6WH: October 31st ** HALLOWEEN **

Happy Halloween! Today was a good day. Ate some farmer's market pumpkin pie. Finally convinced my daughter to wear her costume and got some good photos. Carved some pumpkins. Got more trick 'r treaters to the house than ever and likely will be known as "the guy who will let you take a giant handful of candy." And, naturally, I watched some horror movies:

Merrie Melodies: "Scaredy Cat" (1948)
nine inch nails: "the perfect drug" (1997)
The Simpsons: "Treehouse of Horror VI: Attack of the 50 Ft. Eyesores" (1995)


Event Horizon (1997) directed by Paul W.S. Anderson
From IMDb's trivia on this movie: "Paramount didn't officially greenlight the film until 10 weeks before production was due to begin. This meant that the production design was unnecessarily rushed and was the reason why many leading production designers turned the film down." Damn, I hope production designer Joseph Bennett got some kind of award for this film, then. The design of the Event Horizon is fantastic. It's better, I'm willing to say, than the Nostromo, the only other haunted cathedral-like spaceship I can think of. From the cruel, stainless steel medical bay to the medieval-looking gravity drive room to the subtly coffin-shaped doors, it's all made to unnerve.

The movie itself is a nice Haunting meets Hellraiser slice of sci-fi horror. A few of the lines get a little cheezy (describing the dimension the EH travels through as "pure evil" is pushing things), but the cruelty of the ship on its occupants makes up for this for the most part. I dig the recurring theme of characters scooping out their own eyes because they can't handle the horrors they've seen. A bit lovecraftian, that. (7/10)




Merrie Melodies: "Claws for Alarm" (1954)
VAST: "Pretty When You Cry" (1998)
The Simpsons: "Treehouse of Horror V: The Shinning" (1994)


Night of the Creeps: Director's Cut (1986) directed by Fred Dekker
I'd somehow missed seeing this one for all these years. I love Monster Squad, but I guess I never looked up what other movies Dekker made back in the day. Based on the love Creeps gets from folks in horrorland, I blind-bought the blu-ray this week just to watch on Halloween. I was not disappointed; it fits in well with the rest of my '80s horror collection.

Man, Tom Atkins kicks ass in this one. Creeps easily displaces Halloween 3 and The Fog as my favorite of his films. You can tell he had a blast playing Detective Cameron in this movie. I should answer the phone at work with "thrill me."

I think part of the reason folks like this one -- outside of the Atkin's Cameron and the awesome zombies-with-space-slugs-in-their-brains thing -- is that it's a geek wish-fulfillment tale. The dorky guy not only gets the girl in the end, but he gets to roast douchebag frat guys with a flamethrower. What's not to love? (8/10)




Merrie Melodies: "Jumpin' Jupiter" (1955)
Rob Zombie: "American Witch (animated)" (2006)
The Simpsons: "Treehouse of Horror: The Raven" (1990)


The Simpsons: "Treehouse of Horror XX" (2009) directed by Mike B. Anderson & Matthew Schofield
Wow! A Simpsons halloween special airs before halloween? Will wonders ever cease? Maybe due to that fact alone, this was the best "Treehouse" in many years. The first segment, "Dial 'M' for Murder or Press '#' to Return to Main Menu," obviously parodied Hitchcock. It was also done in black and white, which I don't think they've ever done in a halloween episode before. It looked good. There were tons and tons of Hitch references to chew on in this one. I loved it. "Don't Have a Cow Mankind" parodied 28 Days Later. It was nice to have another zombie tale added to the "Treehouse" canon. I watch "Dial 'Z' for Zombie" every Halloween. The final segment, "There's No Business Like Moe Business," I wasn't so keen on. It's a musical vaguely inspired by Sweeney Todd and not terribly horror-ish, though the idea of blood-infused beer is pretty gross. (7/10)




