I watch this every year without fail because it is One of The Greatest Movies Ever Made. I still manage to see new things in it. Carpenter’s economical style becomes more and more minimalist the more I see it, almost abstract, almost slow cinema. So many scenes are shot in clean masters and yet he uses the anamorphic frame so inventively, choreographing scares around his actors as if it were a dance and yet it never feels showy. The camera operator deserves all the credit in the world and Carpenter’s score – so essential to spiking up the empty spaces – is paramount. If you took this movie out of my life experience, I would be a very different person with very different tastes. There’s only one JC in my bible.

Watched on blu-ray.