One of my favorite directors is John Carpenter of Halloween fame.

Although his career largely fizzled out in the 1990s, he was the mind behind behind at least six bona fide classics of either horror or science-fiction filmmaking — and possibly more, depending on your personal preferences — all produced during an extraordinary ten-year run that began with the aforementioned Halloween in 1978 and ended with 1988’s They Live. During that period, he was cranking out a new feature film every year, as well as writing and producing other things that he did not direct himself. Most of these projects were box-office failures when they were originally released, but later found their audiences on home video. Two of Carpenter’s movies from this period — Escape from New York and The Fog — are pretty consistently in my personal top ten, and the rest of them are among my favorites, not counting Prince of Darkness (1987), which is well made but has never really grabbed my socks, and They Live, which was a great premise that didn’t quite come together, in my opinion.

Carpenter movies have a certain distinct atmosphere, in part because of the way they’re shot. Inspired by the legendary directors John Ford and Howard Hawks, Carpenter prefers widescreen formats (his favorite being anamorphic 2.35:1, if that means anything to you), and this helps give even his smallest-budgeted films a big, immersive environment. But I think the more important component of “the Carpenter feel” is the music, which he himself composed and performed in most of his significant works. Based on synthesizers, and enhanced with piano and occasionally guitars, Carpenter’s movie music is minimalistic, moody, evocative, and as distinctive as his camera work.

Which brings me at last to this week’s video selection. Carpenter hasn’t directed a feature film since 2010 (and may not ever again, considering his last film’s dismal performance), but he has continued to noodle with music, and just three months ago released his first non-soundtrack album, Lost Themes. As the title suggests, the album sounds very much like music from Carpenter films you’ve never seen, in particular the track “Night,” which to my ear belongs in a good sequel to Escape from New York that we didn’t get (as opposed to the dismal sequel/remake/spoof/hot mess Escape from LA). The video for the tune is interesting, too, looking like something from the ’80s with its night-time cityscapes, Miami Vice-style driving shots, and weird sodium-vapor lighting, and yet curiously modern in that Carpenter himself appears to be using a virtual-reality rig to control a member of Daft Punk. If you, like me, tend to sit up by yourself way too late on Friday nights, I think you’ll find it’s the perfect soundtrack to whatever you’re up to…