The Real Ghostbusters: "When Halloween Was Forever" (1986) directed by Richard Raynis
Ah, The Real Ghostbusters: one of the reasons I'm a horror fan. As a nine-year-old kid watching this show, I was blown away. Other than Slimer, it took its ghostly subject quite seriously for a Saturday morning cartoon. This episode is one that has always stuck in my mind since then. Watching it 23 years later, I was surprised at how much I remembered. Ah, memories... (7/10)




Halloween (1978) directed by John Carpenter
For the eleventh year in a row, I watched Halloween. I think it's pretty damned close to a perfect horror movie. This year, I really paid attention to the theme of watching. In the beginning of the movie, Carpenter puts Myer's clown mask over the camera lens and forces the audience to be him as he kills his sister. Though the rest of the movie is masked-lens-free, I don't think the audience ever stops seeing things through the killer's eyes. Often, Carpenter will pull way, way back and watches, for example, the teen-aged girls walking home from school from a distance. As the audience, we're voyeuristically spying on these future victims in exactly the same way Myers has been doing in the film.

By the time I got to this film, it was nearly 3 in the morning (pre-fall back). Watching the movie while drifting in and out of a light doze is fun. While my eyes were closed, my brain would go off on tangents related to the film. Then, I would snap awake and have to readjust my thoughts as to where the film really is. Kinda surreal. (9/10)

It was good six weeks. I managed to watch 55 movies over the 42 days. That beats the hell out of any of the previous six years I've been doing this. I got caught up on a lot of this decade's horror movies I hadn't gotten around to seeing yet. That feels good. Still, I haven't seen any of the Underworld, Resident Evil or Sam Raimi's Ghost House films yet. Ah well. Next year's only 46 weeks away. For now, I'm looking forward to watching some non-scary shows. Firefly and Serenity, here I come...



R2 and Obi-Wan Hanging Out

OLR: They Live (1988)

Always prophetic: this time, I caught a reference to the bailouts. (8/10)

d. John Carpenter

6WH: Saturday, October 4th

The Blob (1958) directed by Irvin S. Yeaworth Jr. & Russell S. Doughten Jr.
Dig that '50s scene, man. Young, rebel teens (like 28-year-old Steve McQueen) -- in-between making out in lover's lane and backwards drag racing -- struggle to convince square adults that an alien glob of goo is eating people. This is one of the few horror movies from the 1950s that I actually like (my favorite being Invasion of the Body Snatchers). The film pops in dreamy Technicolor -- Criterion's transfer on their DVD is excellent -- with the stereotypical '50s pallet of pinks and blue-greens tickling the eyeballs. It features a truly original alien monster: no need for aliens who happen to look like humans and speak English here. The special effects are great for the era, particularly when the blob is dog-sized. Its movements at that size look quite bizarre. The concept is actually pretty dark for the time: there's a thing rolling around Smalltown, USA digesting people. Off-screen, it consumes an entire bar filled with a Friday night crowd. This movie has to have one of the highest body counts for this decade. I dug it, man. Happy 50th, Mr. Blob. (7/10)


Beware! The Blob (1972) directed by Larry Hagman
Dig that '70s scene, man. The rebel drag racers are replaced with really annoying hippies and Steven McQueen is replaced by the weenie who played Charlie X in the Star Trek episode of the same name in this wacked-out sequel. A man brings home a frozen sample of the blob he found while working on a pipeline in the arctic. It gets out, eats a cute kitten and hilarity ensues. There's quite a bit of fun to be had with this one. For example, the blob attacks a fat, bald Turkish guy taking a bubblebath, who proceeds to flee down the street buck nude, gets picked up by the police, and insists on making his one phone call at the station still in his birthday suit. Or, there's Dick Van Patten as the exasperated, no-nonsense scoutmaster who is tormented by scouts with clackers. Or, Burgess Meredith as a hippie-hating hobo sharing a drink with the director. Definitely a good-bad movie (though I imagine serious fans of the original must froth at the mouth at its very mention). (6/10)

After my Blob-a-thon, the missus and C joined me. T, from week 1, ain't ever coming back. Not a guy who understands horror, I'm afraid.

