John Carpenter’s “Halloween” has been a favorite of mine over the years. When I first heard about this new edition, I was excited because the film was getting a new transfer and the fact that this looked like this was going to be a very good blu-ray.

The classic horror film follows Michael Myers, a mental patient who escapes from the hospital on the eve of Halloween. He goes back to a town called Haddonfield, IL fifteen years later after killing his sister in cold blood. There, he begin to stalk a young girl and her friends. Once the night comes, his reign of terror begins and the only person that can stop him is his psychiatrist that knows that he has come home to finish what he started.

One of things that made this film a classic was John Carpenter’s direction. He does a very good job making sure the scenes build up tension. Whether it was the way the film was shot to Carpenter’s score of the film, everything kept you on the edge of your seat. It helped enhance the story and it kept my interest. The other thing that made his direction work was the way he directed the action sequences. Those scenes were suspenseful and scary at times. It kept you on edge of your seat, especially with last twenty minutes of the film. Every time Michael Myers appeared on screen, I felt scared which is very rare for a masked villain of this genre. It’s a combination of the look of the mask and the way the finale played out that has kept my interest for almost fifteen years, when I first saw the television version of the film.

The acting was also as good as the film itself. Carpenter does a very good job making sure the performances were as good as his direction. He takes his time to make sure the performances fit the film’s dark tone. It made the characters interesting and you’re invested in them. The other thing that I like about the acting was that both Jamie Lee Curtis and the late Donald Pleasances did a very good job making sure that the characters stood out from the film’s main character. The film can be as good as your villain, but you need actors to help make the villain feel scary. Whether it’s Curtis as one of the three stalked babysitters or Pleasances as the person trying to stop Myers’ reign of terror, both of them did a very good job making sure their performances were also crucial parts of the film to the film’s success.

The screenplay written by Carpenter and Debra Hill also was a major part in why the film is a classic today. One of the things that this did very well was to make everything have a dark and frightening tone to them. Whether it was the beginning of the film to the film’s final scene, it gave me that terrifying feel that you don’t see in many slasher films. The other thing that the screenplay does very well, it manages to keep you scared. The writers did a very good job writing scenes that were scary and kept you on the edge of your seat. That’s what made the film’s story work very well, as I was interested where the film was going and providing some very scary moments that are still scary to this day.

Blu-Ray Extras:

The extras start off with a brand new commentary track featuring direction john Carpenter and Actress Jamie Lee Curtis. This was a very good commentary track. The track goes over a lot of things like how the film was shot to how some of the scenes were created. They also provide interesting stories about the film and talk about Carpenter directing style. It’s definitely worth a listen for fans of the film.
After the commentary track, the next featurette is “The Night She Came Home”. The featurette goes into James Lee Curtis appearance at Horrorhound Weekend that took place back in November 2012. The featurette an interview with Jamie Lee Curtis along with interviews from Halloween fans talking about her appearance in the film. This feels more like a reality piece than a documentary. It goes more into her appearance at the convention than about her talking about the film. It was okay, but it felt too long.

The next featurette is “On Location: 25 Years Later”. The featurette is imported from the film’s first blu-ray edition. The featurette goes into the locations that were used in the film. It was a good look at the locations that were used in the film, even though it felt short.
The disc wraps up with scenes from the TV version of the film, trailers and TV spots. The only problem that I have with this release was that it could’ve used a retrospective documentary on the film. It would’ve been nice to have it on the disc given the importance of the film, as I’m interested in that.

Final Summary:

“Halloween” 30th anniversary edition blu-ray was a good disc, even though it lacks a retrospective documentary. It’s worth the purchase for its great HD remastered look and it’s commentary track with John Carpenter and Jamie Lee Curtis.

Review Rating: Five Stars
Blu-Ray Extras: Two and a Half Stars

Anchor Bay Entertainment has send us over information about one of the most anticipated Blu-Ray releases of the year "Halloween" 35th Anniversary Edition. The blu-ray will feature an all-new HD transfer personally supervised by the film’s original cinematographer, Academy-Award® nominee Dean Cundey (Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Apollo 13, the Back to the Future trilogy along with a brand new commentary track with director John Carpenter and star Jamie Lee Curtis. Other features on the new blu-ray include “The Night She Came Home” new featurette with Jamie Lee Curtis (HD), "On Location", Trailers, TV and Radio Spots, and Additional Scenes from TV Version. "Halloween" 35th Anniversary Blu-ray hits stores on 9/24.

Press Release:

In 1978, Compass International Pictures released an indie horror film by an up and coming director and a largely unknown cast. Presented by the late Moustapha Akkad, the film cost $325,000 and ended up not only becoming one of the most successful independent motion pictures of its time, but single handedly created the genre of the modern horror film along with the first iconic (via a painted-over William Shatner mask) cinematic slasher!

