John Carpenter is back. The New Yorker, one of Hollywood’s most original and visceral voices, is back where he belongs: scaring the bejeezus out of us with another shocky, schlocky cinema experience. Even his legion of devoted fans struggled for nice things to say about gory sci-fi Ghosts Of Mars back in 2001, but few will be disappointed by a new psych-horror that plays like Shutter Island with the scares cranked up a notch or twelve. The Ward – or ‘John Carpenter’s The Ward’, to give it its proper title – is a return to moviemaking after a self-imposed exile of almost a decade, a dormant period which saw him join peers like Dario Argento, Tobe Hooper and Joe Dante trying his hand helming two episodes of Showtime’s Masters of Horror series, but otherwise involved a lot of downtime and much whooping for his beloved LA Lakers.

Significantly, one of those two episodes told the story of a girl trapped inside a clinic and forced to face some serious personal – and actual – demons. It’s a plot thread that leads naturally onto The Ward, where a young girl (Amber Heard) finds herself incarcerated in the kind of clanking, lock-‘em-up-throw-away-the-key asylum where you might expect to find a Nurse Ratched or two lurking. Of course, it’s a Carpenter movie and the villain is a whole lot more, well, evil than that. When Empire caught up with Carpenter at his Los Angeles home he was full of the joys of a typically radiant Californian morning. Perhaps it was that sunshine, perhaps it was the prospect of celebrating his 63rd birthday, or maybe it was our informative update on the English Premier League table (“Manchester United? Everyone says that all the time! Are there are no other teams over there?”), but the veteran filmmaker was in great form, chatting about a return to filmmaking that he clearly enjoyed immensely, holding forth on the state of filmmaking and 3D, and filling us in on his team’s prospects. “My Lakers are doing okay,” he grins, “I wish I could say something intelligent about sport over there!”

Warning: This interview does contain The Ward spoilers.

Has mental health interested you for a long time? Was there much research involved?
Oh, hell no. It was originally a movie that took place today, but there’s no such thing as ‘today’ as involuntary incarceration. You have to let people go after a certain amount of time if they don’t want to stay, so we put it in 1966. I remember 1966 [so] I brought all my expertise to it.
Was the plan always to evoke a world of forgotten mental patients?
It was. There were no homeless people, they stuffed them in there, and some of the facilities were awful and some were okay, but they got the mentally ill off the streets, is what they did. We shot the film over four weeks in an old psychiatric unit in Spokane, Washington, and all around us was a functioning mental institution. From where we were shooting we could see the razor wire of the dangerously mentally ill who were right across the yard from us. We were warned to listen for sirens going off which meant that someone had got out.
Did you need to put your young cast at ease on set?
Well, this is an enormously talented cast and they were really fun to work with. Everyday they brought it to the set: they brought their characters, they brought their parts, they had it nailed so my job was really easy. We just had a really good time. You want a unified crew to tell the story and everyone was on board. I have nothing but great things to say about the girls and Jared Harris and everybody.
Jared Harris’ character, Dr. Stringer, was really interesting. He seemed to have a much more enlightened attitude towards treating the girls, but there was still something uneasy about him.

Jared’s a really, really fine actor. The only thing he wanted to know was, “Do I do it with an American accent?” and I said, “Hell no, the British accent always sound so official. I love British accents.
Did you see him in Mad Men?
Yes and Benjamin Button. I don’t watch it Mad Men too much, it’s on around the time that there are basketball games and I can’t be taken away from that. (Laughs)
What inspired the design for the ghost?
It was just dead and rotted but we didn’t show too much, we wanted to keep it in the shadows. We wanted to keep away from Japanese horror too, dark eye makeup on a pasty face… that’s been done, so I didn’t want to do that. That would have been easy.
Did you see Laura’s character fitting into the same mould as Jamie Lee Curtis or Adrienne Barbeau?
Well, [she’s] slightly different because she doesn’t know who she is, where she is or why she’s there, so she has to play constantly confused but Amber’s a very smart actress. Her character deepened. We did a lot of work on her.
It’s been almost a decade. Did you have other opportunities to come back before this?
This was the first one that came along that had a small cast, a small budget and a reasonable shooting time in a simplified physical space. In other words, it all took place in one area [and] that was just right for me. That was what I was looking for.
Why were those things important for you?
[Pause] Well, I’m older. I don’t want to work that hard. It’s hard work! But I loved it. It was a lot of fun.