Masters of Horror: "Incident On and Off a Mountain Road" trailer (2005)
Martin trailer (1977)
Johnny Bravo: "Frankenbravo" (2000)


Tales from the Crypt: "King of the Road" (1992) directed by Tom Holland
Another Two-Fisted Tales story without a hint of horror. Brad Pitt stars as an arrogant drag racer who tattoos the names of the people he defeats on his arm. He discovers a local police officer used to be a famous dragger in the '50s until he killed someone in a wreck. By seducing the officer's daughter, he blackmails him into dragging one more time. Long-story short: the boomer defeats the punk '90s kid. This, I'm sure, in no way made the director, writers and producers feel better about aging. I'm glad this is the last of the Two-Fisted Tales in Crypt: gimme some horror. (5/10)


The Thing (1982) directed by John Carpenter
My wife loves this movie. Year-round, she's always suggesting it as something to watch. My response is usually "I don't want to watch it until there's snow on the ground." I like watching The Thing in the winter; it just makes the movie more effective when I, like the characters, could freeze to death if I got stuck outside. A few days ago, though, I got the blu-ray version in the mail. C and I both wanted to see this flick in HD, so I asked the missus: "what's that one movie that you always want to watch and I say we can't until something happens?" She knew right away what it was. Needless to say, she was thrilled with the pick.

Rant: despite what people always say, The Thing is not a remake. Sure, there was a movie called The Thing from Another World made in 1951, but it wasn't the original source of this story. That's a novella called Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell. Calling Carpenter's movie a remake is like saying Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings is a remake of the Bakshi cartoon, or The Passion of the Christ is a remake of The Last Temptation of Christ.

The Thing is my favorite movie of all time at the moment. It's exactly my kind of movie. (10/10)


Satan's Sadists trailer (1969)
Satan's Cheerleaders trailer (1977)
The Simpsons: "Treehouse of Horror: Clown without Pity" (1992)


The Blob (1988) directed by Chuck Russell
Now this is a remake. And this is exactly how to do a remake: wait a respectful three decades, create a similar but original story that touches on the big moments from the original (like the movie theater sequence) and amp the puppy up to match the times. This is the type of blob movie I really wanted. None of that demure cutting away once of the blob attacks… let's see what really happens to people inside of it. It ain't pretty. In fact, it's some of the nicest gore effects you'll fine in the '80s. People dissolved in half, people melted down to ooze-covered skeletons, people exploding from inside with the blob. Nice work. Gotta love the '80s Cold War element, too. "This'll put U.S. defense years ahead of the Russians." This time, the blob is a mutated bacteria created by the U.S. government, meant for the Ruskies. An oft-overlook gem of an '80s horror movie. (8/10)

The Halloween Jones Soda flavor of the week was Lemon Drop Dead, the last of the repeats from prior years. It still tastes like carbonated, powder lemon drink. It's fine, I guess. Fake lemonade isn't bad, though the enormous amount of citric acid in it is kind of heart-burny.

Lil K was not at all posed with Halloween stuff for this photo.

SWH07: Week 6 (thirteenth)... Halloween

Six Weeks of Halloween 2007
Week 6 (thirteenth)

Tales from the Crypt: "Spoiled" (1991)
Twenty-five minutes of waiting around for a 10-second zinger at the end. (5/10)

d. Andy Wolk


Tales from the Crypt: "Yellow" (1991)
This big big-budget tale of the horrors of World War I, though not exactly a traditional TftC story, was a great finisher for season 3. (7/10)

d. Robert Zemeckis


Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (trailer)
Bad Channels (trailer)
Looney Tunes: "The Case of the Stuttering Pig"


The Shining (1980)
It's feels like a horror movie made by someone who'd never watched a horror movie in his life, or intentionally tried to ignore the traditional conventions, or thought he could create new conventions. (9/10)

d. Stanley Kubrick


The Return of the Living Dead (trailer)
Evil Dead (trailer)
Happy Tree Friends: "Remains to be Seen"