Its global success spawned seven sequels, a reboot directed by Rob Zombie and a sequel-to-the-reboot, as well as created generations of grateful fans. The director’s name is John Carpenter and the film was Halloween. This year marks the 35th Anniversary of the timeless thriller and to celebrate, Anchor Bay Entertainment is bringing back the terrifying original as it’s never been seen or heard before!

Anchor Bay Entertainment and Trancas International proudly announce the September 24th release of the 35th Anniversary Blu-ray™ release of Halloween. For this very special release, Anchor Bay and Trancas went back to the vaults to present this legendary terror classic as never before, including creating an all-new HD transfer personally supervised by the film’s original cinematographer, Academy-Award® nominee Dean Cundey (Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Apollo 13, the Back to the Future trilogy), a new 7.1 audio mix (as well as the original mono audio), a brand-new feature length audio commentary by writer/director John Carpenter and star Jamie Lee Curtis, an all-new bonus feature with Ms. Curtis, as well as selected legacy bonus features from previous ABE releases. Available in a collectible limited-edition book-style package (available only for the first printing) with 20 pages featuring archival photos, an essay by Halloween historian Stef Hutchinson and specially commissioned cover art by Jay Shaw, SRP is $34.99 and pre-book is August 28.

“Anchor Bay Entertainment has been home to Halloween for almost 20 years,” noted Malek Akkad, President of Trancas International Films and son of Moustapha Akkad. “I’m so happy that we’re partnering with them to present the definitive edition of what is widely acknowledged as one of the seminal horror films of the 20th century.”

Halloween stars Jamie Lee Curtis (A Fish Called Wanda, True Lies) in her debut role. Anyone who’s ever watched a horror film in the last 35 years knows the story of Michael Myers, who as a child, butchered his sister with a kitchen knife. Committed to a mental institution and watched over by Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasance, Halloween II, IV & V, Fantastic Voyage), he engineers his escape 15 years later, returning to his hometown of Haddonfield, Illinois on Halloween night to terrorize anyone who gets in his way, including babysitter Laurie Strode (Curtis).

Co-starring P.J. Soles (Carrie, Stripes, Rock ‘n Roll High School), Kyle Richards (The Watcher in the Woods, Eaten Alive), Nancy Loomis (Carpenter’s Assault On Precinct 13, The Fog), Charles Cyphers (Escape From New York, The Fog) and Brian Andrews (The Great Santini, Three O’Clock High), Halloween also cemented the careers of many behind the camera including Carpenter, Cundey, producer Debra Hill and film editor/production designer Tommy Lee Wallace (Halloween III: Season of the Witch, “It”).


Bonus features on Halloween 35th Anniversary Blu-ray™ include:
•All-new commentary track with writer/director John Carpenter and star Jamie Lee Curtis;
•“The Night She Came Home” new featurette with Jamie Lee Curtis (HD);
•On Location;
•Trailers;
•TV & Radio Spots;
•Additional Scenes from TV Version

“Someone’s Watching Me!” is referred to as the lost John Carpenter movie due it’s unavailability on video and DVD for years and years. It finally got released on DVD in 2007, but while there are some Carpenter movies I still need to catch up on, this may be the only one I haven’t heard of before. I ended up buying it from a video store that was closing down for good as I am a huge fan of the director’s work, and I have no excuse for being this far behind on what he’s made.

It stars Lauren Hutton as Leigh Michaels, a television director who has just moved to Los Angeles and set herself up in a luxurious apartment in a high rise building. But as soon as she starts unpacking her goodies, a stranger starts stalking her with his telescope and calls to leave threatening messages with the deep, ominous voice stalkers usually talk in. Things continue to get worse until she finally decides to take matters into her hands.

Carpenter wrote the screenplay for “Someone’s Watching Me!” back when he primarily made a living writing scripts. At that point he had only directed “Dark Star” and “Assault on Precinct 13,” and he began shooting “Halloween” a few days after completing this. You can see a lot of “Halloween” in this one as Carpenter gets some great shots of what’s going on behind a character, and the point of view shots really up the tension as he puts you into Hutton’s shoes while she is continually menaced. It also shows how even before “Halloween” how brilliant he was in not only creating suspense and tension, but also in maintaining all the way to the end.

This script also shows one of Carpenter’s strengths as a writer in that he creates strong female characters that would later inhabit most of his movies. Hutton is vey good as Michaels and I thought she made the character very believable in tough in a way that wasn’t showy. As her anxiety gets worse, she stands her ground and refuses to move out of her apartment. Michaels is not about to be intimidated by this peeping tom, and you root for her to turn the tables on this guy.

“Someone’s Watching Me!” also stars Adrienne Barbeau who later became Carpenter’s wife for a time (this was the first thing they worked on together). She plays Michaels’ co-worker Sophie who is tough as nails and not easily intimidated by those around her. Barbeau gives Hutton great support throughout, and it’s great fun watching her steal some scenes.

