john carpenter Tagged Articles at Cinematical

I'm a horror fan, but I'm not one of those demented geeks who sits in his cluttered basement wishing he could remake Frankenstein in order to explain the monster's tortured family life before he was resurrected by the good doctor. Thus I was more than a little perplexed when self-professed hardcore horror fan Rob Zombie so eagerly jumped into the director's chair to make his own version of John Carpenter's classic Halloween. What made him think he could improve on perfection?

I agree completely with Cinematical's Scott Weinberg, who recently Tweeted: "Corpses and Rejects are to horror what Epic and Date are to comedy." Of course, he was talking about Zombie's initial forays into the horror field, House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects. If you haven't seen them, don't worry: they're simple, fanboy pastiches of earlier, better films that influenced Zombie. Rejects was a modest improvement over Corpses, but, by all accounts, his Halloween in 2007 was a total misfire that pleased no one but the studio bean counters.

I confess, I haven't seen it yet -- my most trusted horror guru (read his review) advised me to save my money -- and the new trailer for H2: Halloween 2 does not inspire much hope for the sequel to the remake. The trailer promises that "the secret" will be revealed. Like Halloween II, the original sequel directed by Rick Rosenthal, this one features a lot of hospital footage. You can watch it over at Yahoo! (or below) and glory, if you choose, in the prospect of more Sheri Moon Zombie. Tyler Mane returns as Michael Myers, along with Scout Taylor-Compton, Malcolm McDowell, and Danielle Harris. H2: Halloween 2 Electric Boogaloo hits theaters on August 28.

Yesterday I had the absolute privilege of watching Escape From New York on the big screen and with a great crowd, courtesy of the Castro Theatre and San Francisco's long-running and uniformly fantastic Midnites for Maniacs program (with an assist from the Alamo Drafthouse Rolling Roadshow). This was awesome. What a great movie to watch with an audience that gets it. Because let's face it: seen today (and maybe even seen in 1981 -- I wouldn't really know), Escape from New York is weird. You need a bunch of people who are "in on the joke" -- and who are at the same time aware that it's actually not a joke at all.

Nothing illustrates that seeming paradox -- John Carpenter's patented way of blending borderline kitsch with undeniable badassitude -- better than this wonderful scene from Escape from New York. Having enlisted Ernest Borgnine's Cabbie, Harry Dean Stanton's Brain, and Brain's squeeze Maggie (Andrienne Barbeau), Snake gets ready to make a run for it when Cabbie announces that the Duke (Isaac Hayes) and his entourage are rolling into the neighborhood. And roll in they do, in a Lincoln outfitted with four exterior chandeliers and a disco ball, set to Carpenter's trademark techno, pulsating score.

That this turns out awesome instead of ludicrous -- that it makes us grin and dig in for the rest of the flick instead of laugh derisively and turn on it -- is one of the miracles of the modern cinema. I'm not sure Escape from New York is Carpenter's best film, but it's probably his most virtuosic accomplishment. That the bleak, moralistic ending manages to pack an emotional punch despite the utter insanity of the preceding 100 minutes is all the more impressive.

Watch the scene after the jump -- and then pop in the DVD.

"Wwwwwwwwait a Second! There's no NORWEGIANS in the CAMPBELL story!!" That's what I thought (and what Scott Weinberg put into words for me) when I clicked through Monika's mention of the planned new version of The Thing and read the article in Variety. Here's why: I hate it when filmmakers are (apparently) unfamiliar with the story they're basing their film on.

The sentence that made my eyes bug out? "New project borrows heavily from the John W. Campbell Jr. short story 'Who Goes There,' the basis of the [John] Carpenter film and 1951 Howard Hawks original The Thing From Another World. It is set in a Norwegian camp and chronicles how the shape-shifting alien was first discovered and overcame the inhabitants of that camp."

WRONG WRONG WRONG! I dug out my copy of the story, originally published in 1938, and read it again, just to make sure. There is no Norwegian camp in the story. It starts with the discovery of the alien -- referred to constantly as "the thing" -- in an Antarctic scientific camp, flashes back to reveal how it was discovered, and then follows the horror of what happens when the creature is thawed after 20 million years frozen in the ice.

