The one movie genre John Carpenter was always too scared to try: “I would be pretty nervous”

John Carpenter says he has never made a straightforward western because he would feel nervous taking on a genre he loves. Best known for horror and suspense films such as *Halloween* and *The Thing*, he said he tends to work in the areas where audiences and the industry expect him.

In a 1998 interview, Carpenter gave two reasons for holding back: westerns had fallen out of favour, and he was typecast as a suspense, science-fiction and horror director. Although he grew up admiring westerns by John Ford and Howard Hawks, he noted that some of his own films have crossed into western territory.