The movie also stars David Birney (the same guy who later married Meredith Baxter) as Paul Winkless, the man Michaels ends up flirting with and falling for. It’s almost surprising that Michaels would fall for anyone as she proudly asserts as an independent woman from the start. Birney though matches Hutton’s strength and wit throughout. Of course, Carpenter’s direction successfully casts doubt on him as well as everyone else surrounding Michaels throughout the film.

Charles Cyphers, a member of Carpenter’s repertory company of actors, appears here as police detective Gary Hunt. It threatens to be a thankless part as the police character seems brought in just to express disbelief in the protagonist’s fears, but watching him here makes you see why Carpenter still likes working with him; Cyphers gives us a character who might be a cliché, but he imbues him with a worldliness which makes his actions and beliefs believably understandable. Some actors would just consider this a paycheck role that they could just walk through, but Cyphers proves to be the kind of actor who doesn’t fall to such inexcusable laziness.

Carpenter gets to exhibit a lot of shots that have made him a master of horror and suspense. He utilizes different camera moves like shooting handheld or panning back and forth to reveal something just around the corner. The fact that this made for TV movie holds up today says a lot about the master of horror’s talent.

Granted, this movie was made back in 1978 when voyeurism was a rarity at best. These days everyone’s a voyeur and perhaps easier to catch. To find that someone is watching you from afar and that your privacy is a thing of the past is not a hard scenario to believe. Maybe that makes a movie like “Someone’s Watching Me!” as scary as ever. Even with the constraints of a made for television movie, and these days you most likely this one on the Lifetime Network every other week, Carpenter creates a thrilling tale which holds you in its tense grip and never lets you go.

* * * ½ out of * * * *

It says a lot about John Carpenter’s “The Thing” that it could generate a prequel almost 20 years after its release. A critical and commercial failure when released back in 1982, it has since been justly revered as a true horror classic and remains Carpenter’s masterpiece as it proved even more terrifying than “Halloween.” It also holds a special place on my top ten favorite movies of all time (so far) list.

Now we have Matthijs van Heijningen Jr.’s version of “The Thing” which is a prequel to Carpenter’s movie which explores the events leading up to it. Remember that Norwegian camp Kurt Russell and Richard Dysart visited which had been almost completely burned down? Now we get to see how it got that way. But therein lies the problem; knowing the events precede those of the 1982 movie, much of the potential suspense and tension gets drowned out almost immediately.

Frankly I would much rather see a sequel to “The Thing” instead of this. The original was effective because we never had a clear idea of who to trust. But here we know the characters on display will eventually bite the dust, and it becomes a question of when these characters turn into the thing. After awhile, it becomes more shocking when a character dies without turning into a gooey alien. What spoils it even more is that we know of at least one character who will survive what happens very early on.

Heijningen is respectful of Carpenter’s movie and pays homage to it throughout. Things however get to where you wonder if this is a remake more than a prequel. Various scenes are clear imitations of the 1982 movie’s most classic moments, and I wish the filmmakers worked harder at distinguishing the prequel from it instead of just repeating scenes. Heijningen does wring some suspense and strong tension at different points, and the unique on the blood test scene is very clever. But he is unable to sustain the tension that made Carpenter’s movie so eerily effective.

The special effects are very good, but they still pale in comparison to the genius of Rob Bottin. Audiences are always quick to tell when CGI effects are overused. As for the performances, they are generally good even though the characters could have come out of any monster movie.

The best performance comes from Mary Elizabeth Winstead as paleontologist Kate Lloyd. So good in “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World” and “Live Free or Die Hard,” she holds our attention throughout and is one of the best reasons to see this prequel. While Lloyd is predictably inspired by Ellen Ripley from “Aliens,” Winstead makes the character her own and more than just another tough chick which movies like these typically rely on.

“The Thing” prequel is not a terrible movie, but it will be of interest more to those who haven’t seen the 1982 film which itself was a remake (made back when remakes were rare and good). But this version of John W. Campbell’s “Who Goes There?” feels like a lost opportunity and gets caught in the prequel trap of busily matching everything up to the film it leads into. It sucks when you can see a movie’s ending long in advance of it. I did admire the ambiguous ending before the end credits though as it leaves you wondering if the alien really infected the last character standing. Not knowing is always more unnerving than knowing.

* * ½ out of * * * *

Master John Carpenter described “The Ward,” his first feature length movie in ten years, best through a video message at the Toronto International Film Festival:

“’The Ward’ is an old school horror movie made by an old school director.”

It’s good to know that going in as Carpenter is not trying to reinvent the wheel or outdo all other horror releases out now. The plot of “The Ward” is as old fashioned as they come, and it allows Mr. Carpenter to exercise the skills he has perfected for many years. It’s not on a par with “The Thing” or “Halloween,” but in the end I didn’t care. For me it was an absorbing movie that kept me entertained throughout its running time, and it was far more entertaining than the summer blockbusters duds that were “Green Lantern” or “Bad Teacher.”