The first version in 1951 sent a military unit to the Arctic base (flipping the world upside down), added a reporter plus a woman scientist to the mix as a love interest, and made the nightmarish creature from Campbell's story ("three red eyes, and that blue hair like crawling worms") into a humanoid played by James Arness (the future Marshall Dillon of TV's Gunsmoke). It was a fast-paced, black and white suspenser that worked quite well, thanks, no doubt, to producer Howard Hawks.

Once you've remade John Carpenter's Halloweeen and The Fog, where else do you go? We've been hearing about an Escape from New York re-do for quite some time now, and we all know it's just a matter of time before someone re-remakes The Thing -- but what else? Starman? Could be. Big Trouble in Little China? Please, no. Prince of Darkness? Ye gods, no!

But They Live? Hmm, now there's a Carpenter favorite that actually COULD be good-lookin' in a shiny new suit. That's not a knock in the 1988 original, but I think the themes and ideas found in They Live could work extra-well in a modernized version. (For those who don't know, They Live is about decent homeless dude who happens to stumble across an outrageously elaborate "alien invasion.") Based on the Ray Nelson short story Eight O'Clock in the Morning, They Live has a fantastic concept and makes use of the consumer / comformity angle in rather clever fashion. Plus the flick has one of the nuttiest alleyway brawls you ever will see ... but the movie sort of falls apart in act III, doesn't it?

Anyway, The Hollywood Reporter informs us that Universal will bankroll the remake along with Strike Entertainment (who also did Dawn of the Dead and has the option on that remake of The Thing). No word yet on who'll do the writing or directing, but I could probably bang out a draft. Lord knows I've seen They Live enough times. And yes, Mr. Carpenter will be on board as a producer ... but he also wore that hat on The Fog and Halloween, so I don't think "quality control" is his main concern. Plus, how is the man ever going to feel inspired to make a NEW movie if people keep handing him checks for his OLD movies? Argh.

Under the direction of exec Joe Drake, Lionsgate Films has pretty much walked away from the type of movies that made its name -- as exemplified by their dumping of the Clive Barker adapatation Midnight Meat Train, and sending an audience friendly movie like Dance of the Dead (that most of us at Cinematical just happen to love) straight to DVD. Now Peter Block, the company's former head of acquisitions and co-productions and a veteran producer whose three dozen credits include the aforementioned Midnight Meat Train, has launched a new company to try and fill the gap, according to Variety.

The company, named A Bigger Boat in honor of what Roy Scheider said in Jaws, will begin by making two to three modestly-budgeted (between $10 million and $25 million) genre films per year. Block is currently in the "formative stages" of building the company's initial slate of productions, but Variety says it will "likely" include an unidentified thriller directed by John Carpenter and Dark Corners, a thriller based on a script by E.L. Katz. Katz was one of the writers and producers of last year's Pop Skull.

A Bigger Boat has a co-financing and distribution deal with Overture Films covering North America and another with Alliance Films for the UK, Spain, Italy, and Scandanavia. Block has also made deals with partners, including GreeneStreet Films, for production and other business affairs. All we need now are the movies -- how about some straight ahead, adult-oriented horror, Mr. Block?

If you have a really good memory, you might remember a little project called Scared Straight. Back in September of 2006, word hit that Rob Cohen, the director of flicks like XXX and The Fast and the Furious, had signed on to direct the film, which was getting a rewrite from Ron Brinkerhoff. Almost two years later, the film is still in the works, it looks like it hasn't gotten any more rewrites, and Cohen is now only attached as a producer.

That leaves Nicolas Cage and John Carpenter to slip right in. The Hollywood Reporter posts the two are in final negotiations for Cage to star and Carpenter to direct the prison thriller, which is now looking to head into production this October. It focuses on a troubled kid (and if nothing has changed, a governor's son) who gets nabbed by "the Scared Straight crime-prevention program, which imprisons delinquent teens for a short period in the hopes of deterring them from a life of crime. While the teen is there, a riot breaks out and prisoners take him hostage." Well, if anything scares the rabble rouser straight, that should. Cage will play a lifer in the prison who helps him out.

