-10-10/john-carpenter-suburban-screams