There’s really no overselling just what an impact John Carpenter had on genre films, especially those coming out in recent years as more and more children of the ’80s are getting the chance to make their own horror and dark sci-fi movies. More than just the filmmaking techniques and overall tone, Carpenter, the one-man wrecking crew of awesome flicks, also inspired the music of genre movies by composing his own percussive, synth-driven scores that have been the basis for music from some of the best new indie horror movies, like Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett’s You’re Next and The Guest, and David Robert Mitchell’s It Follows, all of which have scores heavily in the Carpenter realm to go along with their visuals and execution.

Carpenter himself doesn’t really make movies anymore, sadly, but he does still make music, and that’s almost as good. He released an album in February entitled Lost Themes which continues his breed of creepy, inorganic, industrial dance-inspired music. These songs COULD be in a movie, but they aren’t–hence, these are themes that are lost. It’s a great listen all around, but we were surprised when Carpenter released a music video, starring himself and Virtual Reality gear, for the song “Night,” which ends the album (before the obligatory remixes of six of the nine songs).

The video has Carpenter putting on VR stuff and his avatar, which is a dude in leather biker gear with a light-up face and a cop-style motorcycle helmet, driving around the lit grid of LA at night looking for an opponent. The visuals play perfectly against the vwoorpy beats of the music, the driver looking like someone from Daft Punk entered an ’80s sci-fi movie. It’s surprisingly effective. It’s mostly just good to see Carpenter doing his thing again, even if it is just him wearing goggles and gloves and moving like he’d just taken mushrooms.

Let us know your thoughts on John Carpenter’s “Night”, which might be one of the best driving songs we’ve heard in a long time. Really all of Lost Themes makes for great cruising music and lets you be the Snake Plissken in your own movie.