The Films of John Carpenter

I'll only comment on the films I find worthy of commentary...

John Carpenter has always inspired me but I too think the latter half of his career has been mediocre. Which is a total shame.

They Live - This is a kind of cheesy sci-fi that works for me. Roddy Piper is great in this (It surprises he never really did much after this) and the alley fight is the way it oughta be. This is the film where he offically lost 'it'

Big Trouble in Little China - A film you can never take too seriously, a comic book come to life and fun stuff. This is what they wanted Tango and Cash to be like in energy but Tango and Cash never comes close; Russell is great in this

Starman - A total different direction but an interesting and charming Sci-Fi film. This is the film where I thought Carpenter had made it to the BIG TIME and out of the Kitschy low-budget realm of horror/sci-fi.

Christine - I find this to be technically his most proficient film. He must have had his biggest budget to date; because this one feels real all the way though. An underrated true gem and probably Carpenters best work to date (As a Director) although The Thing is super close for me.

The Thing - Possibly one of the scariest films ever made if not one of the grossest. The talent, the tension, everything clicks on this one. I can't recall this tension and claustrophobia being 'caught on tape' this way since or before.

Escape from New York - Carpenter makes one of the best action-adventures ever to hit the screen.

The Fog - Campy B ultra-low budget but how can you not dig this? This is cooool. And Barbeau has a nice set of.................................

Halloween - I was 8. Scared the **** out of me as a child. Still on my all-time favorites list. Quite possibly the best Horror/Slasher film ever made. No other film since Psycho has ever come close; not even Texas Chainsaw. This film is relentless.

Assault on Precinct 13 - One of the coolest Cult films ever. Epic. The remake was fun but didnt carry the same weight and vibe

Dark Star - I remember bits and pieces of this as a child; for those of you doing the DVX SCI-FI this is a must check out for inpiration. Dan O Bannon also wrote this; Aliens, The Return of the Living Dead, Blue Thunder, Total Recall....
 
The most underrated J.C. film: In The Mouth Of Madness

Some truely creepy scenes and an original concept. I still really like this one.


The worst J.C film: Escape From L.A.

EFLA was f'in horrible. A slap in the face to Escape From N.Y. fans. Even a Bruce Campbell cameo couldn't save that turd.
 
Richie White said:
The most inderrated J.C. film: In The Mouth Of Madness

Some truely creepy scenes and an original concept. I still really like this one.


The worst J.C film: Escape From L.A.

EFLA was f'in horrible. A slap in the face to Escape From N.Y. fans. Even a Bruce Campbell cameo couldn't save that turd.
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It was bad. But not as bad as I expected when I finally saw it. Not up to par with the original though. Tone was off and it looked and felt cheap, unlike the first one which felt much more impressive than it was (financially).
 
Escape from New York and Vampires are my personal favorites.

I awlays forget he directed the original Assault on Precinct 13.
 
The only ones that I remember having problems with:

Prince of Darkness, Village of the Damned, Vampires, and Ghosts of Mars.

Compared to most directors, he has quite a track record, otherwise.

Halloween, Escape Frome New York, and The Thing are just about flawless. The original Assault on Precinct 13 still holds-up for me.

Vampires had a lot of potential, but the main bad guy was not done well (kind of looked like a German Michael Wincott). This was also a gross misuse of James Woods, who is one of my favorites.

I used to look forward to a JC film, but now I am ambivalent.
 
Filmjunkie677 said:
I guarantee he makes one more film worthy of the "John Carpenter's" moniker....
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I hope so, but he better do it quick. Have you seen him lately, he looks like death (on a bad day). :)

Chris
 
CMessineo said:
I hope so, but he better do it quick. Have you seen him lately, he looks like death (on a bad day). :)

Chris
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Hahahaha. I know, he needs to eat some vegetables or something.
 
Here's an interesting point.

Carpo seemed to go downhill in the mid 80's. For me his best work remains, Escape, the thing, fog, halloween, Assault.

Its normally quite odd for a director to go so drastically wrong;but he's gone down in a ball of flames. His films of late are almost unwatchable. What do people think the reason for his delcine is?

Carpo always used to say that his music was cheap and quick - nothing more. I dont know if he realised how much his scores added to his films. As soon as he got a bigger budget he left this sparse synth sound behind which certainly removed one of his hallmarks, replaced with a pedestrain rock/metal soundtrack. There's one nail in the coffin for sure.

Is it purely co-incidence that the 'feel' of a john carpenter film seemed to also disappear when his cinematographer Dean Cundey stopped working with him in the mid 80's? How much of the look of 'The thing' 'Halloween' 'Escape..' and 'The Fog' is down to his cinematographer? He was that good he went on to work with Spielberg and did not work with carpo after 'Big Trouble in little China'. You only have to look at 'Village of the Dammed' to see how much of a TV movie it looks; removing a huge amount of atmosphere.

I'd be intersted to hear what everyone thought. Is this just a case of running out of ideas/passion?
 
Nice solid takes both of you! I agree.

I love the work Dean Cundey did with Carpenter; but equally love the photography from Don Morgan on Christine (can't recall the specific's of Starman). Serious; go rent the Widescreen Christine and watch the camera work; really nice stuff going on. Tons of Dolly, crane and steadicam

As far as his decline?

