He hasn't made a film in a long while, apart from The Ward which wasn't a bad timepasser, but when you know what he used to be capable of...
I watched Christine (1983) last week, holds up well. It's not shown as much as John Carpenter's other films. Pity, it has some great scenes, especially when Arnie "makes a pact" with the car and it self-repairs all of the damage. I must check out the Stephen King novel it's based on.
I read it years ago and remember thinking it was a very small story in a very big book - like a lot of King's work there was an awful lot of padding.I watched Christine (1983) last week, holds up well. It's not shown as much as John Carpenter's other films. Pity, it has some great scenes, especially when Arnie "makes a pact" with the car and it self-repairs all of the damage. I must check out the Stephen King novel it's based on.
I haven't really read King since i was a teenager, do recall the novel of Christine having a very different slant on it than the film, deffo worth a read if you can face it... I just can;t get on with King these days.
I read it years ago and remember thinking it was a very small story in a very big book - like a lot of King's work there was an awful lot of padding.
Yes, I read that when it came out. I read the Outsider too which wasn't bad. He went through a phase where I was sure he was getting paid by the wordDr Sleep is a pretty good novel and isn't overwritten.
Village of the Damned (1995): John Carpenter updates the action to the 1990s and relocates it to the US. Midwich is a small isolated town on the California coast which is stricken by a mist and sleeping sickness. When people come around all of the women of child-bearing age are pregnant. The offspring are strange, platinum blonds, ultra-intelligent, apparently possessed of ESP. They act against anyone they see as a threat, even seem to have capricious cruelties. In this version the US government get involved. observing the children, sponsoring their families with grants. Kirstie Alley is great as the sinister scientist who at times seems more threatening than the children themselves as she studies this alien invasion. Some disturbing scenes as the children force people to mutilate themselves and commit suicide, the kids even literally melt a foe. Their mind control extends to forcing soldiers to shoot each other. I reckon this film provided inspiration for some of The Simpson's classic tropes as the school janitor acts like Willie and the angry mob brings so many Simpsons episodes to mind. Not one of Carpenter's best films but highly entertaining. 7.5/10. Showing again on the Horror Channel: Tuesday 31st December at 9.00 PM.
I've been watching through a lot of John Carpenter films, but I haven't got this far yet.
I'll only say that your final score is a lot more generous than most reviewers!
The IMDb average is 5.6. Someone who is into Horror/SF and is also a Carpenter fan would likely give it a higher score. Anyway this is my honest impression of the film, I think my review suggests why I gave it the score.
No criticism intended.
... Has anybody here any input on Starman (1984) ...
And the memorable Pam Grier. Carpenter is unusually skillful in casting not-known-for-acting people he sees something in, sometimes it doesn't work out, but although he's known for horror, suspense and effects, he's great at working with actors or semi-actors, coaxing performances and getting the group to work together. A few notable failures on this film but mostly good to watch. He also puts skilled supporting actors in smaller parts and they really help create his vision, like Joanna Cassidy in Ghosts. Haven't watched it for a while, time to revisit GOM and Vampires.Ghosts of Mars: Saw it again last night. I've always liked it. It's good trashy SF/Horror although Carpenter has done a lot more with smaller budgets in other films and the effects here aren't always great. Still it has ancient Martian Tombs, wraiths rising, possession. Some great hand to hand fighting, bit like a mix of Mad Max with Escape from New York in places. Big Daddy Mars is like an Immortal Joe prototype. Showing again on the Horror Channel Friday 18th September at 10.50 PM. 7/10.
No criticism intended.
I think I'm the target audience, so I may well enjoy it as much as you did.
Has anybody here any input on Starman (1984):
Seems a bit of a departure for Carpenter but it has quite a following.
Friends, it was back on February the 1st of 1980 that John Carpenter’s follow up to his massively successful Halloween was given a limited release – The Fog. Seven days later it would see a wider release by AVCO Embassy Pictures and while it still did well at the box office – pulling in 21.3 million domestically on a budget of 1.1 million dollars – it unfortunately didn’t find the popularity of Carpenter’s previous feature film.
https://variety.com/2023/film/featu...view-director-halloween-the-thing-1235485167/At 75, Legendary Director John Carpenter Isn’t Done Raising Hell in Hollywood
John Carpenter has nothing left to prove.
The writer-director hasn’t made a movie in 13 years, and yet he’s asked about his work incessantly by reporters, fans and fellow filmmakers. And now, here I am, asking again.
Sitting in a comfy-looking chair in the living room of his Los Angeles home, he’s got cable news running on a TV just out of sight, and sometimes, when a question doesn’t strike his fancy, his answer will carry on, while his eyes dart toward the flickering box. “It was a Western they wanted to make. I was unsure about what I would do with it. … God, Iran just hung a protester, man.”
The occasion of this conversation is his upcoming 75th birthday, Jan. 16, which also marks nearly 50 years since the release of his first movie, the USC student-film-turned-feature “Dark Star.” Since then, Carpenter’s subversive genre films have inspired decades of knockoffs, sequels and reboots. In one six-year stretch alone, he directed three hugely influential works: the 1976 indie ”Assault on Precinct 13,” in which a small group of cops and criminals defend a police station from hostile takeover by a gang; 1978’s ”Halloween,” in which a teenage babysitter (played by Jamie Lee Curtis in her film debut) is stalked by the unstoppably evil masked murderer Michael Myers; and “The Thing,” from 1982 (considered a masterpiece of practical effects), where Kurt Russell and a killer group of character actors are pitted against an alien that has infiltrated their Antarctic research facility. That’s not even counting fan favorites like 1980’s ghost story “The Fog,” starring Curtis, and 1981’s dystopic “Escape From New York,” featuring Russell in one of his signature roles — the post-apocalyptic badass Snake Plissken.
Thanks for posting this. It's much more honest than the usual "we interviewed JC" article; what a straight-up guy. Love his work.
Swifty, why are you posting as Yithian?The preview track from his new album is smoking.
All brooding and sinister atmosphere and then a solo than snarls.
It's awesome.The preview track from his new album is smoking.
All brooding and sinister atmosphere and then a solo than snarls.