“The Ward” stars Amber Heard as Kristen, a young woman whom we first see her indulging in a little pyromania (and not the Def Leppard kind). The police pick her up after she burns down an abandoned farmhouse, and Kristen gets sent straight into the ward of the movie’s title. Her fellow patients are not necessarily the “Girl, Interrupted” type and Angelina Jolie is nowhere to be found. The intentions of Dr. Stringer (Jared Harris) appear ambiguous at best, and dealing with the chief orderly and Nurse Lundt who are both deadly serious is no picnic.

Actually, I want to segue here a moment; Nurse Lundt’s name seems to rhyme with a certain derogatory word. Which one you say? Well… You can just figure that out on your own. I wonder if that was intentional on the part of screenwriters Michael and Shawn Rasmussen or just the name of someone they knew from way back. Well, whatever the case, Lundt certainly gives Nurse Ratched a run for her money in the seriously mean category, but her voice is not as lovely as Louise Fletcher’s was to offset that.

Now this being a psychiatric ward, it is mandatory that a ghost be roaming the halls. Kristen first sees it while taking a shower, and of course everyone says she’s a nut which is redundant considering that she’s in a mental institution. Then again, the patients may know more about what’s going on than they initially admit. I hate to think they’ve spent all that time in the ward without seeing at least one ghost, you know? Anyway, patients start to disappear one by one and Kristen aims to find out what happened to them on top of escaping the ward before it claims her as its next victim.

Whatever you think of John Carpenter’s directorial skills today, his efforts in generating suspense are still strong. Carpenter is smart in not revealing all the important plot details right away, and he strings you along throughout leaving you guessing or imagining what’s really going on. Even if you see the ending coming from a mile away, the journey to it was an entertaining one for me.

I was skimming through another review of “The Ward” which said that Amber Heard was as believable a mental patient as Charlize Theron was a mine worker in “North Country.” What’s that supposed to mean exactly? That she’s too good looking to be in a psychiatric ward? Give me a break! Amber does good work here portraying a strong willed protagonist you want to root for. She’s engaging and believable and while others may see her as being miscast, I certainly don’t.

By the way, I thought Charlize Theron was great in “North Country” and I utterly accepted her as a mine worker. And in case that one reviewer didn’t notice, Charlize and Amber were both in “North Country,” and played different versions of the same character.

I enjoyed the rest of the cast as well which like “The Thing” favors one gender (in this case female) and is devoid of sexual tension. Lyndsy Fonseca is very good as Iris, the first girl to befriend Kristen. She appears to be the most emotionally balanced of the patients, and Fonseca makes her character’s awareness all the more convincing. Mamie Gummer gives a good performance as Emily and gives her a complexity she might otherwise not have had. Danielle Panabaker makes her character Sarah the epitome of Carly Simon’s classic tune “You’re So Vain,” and she’s a kick to watch. Laura Leigh rounds out this strong group of actresses by making Zoey a convincingly traumatized person whose escape from reality consists of her acting like a little girl.

In terms of horror, Carpenter makes effective use of cheap scares. While they have been used to death by dozens of filmmakers, he always make them count in each movie he makes. This is especially the case with “The Ward’s” final scene which took me by surprise. I should warn you though that the movie has one of those pull out the rug from under you “Shutter Island” kind of endings which I am really sick of. However, Carpenter doesn’t telegraph the ending to us like Scorsese did at the beginning, so I’m willing to let it pass this once.

If there’s anything missing from “The Ward,” it’s the music of John Carpenter I am a big fan of his music as well as movies, and that unique sound of his was missed. Not that I want to knock Mark Kilian’s work here as he gives the movie an appropriately atmospheric score that works very well, and it does have a bit of that Carpenter sound to it. If it ever gets a release on CD or iTunes, I will certainly consider buying it. Still, I yearn for a new score from Carpenter or even his son Cody who did amazing work on the “Masters of Horror” episodes his dad directed.

Am I being too forgiving to “The Ward?” Perhaps I am. I’ve always been a big admirer of John Carpenter’s work and even have good things to say about “Ghosts of Mars.” Many have expressed their big disappointment with “The Ward” as they want it to be on a par with “Halloween” and “The Thing.” Others found it not gory enough, but then again Carpenter’s strongest efforts usually don’t rely on it like the “Saw” movies do. Personally, I didn’t want to spend time comparing “The Ward” to his best movies because that was just asking us to hate it before the opening credits even begin. You can only let an artist remain in the shadow of their past work for so long until you realize your spoiling the experience for yourself.

With “The Ward,” Carpenter was looking for a movie with a tight schedule and limited location that didn’t require him to stay for a long time or get completely exhausted after shooting only half of it. With the limited resources he had, John made “The Ward” worth watching, and I got very involved in the plights of the characters. There’s nothing original on display here, and it may very well remind you of a gazillion other movies like it, but I’m glad the master finally directed a feature film again after so long.