I haven't been too keen on Cage's roles lately, but this could potentially take the man back to Con Air days with a hint of Escape from New York, and that's enough for me.

What? You say it's the summertime and you don't want to think about horrible things that go slash in the night? Bah! Any time is the right time to talk Halloween, if you ask me, and soon we'll be awash in the stuff anyway. A six-disk Halloween: 30th Anniversary box set is on its way, according to Shock Til You Drop. This will be, unofficially, the one millionth edition / repackaging of John Carpenter's horror classic.

The set will include the restored original 1978 version, the extended edition (I'm assuming with the extra footage added for broadcast on TV), "25 Years of Terror," Halloween 4 DiviMax and Halloween 5 DiviMax ("DiviMax" meaning remastered in high definition), and Halloween on Blu-ray (?!). As further incentive, a miniature Michael Myers mask will be included. With this edition, we can safely call Anchor Bay the "masters of repackaging." DVD Active has the box set art, release date (October 7), suggested retail price ($89.97) and a few details on the extensive marketing campaign planned to celebrate the 30th anniversary.

But wait, there's more! If you're one of the dozen or so people who actually prefer Rob Zombie's "vision" of Halloween, you'll be able to bask in all the gory goodness to your bloody heart's content on the same day. Fangoria has details of Zombie's three-disk "Unrated Collector's Edition," which will include a FOUR AND A HALF HOUR making of doc. That's as far as I read, but you check out the rest at Fangoria.

Rob Zombie's remake of Halloween was disturbing on several levels -- mostly because he brought nothing really new to his "reimagining" -- but if nothing else, it reawakened interest in John Carpenter's highly influential original film. Dozens of pictures borrowed the basic premise of a slasher stalking sex-crazed teens, but few ever captured the creepy atmosphere of small-town innocence overwhelmed by fear like Carpenter did. (Matt Bradshaw wrote a good Retro Cinema on the original recently.)

Carpenter himself has been absent from the big screen for nearly seven years, ever since Ghosts of Mars, though he directed two episodes of the Masters of Horror television series. While his recent work hasn't been at the same level as the highs he once achieved -- my personal faves include Assault on Precint 13, The Thing, Christine and They Live -- he's built up too much horror goodwill over the decades to be silenced forever.

Now Shock Till You Drop brings us news that Carpenter has begun casting a new movie entitled L.A. Gothic, which is comprised of "five interwoven stories of high-octane horror centering on a vengeful ex-priest's efforts to protect his teenage daughter from the supernatural evils of L.A.'s dark side." The script was written by Jim Agnew and Sean Keller, the team that also wrote Giallo, which Dario Argento will begin filming next month.

Last time I saw a vengeful ex-priest trying to protect a young girl, it was in Danish director Anders Morgenthaler's amazing, disturbing, animated Princess, so I'd love to see if Carpenter can deliver some jolting shocks mixed in with the family story. I'm also curious to see which supernatural evils will be battled, since there are so many to choose from, especially in Los Angeles!

I come to John Carpenter's 1978 classic Halloween from an odd perspective. I'm a horror buff, and I've been getting the crap scared out of me at the cinema and on video for several decades now. Whether it be current stuff like the Saw films, classics like the Universal Monsters, or mondo obscuro delights like Paul Naschy werewolf flicks from Spain or Messiah of Evil (which I did a Retro Cinema review on a few weeks ago), I've seen it all. Well, not quite all. Despite my status as a hardcore horror junkie I only recently watched Halloween for the first time in its entirety. I've seen bits and pieces here and there over the years, but this was my first time taking in the whole thing from start to finish (and if you just said "that's what she said," then shame on me for handing you such an obvious straight line).

Having been raised on a steady diet of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazines, the idea of a guy going around killing people with a big knife wasn't my idea of a scary movie. I preferred a supernatural angle to my horror, thank you very much, and Halloween just didn't appeal to me upon its initial release. Over the years my prejudice against non-supernatural horror has faded, but having seen many of the films that Halloween inspired -- whether they be sequels, homages or knock offs -- I've developed a deep dislike for slasher films, so I never saw any reason to check out the one that started it all.