Horror maestro John Carpenter weighs in on 'refurbished' Dead Space: 'Great game!'

Our own positive review of EA Motive's recent Dead Space remaster has been joined by an illustrious voice: John Carpenter, horror legend and director of Halloween, The Thing, They Live, and many, many more.

"EA's refurbished DEAD SPACE is exciting and scary," Carpenter wrote on Twitter. "Great game!"

I wish my own reviews could be so pithy. I especially love his deployment of "refurbished" to describe a videogame remake. The phrasing gives it a kind of warm, lived-in, cozy feeling, like a '90s station wagon that just got reupholstered. I'd contrast it with that Demon's Souls remake on PS5⁠—that was more like a lovely Victorian brownstone painted white and made open concept.

This is far from the legendary director's first time weighing in on gaming: he's an avid fan of Fallout, Horizon, and Dead Space, and has even expressed interest and directing any Dead Space movie adaptation, should such a thing ever get greenlit. 

Carpenter first gave the idea a shout back in a 2013 Game Informer interview: "Dead Space would just make a great movie, because you have these people coming onto an abandoned, shut-down space-ship and they have to start it up and something's on board. It's all just great stuff." Carpenter also expressed his appreciation for the less beloved Dead Space 3: "I even like the last one, the action one nobody else liked."

I'm not exactly jonesin' for a Dead Space movie myself, but I'd take a 2020s Carpenter Comeback in whatever form he deemed fit. What we're not in danger of anytime soon is a Red Dead Redemption western revival from the director, who quipped that he quit the lauded cowboy sim when he "couldn't get on the damn horse." Kudos to him for being able to laugh it off and shoulder some of the blame though⁠—some of you, you know who you are, would have started seven Reddit threads complaining about "lazy devs."