Too bad its getting only a limited release which redefines the term “limited.” It’s playing in one theater in Santa Monica once a day in the evening. I ended up watching “The Ward” on VOD. I guess since it’s not a horror remake or a sequel, the studio wasn’t as eager to get behind it the way they would with a reboot like “A Nightmare On Elm Street.”

Oh well, I just hope we don’t have to wait another ten years for John Carpenter’s next film. And if there’s anyway Kurt Russell can star in it, you can bet I will be at the cinema on opening day!

* * * out of * * * *

Many of you probably know the story behind “John Carpenter’s The Thing;” It came out in the summer of 1982, two weeks after Steven Spielberg’s “E.T,” and while the alien from that movie was warm and cuddly, the one in Carpenter’s movie was cold, ugly, and utterly vicious. As a result, the movie was unceremoniously smashed by both critics and fans alike, and they never tried to hide their disgust towards Carpenter for what they saw as pornography of movie violence. In all fairness though, the movie was released at the wrong time of the year. To release this movie during what Carpenter had called the “summer of love” opposite not just “E.T.,” but also “Star Trek II” and “Tron” among other movies was a big mistake on the part of Universal Pictures, and they would have had more luck with it had it been released during the winter instead.

Years later however, “The Thing,” like many of John Carpenter’s movies (“Big Trouble In Little China” is another perfect example) ended up finding the audience it deserved through home video and later DVD. Perhaps it was ahead of its time, but it is now considered (and rightly so) one of the best horror and sci-fi movies ever made, and it is easily the best horror remake in a sea of horrendously crappy ones. I think plays better today than it did when first released, and it is still utterly terrifying 25 years or so after its initial release.

Unlike the original Howard Hawks version of “The Thing,” Carpenter’s movie hews much closer to the short story it was based on called “Who Goes There?” by John W. Campbell, Jr. The movie takes place at an American scientific research outpost in Antarctica, perhaps the coldest place to be on the entire planet. We are introduced to a bunch of men who are studying the surrounding area, and they look bored and listless as they pass the days smoking, drinking scotch, watching “Let’s Make A Deal” reruns, and playing ping pong. Then they are met by a wolf that is being shot at by a Norwegian for no discernable reason. This later leads to events that make them realize that they have encountered an alien of unknown origin that has been unearthed from the ice after thousands and thousands of years. It then proceeds to imitate every creature it comes in contact with, however imperfectly. Soon, they come to realize that anyone of them could be the thing, and they have to destroy it before it reaches the civilization and infects all living things on this planet.

The premise of this movie is genius because it allows for an unending escalation of tension and suspense throughout. Like the characters, you have no idea who to trust and of who is the thing. The paranoia that closes in on these characters puts them in an airtight cage that gets smaller and smaller as it heads to its inevitable climax. There are no women to be found in this movie which eliminates any sexual tension that might have added an unnecessary element to the movie. Many say that this makes the movie sexist, but that’s a ridiculous charge. There’s no hatred of women to be found here, unless you count how Kurt Russell’s character treats the Chess Wizard computer with a female voice.

This movie also came out when the whole world was starting to become aware of the AIDS virus. The idea of any sort of virus infecting us completely and rearranging our body to the point may have seemed unreal to us back then. But today, it is a reality that is more horrifying than ever, and it still presents itself with no real cure. This makes “The Thing” all the more scarier to take in when watching it now. The scene where Dr. Blair (Wilford Brimley) observes a computer image of the virus infecting a human host is one of the movie’s scariest moments, and seems all too real a possibility when watching it today. The only thing truly dated about that scene is that the computer graphics look like they are from an old Atari game, but it doesn’t change the frightening concept that it is. Other movies like “Outbreak” have used imaging like this, and it is still an incredibly effective way of conveying the danger of an uncontrollable disease.

“The Thing” also marks one of several collaborations between director John Carpenter and actor Kurt Russell who started working together on the TV movie “Elvis.” After all these years of being a movie star, Kurt can still make you believe that he is a down to earth guy like the rest of us, and his role as helicopter pilot R.J. MacReady is one of his most underrated. You never get the feeling that Kurt is acting in this film. Instead, Kurt inhabits the character he plays, and you follow him every step of the way without any doubt of who the hero (or in this case, the antihero) is.

Carpenter cast the movie perfectly with such actors as future SAG President Richard Masur, Richard Dysart, Donald Moffat, and David Clennon among others. But one of the best performances to come out of “The Thing” was from Wilford Brimley as Dr. Blair. In the past, we have been exposed to Mr. Brimley through countless oatmeal commercials and roles as the grandfather we had or wished we had in our lives. But his role in “The Thing” offered him one of the few opportunities he had to go completely against type. As Dr. Blair, Wilford goes from curious to utterly horrified by what this unknown creature can do, and he ends up wreaking havoc in a way that you would never see in any oatmeal commercial (except maybe for the ones with not enough fiber). In a movie where no one can trust anyone around them, Dr. Blair becomes the one that people want to trust but don’t dare to all the same.