Masters of Horror: "Sounds Like" (2007)
What if Daredevil was a fat, bald guy who could see and hated his wife? (6/10)

d. Brad Anderson


The Exorcist (TV spot)
Class of Nuke 'Em High Part II: Subhumanoid Meltdown (trailer)
The Simpsons: "Treehouse of Horror: The Raven"


Masters of Horror: "The Washingtonians" (2007)
Everything outside of the Washintonians themselves was played far too seriously to match the utter goofiness of the cannibal cult. (5/10)

d. Peter Medak


Halloween (1978)
Still the greatest slasher movie of all time. (9/10)

d. John Carpenter


This Halloween, I was joined by Mrs. K and C. Once again, the upstairs lights were kept off. Sorry kids: movies are more important than handing out free candy. A feast of pizza, Beck's Oktoberfest and Halloween cupcakes were enjoyed by all (well, Mrs. K had to stick to that god-awful O'Doul's).

I saved the three glass bottle flavors of Jones Soda's Halloween flavors for Halloween night. Monster Mojito still tastes to me like the alcohol drinks served in college that make you vomit. It's not really a flavor I crave in a carbonated, stand-alone form. Dread Licorice tastes exactly, exactly like liquid red licorice. It's not bad. If you've ever used a red licorice whip as a straw when you were a kid, the experience is similar. It's fraternal twin, however, is awful. I knew Black Cat Licorice, the black licorice-flavored drink, had the potential to be pretty bad. It was. Even though I'm one of the rare people on the planet who actually likes black licorice candy, I couldn't even finish this one. I addition to the liquid black licorice flavor, it leaves the distinct aftertaste of skunky beer on your pallet once you swallow. Not pleasant. Of this year's seven flavors, it's the only one I couldn't drink. Compared to other years, this is actually an improvement for the Jones company. Maybe they can make 7/7 good ones in 2008?

I decided to dress as Mirror Universe Spock for work this year. I know, I know. Evil Spock didn't wear that type of uniform shirt. You can dock me 10 points from my geek account. No one would've ever have figured out who I was suppose to be if I tried to duplicate Evil Spock's weird, shiny blue shirt-with-sash thing. In fact, no one did figure out the whole evil part. Despite the goatee and that one South Park episode that emphasized the idea of evil facial hair, no one guessed that I was the evil version of Spock. Ah well. I knew.

It's always interesting to hear what people will say to you when you're dressed up. Especially since most of the people at work don't wear costumes. Those of us in disguise were in an exclusive club; we acknowledged each other's shared experience when chatting in hallways, lamenting everyone else's lack of holiday spirit. Memorable comments from the non-dressed-up folks included:

• called "Dr. Spock" four times
• called "Captain Kirk" three times
• delivery guy: "Hey, why aren't you teleporting?" me: "I need the exercise"
• lady in elevator: "Do you have your translator chip in?" she asks, pointing to spot behind her ear. "We could really use those here." (no idea what show this she's thinking of here)
• guy from India who apparently wasn't aware of what day it was: "If you don't mind me asking, what's with the outfit?"
  

There were also many Vulcan salutes directed my way, plus many smiles as people recognized who I was dressed as. All in all, it was fun. And, damn, those uniform shirts are comfortable.

And, that's it! My Six Weeks of Halloween celebration is over. I didn't watch as many movies, nor eat as much candy, as I did in years prior. That's fine. I had fun and maximized my enjoyment of this, the last child-free Halloween of my life. Next year: making a goofy costume for the kid, and reading kid Halloween books as bedtime stories are what I'm most looking forward to.

