John Carpenter has never shied away from sharing his thoughts about the movies in his filmography, but this reviled ’90s film almost made him quit directing entirely. After making a few low-budget movies in the 1970s, Carpenter made his grand debut on the world stage with the release of Halloween in 1978. The revolutionary slasher film helped usher in the style and tone of 1980s horror, but Carpenter was already busy making new projects in the ensuing decade. Movies like The Fog and The Thing cemented him as a master of horror, and he branched out from the genre too.

Though some of John Carpenter’s movies were commercial successes, he spent the bulk of his career delivering one cult classic after another. Many of his feature films have become beloved parts of horror history, and he was one of the most consistent directors of the 1980s. Quirky action films like Big Trouble in Little China proved he wasn’t just a horror filmmaker, and he continued to experiment well into his third decade as a director. Unfortunately, Carpenter’s filmography does have one glaring stinker that was so bad it almost caused him to leave the business.

John Carpenter Almost Quit Filmmaking Because Of Memoirs Of An Invisible Man

The 1992 Sci-Fi Drama Was Almost Too Much To Take

By 1992, John Carpenter was an established figure in Hollywood and had made several excellent films. He had also seen his fair share of hardships while trying to bring his visions to life. Though every production comes with its own problems, Memoirs of an Invisible Man was particularly trying for Carpenter. The science fiction drama cast Chevy Chase as a man who suddenly finds himself turned invisible, and the movie examines the troublesome nature of his newfound condition. The movie was based on the eponymous book by H.F. Saint, and was supposed to be Chase’s first dramatic turn.

Unfortunately, the film seemed to be cursed from the start, and it went through a lengthy development process. Ghostbusters director Ivan Reitman was initially attached to helm the movie, but he departed and was eventually replaced by Carpenter. The big-budget studio movie was a bit out of Carpenter’s wheelhouse, but he had proven himself to be deft at mixing genres in the past. The actual filming was a long and grueling process, made doubly hard by the technical requirements to turn Chase’s character invisible. All of that would have been bad enough, but Carpenter clearly had other problems on set.

In a 2023 interview with Variety, the director didn’t hold back when discussing Memoirs of an Invisible Man. “It was a horror show,” said Carpenter, “I really wanted to quit the business after that movie.“ Though he refused to be specific, he hinged his disdain on having to work with one particular person. Carpenter let his anger flow when saying “let’s just say there were personalities on that film … he shall not be named who needs to be killed.” Though he would laugh that last comment off, it clearly stuck with him over 30 years later.

The Chevy Chase Movie Is Really That Bad

It Might Have Been Worth It If The Movie Was Actually Good

Plenty of movies go through tough pre-production and production phases but end up becoming masterpieces. However, Memoirs of an Invisible Man was apparently a pain to make, and it all amounted to nothing in the end. The finished product was a critical failure that not only underwhelmed at the box office but was a bomb. The movie was made on a reported production budget of somewhere between $30 and $40 million, but it only managed to gross about $14 million (via Box Office Mojo). When factoring in marketing and advertising costs, the movie may have lost upwards of $50 million.

Even critical and commercial failure is excusable if the movie is interesting. John Carpenter’s filmography is filled with movies that weren’t particularly popular with contemporary critics or audiences, but have gone on to become cult classics. Memoirs of an Invisible Man is not an example of Carpenter’s cult status, and it is actually quite boring. Despite being a film about a man who is turned invisible and must evade evil CIA agents, it’s just really dull. It isn’t frightening like the original Invisible Man, nor is it humorous like other Chevy Chase movies, so it amounts to an expensive snoozefest.

The visual effects are quite impressive for the early ’90s, but the movie doesn’t do anything clever or surprising with them. Earlier invisibility movies used their limited technology to do clever gags, but Memoirs is quite perfunctory in its use of invisibility. The biggest issue is that it takes itself too seriously, and Chevy Chase is so desperate to be seen as a dramatic actor that he forgets to give his character any charm of heart. For his part, John Carpenter‘s trademarks are not on the movie, and it doesn’t feel like he had any input in the project.