One of the other truly great actors in this movie is Keith David (not to be confused with actor David Keith) who plays Childs. Keith has a “don’t mess with me” intensity, and he matches Kurt Russell’s intensity every step of the way. The tension between the two is almost as frightening as is waiting for that alien to make its next horrifically gory entrance. Keith was later cast in John Carpenter’s “They Live,” and he remains one of the most underrated actors working today.

But c’mon! Let’s talk about who the real star of “John Carpenter’s The Thing” really is, other than the director himself. That would be Mr. Rob Bottin who designed the movie’s horrifically brilliant special effects and makeup designs. Long before the advance of computer technology and CGI, Rob had to make all these designs from scratch, and what he came up with is now considered a benchmark in the field of special makeup effects. This is not your typical slasher movie where the murders are bloody but not altogether creative. The thing mimics everything it touches, and this must have been a pure inspiration for Bottin to let his imagination run amuck with what he could come up with. You never know what’s coming next in this film, and that makes it even scarier than it already is.

Some have called the movie a “geek show” that was only made with the intention of grossing people out. Granted, a good case could be made for that, but “The Thing” is a lot more than that. It explores a theme that is commonplace in many of John Carpenter’s movies; the struggle to maintain one’s individuality. Of never letting go of who you see yourself as, because that allows you to survive in a world that keeps finding new ways of robbing it from you when you least know it. The threat of that loss is ever so real in this movie, and the characters have the unfortunate disadvantage of being stuck in one of the most remote and desolate places on the face of the earth.

I also imagine that a big complaint people have about “The Thing” is that we never learn much about the alien or where it came from. Basically, we know it’s from outer space (the spaceship crashing on earth during the opening credits pretty much spells that out), that imitates whatever it comes in contact with, and that it deals with the cold better than any of these men do. Here’s the thing, do we really need to know everything about this creature? Maybe not knowing is more terrifying than knowing. It leaves a lot of things to the viewer’s imagination, and I love that because it leaves open so many possibilities for how this horrific situation is going to play out. Your worst fears come out of your unconsciousness, and you find yourself experiencing the movie more than watching it.

The ending of “The Thing” is quite ambiguous as we never come to know which of the remaining characters is human and who is not. In an age where people need to have everything explained or spelled out for them (especially if it involves math), this drives people nuts. I dig these kind of endings sometimes though, as it leaves a lot to the imagination. It also leaves you with an unsettling feeling that stays with you long after the movie is over, making it a very unforgettable experience. Maybe we are lacking completely in the imagination if we have to know what happens at the end of the movie. It’s one of the fill in the blanks endings, and we can only assume what happens. Not knowing can be more truly terrifying than knowing.

I still think that this movie is really John Carpenter’s masterpiece, even over the classic “Halloween.” With this movie, he proves to be one of the true masters of horror and suspense as he endlessly generates unbearable tension throughout the movie’s running time. Just when you think the movie has peaked, you quickly realize that it has not. Carpenter’s goal here is not just to make us jump out of our seats (he does get some serious ones in though), but to make us feel the terrifying isolation and complete lack of trust that these scientists cannot escape from. What the hell would we have done in that situation?

Carpenter has said that this movie was the first in his apocalypse trilogy (the other two were “Prince of Darkness” and “In The Mouth of Madness”), and the movie does have an unrelentingly bleak tone which made it seem completely out of place back in 1982. As time goes on though, many of us keep thinking the world is coming to an end (the economic crisis we are currently in seems to enhance this feeling all the more strongly). Plus, with more deadly diseases like the Ebola Virus among others, the scenario of “The Thing” feels all the more frighteningly real.

The popularity of “The Thing” still does not seem to have reached its peak just yet. Its influence on popular culture is felt more and more to the point where as we speak, Ronald D. Moore (executive producer of the new “Battlestar Galactica”) is working on a prequel. “South Park” even spoofed the blood test scene in one of its episodes as Cartman tests his friends for head lice. Stan even tells Cartman that he knows he stole this idea from Carpenter’s movie. There was even a video game that acted as a sequel to the original movie released a few years back. “The Thing” is clearly on people’s minds then when it was first released.

Some movies are robbed of their greatness through the passage of time, and some now seem horrendously stupid in how stylistically dated they are. We watch some things from the past, and we wonder why we liked them so much in the first place. What the hell were we thinking anyway?! But “The Thing” is an exception to this case as time has made it seem all the more effective. You can’t help but think that this movie may have been ahead of its time when it was originally released in 1982. It remains one of those movies that I never ever tire of watching and it more than it deserves its place as one of the greatest movies to come out of the 1980’s.