OLR: Masters of Horror: "Pro-Life" (2006)

Ah, John, I love yah, but it's clear your passion for filmmaking is waning. (5/10)

d. John Carpenter

[strangely, my baby -- probably sharing my depression over Carpenter's bad run -- started kicked my wife from the inside as we watched]

OLR: The Thing (1982)

The best sci-fi-horror movie ever made. (10/10)

d. John Carpenter

SWH: Week 1 (four)

Mystery Science Theater 3000: "Teenagers from Outer Space" (1992)
[A Year on the Satellite of Love] (7/10)
d. Kevin Murphy & Tom Graeff

Halloween (Commentary by John Carpenter, Debra Hill & Jamie Lee Curtis) (1994)
John and Debra have plenty of interesting nuggets and there's rarely a spot of silence. (8/10)
d. John Carpenter

On Location: 25 Years Later (2003)
Halloween Panel Discussion at the H25 Convention (2003)

Halloween: Unmasked (1999)
OK for a brief documentary, but doesn't cover much beyond what was said in the commentary. (6/10)
d. Mark Cerulli

Halloween: A Cut Above the Rest (2003)
A little bit of new footage and info, but padded with far too many movie scenes. (7/10)
d. Steven Smith

SWH: Week 1 (two)

Near Dark (trailer)
The Curious Dr. Humpp (trailer)
Scanners: "Head Explosion"

Creepshow 2 (1987)
"Old Chief Wood'nhead" is poorly constructed, "The Hitchhiker" is average, but "The Raft" is one excellent piece of horror. (6/10)
d. Michael Gornick

Beware! Children at Play (trailer)
Guinea Pig 2: Flower of Flesh and Blood (trailer)
The Simpsons: "Treehouse of Horror 07-1: The Thing and I"

Masters of Horror: "Cigarette Burns" (2005)
I really wanted to be blown away, but the story isn't anything special and parts felt inauthentic. (6/10)
d. John Carpenter

Dead & Breakfast (trailer)
Vampire Wars: Battle for the Universe (trailer)

Killer Condom (1996)
Had its funny bits and was a pretty original idea for an AIDS metaphor, but drags on for far too long. (5/10)
d. Martin Walz

Tales from the Crypt: "The Thing from the Grave" (1990)
Again, you can see the ending coming thirteen miles away, but the zombie makeup was very nice. (6/10)
d. Fred Dekker

Tonight's proceedings were joined by C and fed by the unbeatable, though expensive, Pizza House. Pizza and french fries covered in bacon and cheddar cheese were enjoyed by all. Afterwards, the candy drawer was employed.

I taste-tested my first of the Jones Soda Halloween 2006 Limited Edition soft drinks. They released seven flavors this year. Four of them are in mini-cans and are flavors aimed at kids. Three of them are in glass bottles and seem to be for adults to mix with alcohol. I went for a glass bottle of Lemon Drop Dead Soda tonight. It's drinkable, unlike some flavors from last year. I would describe it as liquid lemon-flavored Pez.

Here's my watchin' box, decked out for Six Weeks of Halloween:

John Carpenter

John Carpenter (1948 -)

1. 1974 - Dark Star
2. 1976 - Assault on Precinct 13
3. 1978 - Someone's Watching Me!
4. 1978 - Halloween
5. 1979 - Elvis
6. 1979 - The Fog
7. 1981 - Escape From New York
8. 1982 - The Thing
9. 1983 - Christine
10. 1984 - Starman
11. 1986 - Big Trouble in Little China
12. 1987 - Prince of Darkness
13. 1988 - They Live
14. 1992 - Memoirs of an Invisible Man
1. 1993 - Body Bags: "The Gas Station" & "Hair"
15. 1994 - In the Mouth of Madness
16. 1995 - Village of the Damned
17. 1996 - Escape From L.A.
18. 1997 - Vampires
19. 2001 - Ghosts of Mars
2. 2005 - Masters of Horror: "Cigarette Burns"
3. 2006 - Masters of Horror: "Pro-Life"

The John Carpenter Chronocinethon
31 Oct 2004 - 8 Dec 2004
(originally posted at IMDB)

1974-1976 - Dark Star, Assault on Precinct 13
1978 - Someone's Watching Me!, Halloween
1979 - Elvis, The Fog
1981-1982 - Escape from New York, The Thing
1983-1984 - Christine, Starman
1986-1987 - Big Trouble in Little China, Prince of Darkness
1988-1992 - They Live, Memoirs on an Invisible Man
1993-1994 - Body Bags, In the Mouth of Madness
1995-1996 - Village of the Damned, Escape from L.A.
1997-2001 - Vampires, Ghosts of Mars
closing thoughts

