John Howard Carpenter (born January 16, 1948) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, editor and composer. Although Carpenter has worked in numerous film genres, he is most commonly associated with horror and science fiction films from the 1970s and 1980s.

Most films in Carpenter's career were critical and commercial failures, with the notable exceptions of Halloween (1978), Escape from New York (1981) and Prince of Darkness (1987). However, many of Carpenter's films from the 1970s and the 1980s such as Dark Star (1974), Assault on Precinct 13 (1976), The Fog (1980), The Thing (1982), Starman (1984), Big Trouble in Little China (1986) and They Live (1988) have since been seen as cult classics, and Carpenter has been acknowledged as an influential filmmaker.