The Howling
The first inkling I ever had of The Howling was hearing the opening notes of Pino Donaggio’s score sampled in the Primal Scream song “Pills,” produced by Dan the Automator. When I finally saw the movie years later (my adolescent music nerd phase predated my obsession with VHS horror), I was scandalized.
Starman
John Carpenter has often turned to the horrors of science fiction, most brilliantly in The Thing (1982) and They Live (1988), and also in his Village of the Damned remake (1995), Ghosts of Mars (2001), and his more humorous feature debut, Dark Star (1974).