Prev: David Cronenberg
Next: Paul Verhoeven

SWH: 2005 (28)

Halloweentown (1998)
Good kid show; wanted to see more of the actual town than anything else. (7/10)

The Wolf Man (1941)
Purer than Werewolf of London, and therefore more memorable. (8/10)

Monster by Moonlight: The Immortal Sage of the Wolf Man (1999)
Just fine, except it was hosted by John "Killer" Landis. (7/10)

The Real Ghostbusters,: "Citizen Ghost" (1986)
One of my favorites from childhood and I still think the ghost Ghostbusters look spooky. (8/10)

Tales from the Crypt: "The Switch" (1990)
It was directed by the Governator... good nuff. (7/10)

City of the Living Dead (1980)
Great thing to watch while sleepy; cool zombies. (7/10)

Rob Zombie: "Dragula" (1998)
Head-banging devils in the Munster's car = gold. (9/10)

Rob Zombie: "Living Dead Girl" (1999)
I'll take Sheri over Caesar any day. (8/10)

Rob Zombie: "Super Beast" (1999)
Sheri versus sci-fi ninja is too cool not to applaud. (8/10)

Rob Zombie: "Never Gonna Stop (The Red Red Kroovy)" (2001)
Was that Tom Towles as a guard? (8/10)

Rob Zombie: "Feel So Numb" (2001)
Band playing their instruments type, but the crowd has some interesting people in it. (7/10)

Rob Zombie: "Demonoid Phenomenon" (2003)
Great song, crappy video. (6/10)

Rob Zombie: "Return of the Phantom Stranger" (2003)
Band playing their instruments, but at least there's zombies. (7/10)

Rob Zombie: "Spookshow Baby" (2003)
Band playing their instruments some more, but cut with energy. (7/10)

Halloween (1978)
#7: Evil pervades even a small town, but is ignored until too late. (10/10)

Carpenter (closing thoughts)

And, that's all she wrote! Carpenter's one of my all-time favorite directors; he's got a sensibility in his movies that no one else has and -- to me -- it's addictive as hell. I zoomed through these 20 films a lot quicker than I expected. Every day, I looked forward to two more Carpenter meals to scarf down. I'm sad to be finished.

Since last year, I've been keeping a ratings log of every movie I watch. Carpenter didn't do too badly. I gave high ratings to 13 of his films. Of the 7 I didn't like so much, 3 were TV movies and 1 was a college film. Essentially, there were only 3 feature films I didn't care for. Not a bad record at all. Even more telling: out of 198 movies on my list so far, I've only rated 4 movies a perfect 10. Carpenter has 2 of those.

What is my hope for the future of John Carpenter movies? Personally, I'd love another movie with the flavor of Prince of Darkness. What I'd really like to see, however, is a straight-up Western. He's always wanted to do one of those and I'd like to see what kind of a Western he'd come up with. It'd be interesting, to be sure.

(comment in the main post)

Carpenter (1997-2001)

1997 - Vampires - Jack Crow is probably one of the most unlikable movie heroes ever... and I wouldn't have it any other way. A Western-flavored vampire movie with a healthy-heaping of ass-kicking and a new twist on the vampire myth I hadn't seen before. I hope this is the kind of movie that is quintessential of the modern Carpenter era (which I peg as starting with Memoirs after his 4-year break). The ending -- in which Jack promises to kill Tony and his girl, but gives them a head start -- is far removed from his earlier apocalyptic endings and more inline with the hopeful finishes to his modern movies.

2001 - Ghosts of Mars - Shockingly bad. I can barely believe this a Carpenter movie. It has the same basic set-up as Assault on Precinct 13, but does almost everything wrong in comparison to its predecessor. There ain't enough space to go over everything that didn't work, and it ain't something I'm keen to go about listing, anyway. I felt depressed enough as the credits rolled for this, knowing this was the public's latest taste of Carpenter's work.