I just dont know but it's a meteroic fall. Crash and burn. I don't even get hyped anymore when a new Carpenter film comes out. I remember when Vampires was coming out; it looked so cool and instead it was just 'Eh'.

I have always said I felt he never really matured as a director; when watching Ghost of Mars or Vampires it feels like something 'We' would have shot at times. Kinfd of rudimentary; like Romero's work in Land of the Dead.
 
It seems like there is always that one film that is very dear to the director's heart, but then, ends up getting bashed by critics or falling flat at the box office and by the fans. After that the director's career goes spiralling down and out because they lost there "desire".
 
significantly for me Carpoo is one of the reasons I wanted to be a film maker. When I was 13/14 growing up I cant tell you how excited I was at watching one of his films. You wouldn't find a bigger fan than me. You know that excitment you get as a kid that you just dont get as an adult? I remember seeing the front cover of the thing and just going 'woooooo', and sitting in the car with a VHS of Halloween ready to drive home back from the video store. Things I wont forget....

Now however Im hoping he wont make another film. I kept holding out hope, for Vampires, Escape From LA, Village of the Dammed, and In The Mouth of Madness. Each time hoping that magic would come back and each time losing more and more faith in someone who had such an impact on me as a kid.

I agree with Mr Hudson in that his films today smack of an amateur. Carpo says he loves the work of Tatantino, and GOM was some kind of attempt at merging the non-linear storytelling style with horror. It really is like a student trying to ape people he likes instead of speaking with his own voice - which seems to have stopped working. Something really gimmicky sticks out about his films now.

And what's all this cross dissolving going on lately?!?? It's like he was sat in an Avid suite with en editor and they dragged the wrong effect to the clip - Carpo says 'hey hang on - i like that, its different'. Different tho, doesnt always mean suitable. Vampires seemed to start this trend off during vital scenes, and ghosts of mars was just like someone playing with their new Avid Express Pro software. Wouldn't suprise me next if he throws a bit of moisaic and posterise on a few shots too in his next film.

I remember him saying he thoght the effects in 'Escape from LA' were brilliant. Perhaps in his old age he's just lost his eyesight.
 
I don't think his newer films smack of an amateur. I just feel they are very uninspired. which isn't necessarily the same thing. I would still rate JC's schlock above true B movie amatuer directors horror movies these days. It's just more tragic because we KNOW this guy is capable of way more and is just choosing not to do so or just doesn't care and is in fact an alien pod person and the real JC died 20 years ago. LOL.

I don't think he was going to go on record saying (at the time) the effects in escape from la suck, don't go see the movie... I think JC was also talking about shoestring budget and the effects he got for a penny.

I'd like to see the man return with a drop dead great movie, but I really just hate the material he chooses. I think the material sucks and would find it hard for anyone to make it interesting.

In a few more days we'll see his entry in Masters of Horror, which can't be worse than some of the other entries. Its sad if these guys are the Masters. Maybe it should have been called the FORMER Masters of Horror?
 
Carpenter's entry in Masters of Horror was far and away the best, and hist best work in years. It was a return to form for JC who managed to keep the tension and suspense high, even when the story faltered.

Interestingly, Carpenter's son Cody composed the music... could have been the man himself. Nice work.

The main flaws with Cigarette Burns is in the script itself. The ending is anti-climatic, though not as bad as Landis' Deer Woman, and abrupt. And a little vague.

The other thing is... don't talk about how avante garde and mysterious or amazing the film is and then show it and have it be nothing more than a weird Ring-esque series of images. Somethings are better left to the imagination or a combination of imagination and a series of quick cuts of images.

So, Carpenter pulled it off...whew!!! However, other than Cascarelli most of the other "masters" were... well.... not so masterful in their episodes, ranging from boring and unispired to badly chosen material nicely shot.

-RC

Great gore!
 
Ought2bCommitted said:
Carpenter's entry in Masters of Horror was far and away the best, and hist best work in years. It was a return to form for JC who managed to keep the tension and suspense high, even when the story faltered.

Interestingly, Carpenter's son Cody composed the music... could have been the man himself. Nice work.

The main flaws with Cigarette Burns is in the script itself. The ending is anti-climatic, though not as bad as Landis' Deer Woman, and abrupt. And a little vague.

The other thing is... don't talk about how avante garde and mysterious or amazing the film is and then show it and have it be nothing more than a weird Ring-esque series of images. Somethings are better left to the imagination or a combination of imagination and a series of quick cuts of images.

So, Carpenter pulled it off...whew!!! However, other than Cascarelli most of the other "masters" were... well.... not so masterful in their episodes, ranging from boring and unispired to badly chosen material nicely shot.

-RC

Great gore!
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Thats great to hear. Too bad I dont have showtime.
 
That's what I was thinking, he makes "an american werewolf in london", one flick, and he's a master of horror. It is a classic, but come on. There's a few directors on the roster who are suspect. William Malone? House on haunted hill, that was total garbage. Sounds like they were just trying to fill the slots left by Romero and Craven.
Season 2 sounds promising - Zombie, Roth, Romero...
 
All this talk of old Carpenter work makes me want to break out that Coupe de Villes CD again.:grin:

coupe.jpg
 
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