Has The Ward given you back your appetite for filmmaking? Do you have other projects in mind now?
Yeah… we’ll see. Nothing I can talk about yet, but I’m developing a couple of things. A horror film here and there, a thriller here and there, even a thriller Western that may happen. You never know.
Have you found that it’s got tougher to get films made?
Not having worked in so long and not even caring if I worked, I wasn’t really paying attention, but when we were making the film a lot of people were talking about that. Not only had the strikes hurt the business, but there was also the recession. Not many people were working. It’s hard to get a picture going and it’s kinda ruthless: they don’t give you a second chance these days. I’m glad I got in when I got in, because not every film I made at the beginning, or since, has been successful.
There’s an army of fans out there that are very happy to have you back. Do you keep in touch with what’s in the blogosphere?
Well, a little bit. But look, most of my fans live in cardboard boxes under the freeway, so let’s just be real frank about that (laughs). They’re just looking for a meal.
With the writer’s strike, Fangland got stuck in development hell. Where’s it at now?
Well, it still is. We’re still trying to find the right touch for that. That’s a tricky movie. It’s the subject matter [and the need to work out] what’s the best way of telling this story. It’s based on a novel [by ex-CBS producer John Marks] and it’s about the interaction of media and real-life violence. It’s just tricky. It’s hard work, god! (Laughs)
You’ve been critical about 3D in the past. Have the more immerse, higher quality 3D movies of the last couple of years changed your opinion?
Look, I don’t know. I went through the first 3D craze way back when – I was kid when 3D first came in to compete with television and get viewers away – it was ridiculous then and it’s ridiculous now. It’s painful. Have I seen Avatar? I saw it in 2D. Did it stand up in 2D? No comment.
Are you flattered or depressed by the trend of remaking your movies?

I wouldn’t say I find it depressing, especially when someone wants to remake a movie of mine and pay me money to do nothing. That is extremely kind. For my entire life I’ve been trying to find a way to make money for doing nothing and it’s extremely hard because people want something (laughs). I’m flattered by it. I think it’s not because the movies I make are great, it’s because they’re recognisable: their titles stand out in a very tough place when you’re trying to market movies. There’s just too much competition; there’s too much noise out there. They want something where audiences say, “Oh yeah, let’s go see that!” Maybe they saw the first version on video and they want to see it again.
So John Carpenter has become a brand?
(Reluctantly) Maybe…
Did you see the remake of Halloween?
Oh, I’d rather not talk about it. Live and let live.
Are you looking forward to The Thing prequel? Have you had any involvement at all in that?
I’m not involved at all. God bless them, they’ve got some young genius director doing it and I’m sure they’ll do a great job. We’ll see how the monster is. It’s going to be the story of the Norwegian camp and it could be good. They’ve got a babe in it, so that’s better than my movie.
Were you consulted on the plans to remake Escape From New York?
Well, they paid for it, which is nice. I ask them to keep me posted but they don’t tell me anything. They don’t want me to bother them.
Many directors cite you as direct influence. Are there any directors that have really impressed you?
There are a lot of great directors out there, I wouldn’t limit it to horror movies. David Fincher really impressed me, I think he’s a wonderful director. The guy who remade Dawn Of The Dead [Zack Snyder], he did a really good job.
Did you ever feel hemmed in by genre or frustrated by the idea that you’re only a horror director, especially with films like Elvis and Memoirs Of An Invisible Man behind you?
I don’t feel that way at. I’m delighted to be able to be John Carpenter – it’s very pleasant and fun. It pays the bills, it pays for private school, it keeps me in beer and cigarettes. I can’t ask for anything else.

John Carpenter’s The Ward is out on January 22.