(comment in the main post)

Carpenter (1995-1996)

1995 - Village of the Damned - I think these types of stories worked better in the Cold War era and are best left there. Other than the doctor's speech to the children about emotion -- which made me wince – I don't think this is a bad horror movie. But, it's not a good one, either. Perhaps Carpenter and Universal were hoping to capture that Thing remake magic, but it wasn't even close.

1996 - Escape From L.A. - A near-clone of the first film. Compared to NY, LA is put together better, has more exciting action sequences, and an even scarier dystopia. On the other hand, the humor is forced, a basketball contest is laughable compared to a death match, and the characters are less memorable. Also, very strangely, this film has one of Carpenter's most optimistic endings ever. Overall, I'm surprised to find I like this one better than I remembered, though I'd rank it about equal to the first film in the end.

(comment in the main post)

Carpenter (1993-1994)

1993 - Body Bags - Horror vets like Wes Craven, Sam Raimi, Roger Corman and David Naughton, 60s model Twiggy, Luke Skywalker, and Sheena Easton are all mixed up in one of those all-too-rare Creepshow-style horror anthology movies. Nice job on the casting!

"The Morgue" - Carpenter hosts these wraparound segments himself. He's such a goofball in this part of the movie, you can't help but crack a grin. The character strikes me as strange, however. I don't think of Carpenter as a blood-and-guts moviemaker and his Coroner here plays against that impression.

"The Gas Station" - "Do I still have it in me?" is the question Carpenter must have asked himself -- 15 years after Halloween -- before filming this segment. He even rips himself off at one point using the "killer gets up in the blurred background as the heroine rests in the foreground" trick. Carpenter does play with some new (for him) camera tricks and I dig the cold, blue lighting of the gas station. A decent morsel of slasherness.

"Hair" - The weakest of the three stories. At the end, when Stacy Keach looks directly at the camera -- twice -- I couldn't tell if that was his way of acting like his brain had been eating by hair-aliens, or if it was an intentional wink-wink to the audience, acknowledging that this segment was meant to be taken lightly. If the latter, Carpenter didn't do a very good job of making the previous stuff in this segment wink-wink funny.

"Eye" (Directed by Tobe Hooper) - Ostensively, this has the strongest story of the three, yet it drags. Probably this is because, only two years prior, the definitive "serial killer body part transplant takes over a person" movie came out in the form of Body Parts. The idea ain't exactly original, so we're mostly left waiting for the good stuff to start happening. The good stuff, unfortunately, doesn't really pay off too much at the end.

1994 - In the Mouth of Madness - After a six-year absence, we finally get another true Carpenter-style movie. Probably the best Lovecraft film ever made not based on a real story. I can't really say anything objective about this one, as I have double-found memories of it from youth. For one, this was the first Carpenter movie I was able to see in the theater. And, way back when, I entered and won a "John Carpenter Trivia Contest" on AOL. The prize: a poster for this movie signed by the man himself. It hangs on my home theater wall with pride to this day.

(comment in the main post)

Carpenter (1988-1992)

1988 - They Live - Republicans are alien ghouls from outer space. I love it. The movie probably works better in this era than it did when Reagan was President. Not that there aren't flaws in the film: some of the political satire is ham-handed and portions of the plot make no sense (why do the Ghouls promote the shanty town bum to one of the elites?). Personally, I can forgive the problems because I enjoy the premise, actors and visuals so much. Carpenter was very wise to allow Piper to improvise on set: classic lines and fights emerged from that.

1992 - Memoirs of an Invisible Man - Not one of Carpenter's auteur moments, for sure; this is Hollywood's movie, from the casting to the score. It's a perfectly acceptable invisible man flick, with all the invisible fun things you'd want to see. Chevy Chase's annoying personality is kept to a minimum. Enjoyable, but nothing to ponder over very much the next day.