**** out of ****

“Escape Artist: A Tribute to John Carpenter” continued Saturday night with the exploits of Snake Plissken who appeared in the double feature “Escape From New York” and “Escape From LA.” This again brought the fans out in droves as the Aero Theater in Santa Monica was packed, and the emcee again welcomed us to a showing of “The Happening 2.” He said it was a first in that he would show us the M. Night Shyamalan sequel before it was even made.

These films marked a few of the collaborations between director John Carpenter and actor Kurt Russell. The two first worked together on the TV movie “Elvis,” and they quickly became great friends. They went on to work on other films including another big cult hit, “Big Trouble In Little China.” “Escape From LA” remains the only sequel that John Carpenter has ever directed, and this came about because Kurt Russell desperately wanted to play the character again. Of all the roles he has played, Kurt said that this was the only role that he wanted to play again.

The emcee warned us that the print of “Escape From New York” was pretty faded, and that it was an original print and the only one they could get their hands on. This was being pretty generous as the print looked like it had been slaughtered by countless film projectors, and the color was almost completely faded. Green scratches were all over the print, and it was a huge shock that the film didn’t break apart in the projector. Still, despite the print itself, people were still enjoying a film that they have seen hundreds of times. They laughed when the title of “1997 NOW” came up, and when Lee Van Cleef speaks into this huge ass cell phone that we would never see anyone carrying around today. Another character that got a humorous response was Romero played by Frank Doubleday, and he remains one of the truly strangest characters to come out of any film I have ever seen.

After “Escape From New York” ended and the end credits were all done, John Carpenter again made his entrance to the front of the theater to another thunderous standing ovation. The discussion was led by a critic from the website Bloody Disgusting, and he started off with the genesis of the project. Carpenter quickly acknowledged the crowd by saying:

“Thank you for coming out to see the movie tonight, but I gotta tell ya, this is the worst fucking print of any movie I have ever seen. There’s practically no color in the film! It’s all pink!”

The audience laughed loudly in complete agreement. Movie prints don’t get much worse than what we saw before Carpenter appeared.

The director talked about writing the script back in the early 1970’s when there was a great sense of cynicism in the country about our President, and also in response to the hostage crisis in Iran at that time. John also admitted that he was inspired by two of his favorite movies back then, “Dirty Harry” and “Death Wish” (this would explain Kurt Russell’s delivery of his dialogue in both movies). Those two movies involved two men who were driven to the brink emotionally, and who take it upon themselves to take vengeance on those who have wronged them. Like those characters, Snake Plissken gets the job done, and this brought a lot of satisfaction to audiences that have been exposed to the movie as no one else seemed to be accomplishing anything.

Carpenter said that he initially wanted Dirty Harry himself, Clint Eastwood, to play the role of Snake Plissken. For one reason or another, it did not work out. In fact, Carpenter had shopped this screenplay around to several studios, and they had all rejected it. Fortunately, he had a multiple picture deal at the time with Avco Embassy which had also produced another movie of his, “The Fog.” Ironically, the studio wanted Charles Bronson (the star of “Death Wish”) for the title role. Somehow, everything came together when former child star Kurt Russell came on board to play Snake Plissken. Kurt portrayed Snake as a very asexual human being who cares about nothing more than staying alive. In the process, he created one of the most memorable anti-heroes the movie world has ever seen.

John also talked a bit about Lee Van Cleef, a favorite of his from the Sergio Leone westerns of the past, who played Police Commissioner Bob Hauk. Apparently, at the time this movie was made, Lee had seriously injured his knee during the filming of another movie and had never gotten it fixed. As a result, he was in constant pain from it during the shoot. Lee’s wife was there during the shoot, and she was there whenever Lee had to walk in a scene as he was in constant pain from his leg throughout the shoot. This is interesting because you would never notice this from watching the movie.

With a budget of only $5 million dollars, “Escape From New York” needed to be filmed as quickly as possible. Carpenter said in the past that the rule of low budget filmmaking was to spend as little as possible, and to shoot as much as you can. In point of fact, there is only one real shot of New York in the entire movie. It features the Statue of Liberty, and it pans from the set there and dissolves into the set they had in Los Angeles. A lot of what you see of New York in the movie are actually matte paintings done by artists from Roger Corman’s New World Pictures (among those artists was future director James Cameron). Much of downtown New York was actually filmed in downtown St. Louis which had a huge fire that had destroyed several city blocks. The city let Carpenter and his crew film there in triple digit temperatures, and they even shut the power down for them when they filmed the movie at night.

