John Carpenter has spent decades teaching audiences to fear the dark, the fog, and the shape lurking just outside the frame. So it is both delightful and slightly unnerving to learn that the man behind Halloween and The Thing spends a good chunk of his free time wandering a post-apocalyptic wasteland, hoarding scrap, and muttering about mutations. In a 2022 interview with The New Yorker, the horror legend revealed that video games are not a casual distraction for him; they are a full-blown obsession. At the time he was 74. In 2026, the director is 78, still revered, still influential, and apparently still the kind of player who would rather discuss power armor than explain the art of directing.

The director’s gaming journey began in 1992 with Sonic the Hedgehog. 'That's where I started, and I fell in love with it,' he said. It is a wonderfully strange image: the man who composed the icy synth dread of Halloween learning to love a blue hedgehog moving at irresponsible speeds. His son later indulged the hobby, introducing him to Halo and various platformers. From there, Carpenter’s taste expanded like fog rolling through an abandoned town: sci-fi shooters, open-world epics, and whatever else could keep his attention between basketball games.

Asked what he was playing at the time, Carpenter did not hesitate. 'I've been playing this game for quite a while,' he said. 'It's called Fallout 76. The Fallout games are fun, it's like a post-apocalyptic world. This game had a rough launch, with problems and bugs, but I really like it.' Coming from the architect of The Thing, that endorsement is almost funny. If anyone can appreciate a hostile wasteland full of glitches, mutants, and questionable decisions, it is John Carpenter. He has made a career out of places where something has gone terribly wrong, so Fallout 76 probably feels like a vacation home.

Carpenter also praised newer titles. 'There's this incredible game called Horizon Forbidden West. Astonishing game,' he said. Asked whether Sony’s triple-A adventure felt like an immersive Western, Carpenter agreed. That prompted a question about another open-world giant: Red Dead Redemption. Here, the horror master met his match. Not a supernatural entity. Not a masked killer. A horse.

Carpenter said he had played Red Dead Redemption, but he struggled with the horse and eventually gave up on the game because of it. 'I'm pretty good after all the years I've played. But with that one I was terrible,' he admitted. 'The controls weren't intuitive, at least for me. But I guess everybody else had a good time. It was a popular game.' The image of the director of The Fog being defeated by equestrian controls is a gift. Somewhere, a cowboy is laughing.

The interview also wandered into Carpenter’s other passions. He talked about basketball and his beloved Golden State Warriors, about composing the scores for many of his own movies, and about how he would have loved the chance to make Westerns. Carpenter is notorious for not wanting to talk about movies and the art of directing, which makes his willingness to chat about games even more charming. He would rather dissect Fallout 76 than explain why Halloween still terrifies people. Honestly, fair.

Carpenter’s gaming enthusiasm is not just a quirky footnote. A significant number of video games have been directly or indirectly influenced by his work. The slow-burn dread, the isolated settings, the synth-heavy soundtracks, the sense that something awful is waiting just beyond the light—these ideas have seeped into survival horror and sci-fi games for decades. When Carpenter plays a game like Fallout 76 or Horizon Forbidden West, he is not just a celebrity dabbling in a hobby. He is a foundational influence inspecting the descendants of his own nightmares.

In 2026, the interview may be a few years old, but its details still feel relevant. Fallout 76 has continued to evolve, Horizon has grown into an even bigger franchise, and Red Dead Redemption remains a benchmark for horse-based frustration. Carpenter, meanwhile, remains a rare example of a legendary filmmaker who is openly, unapologetically enthusiastic about games. He does not treat them as guilty pleasures or distractions from serious art. He treats them as fun. That is probably why his movies still work: he understands that fear and play are close cousins.

So here is to John Carpenter: director, composer, basketball fan, and wasteland wanderer. May his horses behave better in the next game, may his Fallout camps remain bug-free, and may he never be forced to choose between making a Western and playing one. 🎮👻🐴