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Earlier today, a tweet went viral claiming that horror master John Carpenter was posting disparaging, even shit-talking reviews of his own work (as well as other films, including the recent Reagan biopic) on the movie-watching social platform Letterboxd. Carpenter is a legendary curmudgeon, but the fact that anyone believed the posts were real is a charming reminder that there are still gullible people online.
The original post has since been deleted, as has the faux-Carpenter’s Letterboxd page, but not before others joined in the fun and shared some of “John Carpenter’s” reviews. Just a few examples:
Thread of John Carpenter’s funniest letterboxd reviews. pic.twitter.com/nvMvD62oH9
— A real human being (@DomARealHuman) September 26, 2024
I do kinda admire the chutzpah of John Carpenter giving his own filmography star ratings.
Even if he’s waaaaay too harsh on “The Fog.” pic.twitter.com/yrWntVZAsO
— Darren Mooney (@Darren_Mooney) September 26, 2024
It’s unclear if the X users who shared the reviews believed it was actually the director of They Live, Halloween, The Thing, and Escape From New York posting under his own name on Letterboxd—and certainly some of the “likes” the tweets received were from people knowingly enjoying a parody account. But some, it seems, may have actually fallen for the prank—and along with it, apparently believed that Carpenter neither knows how to spell “embarrassing,” nor has any affection for the student film-turned-cult favorite that catapulted him into his long career, 1974’s Dark Star.
Speaking to Variety last year (the same chat in which he described his perfect day as “Get up late, watch a little news, play a video game, watch some basketball, go to bed”), Carpenter made a point of saying “I don’t evaluate myself.” He was reluctant to answer a question about what his greatest skill is as a filmmaker, saying only that he’s most proud of The Thing. “I really think I did a great job with that. I would love to have made more serious films like that, that aren’t teenage movies and not geared to young people. That was a movie I’m proud of. I don’t know what my strength is. I have no clue.”
X eventually stepped up to share a “readers added context” disclaimer on the original thread sharing the faux reviews, reminding the internet that one need only do the bare minimum in peeling back the layers of a social media account to avoid being duped. But if that wasn’t enough, Carpenter himself stepped into the fray, posting the perfect case-closed response:
What the hell is a Letterboxd!??
— John Carpenter (@TheHorrorMaster) September 26, 2024
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