(comment in the main post)

Carpenter (1986-1987)

1986 - Big Trouble in Little China - This is 100% pure fun. One of the reasons this is so: the pacing. Bam-bam-bam-bam! You can count on something always going on in every scene. Hell, even the exposition is fun. When Margo rambles on about Lo Pan's evil in Gracie's apartment, a combination of funny line delivery and some Burton-isms make the scene hilarious. Watching the awkward deleted / un-shortened scenes on the second DVD only reinforces the fact that this film is edited excellently.

1987 - Prince of Darkness - Satan's son is a swirling volume of green pre-biotic fluid. Awesome. The script and ensemble cast are, unfortunately, not as tight as, for example, The Thing. Still, I love the premise. After this most recent viewing, I finally get the implication of the ending. Right after the screen goes black, we would've seen Brian's fingers bounce off the mirror. He'd then spend the next 12 years channeling his physicist knowledge into figuring out a way to open the gateway to the Anti-Universe so he could rescue his gal. In the year one-nine-nine-nine, he'd open it and she'd come out... but not quite as herself and probably not alone.

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Carpenter (1983-1984)

1983 - Christine - It was definitely a good idea to kick the novel's ghost-former-owner out of the script and just make the car itself the evil entity. Christine is a bit like a steel and glass Jaws; she's a force of nature. This fits in with Carpenter's favorite theme of "evil is an unstoppable part of the Universe." There's more drama in this horror movie than there is horror. It was an interesting change of pace, but I don't know if I liked it. Leigh and Arnie's relationship had some Battered Woman's Syndrome in it.

1984 - Starman - The anti-Thing. I like road trip movies quite a bit, but this one was polluted with a very tired alien plot. When the Starman comments on our species, you can be sure that whatever comes out of his mouth will be clichés seen one thousands times before in the previous 50 years of sci-fi movies, stories and comics. Pretty much a poor adult's version of E.T. Jenny and the Starman's relationship had some Stockholm Syndrome in it.

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Carpenter (1981-1982)

1981 - Escape from New York - An excellent premise populated with awesome characters played by very cool actors saying memorable lines… but, I feel like this movie never really fires on all cylinders. I'm surprised at my reaction; nostalgia had me remembering otherwise. Representative of the flaw I see in the construction of the movie would be the scene at the end when the characters escape over the 69th Street Bridge. This should have been a homerun for Carpenter: Snake racing against the bombs in his neck, the landmines in the bridge, and the Duke pursing. Yet, there's little tension in this sequence. It feels like the Duke is 10 miles behind, that the landmines are only there to pick off Snake's baggage, and the countdown on Snake's wrist will run as slow as the movie requires.

1982 - The Thing - Fighting with Alien for best sci-fi-horror film ever made. This one may have the edge due to a chewier subtext. Alien treads on the familiar territories of corporate greed and tension between classes, whereas The Thing explores multiple themes of isolation as well as people's mistrust of other people. Also, Rob Bottin's masterpieces in the film are exhibit A in the argument for the abolishment of all CGI creature/gore FX.

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Carpenter (1979)

1979 - Elvis - A long sequence of vignettes from Elvis' life stuck in a frame made out of his first '68 comeback performance. Pretty much just 2.5 hours of Elvis from 1945 to 1968 without much of a plot structure backing it up. Kurt Russell makes a good Elvis, but the sound-a-like singer was a disappointment. Carpenter, I'm sad to say, cannot shoot a concert very well. I'm glad he took 14 years off from TV movies after this.

1979 - The Fog - Moody. John Houseman's introductory ghost story, fog horns in the distance, Adrienne Barbeau's sultry voice, Carpenter's brooding score, the fog creeping slowly through town -- all give this film a nice, spooky feel. Jamie Lee is back and wisely plays a character the polar opposite of the virginal Laurie Strode. Carpenter's Evil returns in the form of vengeful ghosts, which makes them less fundamental than the gang in Assault or the boogeyman in Halloween; they're only after folks in a certain town whose ancestors killed them. Nothing for the rest of us to worry about!

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