Whereas Carpenter and company had only $5 million to make “Escape From New York,” Paramount Pictures gave him and Debra Hill over $50 million to make “Escape From LA.” They had more time to film the movie and more money. However, John said that he had the hardest time writing the script for the movie because he said that everything that he was writing was “bullshit.” What got him into doing it was that Kurt was so keen on playing the character again, so they solved their script problem by moving the action of the story to Los Angeles, which is in a constant state of denial with all the earthquakes and natural disasters going on over there. They simply took the same scenario of the original and updated it to reflect the current state of the city when they were filming.
“Escape From New York” may have had only one real New York shot in the entire movie, but all of “Escape From LA” was in fact filmed in Los Angeles. The sequel was shot over a period of 103 nights, and Carpenter said that he found that to be very “soul draining.” Filming at night he said changes the way you see things, and the darkness infects you in a way that is not at all healthy.

At one point, John said that he was suffering from a cold and was about to lose his voice he felt, so he wanted to open up to questions from the audience. The previous night, John had brought up that “Masters of Horror” has now morphed into the new NBC show, “Fear Itself.” It turns out that he was actually set to direct an episode of the show with a script that he said was great and which was written by friends of his. But at some point along the way, Mick Garris (the executive producer of the show) was fired. John said that Mick was really the only real reason why he had agreed to do the show in the first place. When Mick was no longer involved, John basically said fuck it.

One person had brought up that at one point, it looked like John and Kurt might possibly doing a third Escape movie called, “Escape From Earth.” This never panned out in part because “Escape From LA” unfortunately bombed at the box office. There also was at some point to be a video game based on the movies, but the company involved with it ended up going back to the past by resurrecting Pac-Man among other games. There was even talk of doing a TV series that would act as a prequel to the movies, and that there would even be an anime movie chronicling the future adventures of Snake Plissken, and that never seemed to materialize either. Despite the box office failure of “Escape From LA,” many out there are still intent on continuing the exploits of their favorite antihero.

Of course, like many movies of the past, “Escape From New York” is being groomed for a remake which will feature more bang for your buck. John said that New Line Cinema had bought the rights to the remake, but has since “tanked.” So right now, he has no involvement with it, other than the fact that the studio will have to pay him a lot of money assuming they ever get around to making it. According to reports, Len Wiseman was set to direct the remake with “300” star Gerard Butler set to play Snake Plissken. Both of them have since dropped out of the project, and according to IMDB, “Terminator 3” director Jonathan Mostow is now set to direct it.

John Carpenter right now seems content to sit at home and watch the NBA Finals or play video games. He announced that he had just finished playing “Ninja Gaiden 2,” and that he would be moving on to “Metal Gear Solid 4” next. It doesn’t seem like he is in a big hurry to direct another movie right now, unless of course the studios pay him A LOT of money. The business seems to keep changing on John, and he does not appear to be as enthusiastic about making films as he once was. Hopefully he will make another movie at some point.

The director ended up closing out the evening by saying that he had to go meet with his drug dealer. Before he left the stage, the moderator gave him a gift saying that John had given so much to us that he wanted to give back to him. John ended up getting the “Escape From New York” board game which is apparently the most complicated board game ever. After the discussion was over, he did take some time outside of the theater to sign autographs and pose for pictures with fans who told him that he had been an inspiration to him. If you look at movies of recent years, you will see that John Carpenter has indeed inspired many people who are now copying him or paying homage to him. To this day, he remains one of the important directors of the sci-fi and horror genre, and that will never go away. For our generation, he is indeed our Howard Hawks.

As the evening wore on, many came back inside the theater to watch “Escape From LA.” The print for this movie was in much better condition, but that didn’t stop it from breaking down during the very last seconds of the movie. Snake Plissken may have shut down a lot of things, but who would have thought that he would have shut down our movie theater?

Written by Ben Kenber

Last night in Santa Monica was the start of “Escape Artist: A Tribute to John Carpenter” at the Aero Theater. In addition to being treated to a double feature of “The Thing” (widely regarded as Carpenter’s best film to date) and “The Fog,” the writer/director/composer also showed up in between the screenings of both films to give us more insight on the films, and took questions from the audience. Even though these movies are 20 to 30 years old now and have been available on DVD for quite some time, they still resonate deeply for movie fans all these years later. This was proven true by the fact that the screenings were sold out and packed with biggest of all John Carpenter fans.

The show started off with the emcee announcing to the crowd:

“Are you ready to view the new M. Night Shyamalan movie “The Happening?” That’s right, you thought you were here to see some John Carpenter movies, but this is all part of the Shyamalan twist!”

Of course, he was just kidding as he knew the crowd was about to partake in the “Citizen Kane of horror movies” with his 1982 remake of “The Thing.” The emcee indicated that the print they had for tonight’s showing was the best they could find and that the film itself has faded a bit and did have scratches here and there, but that never took away from the enthusiastic response of the crowd as the lights went down, and the credits came up to thunderous applause every time Carpenter’s name came up. A few other names got applause as well like Kurt Russell and Dean Cundey among others.

John Carpenter’s “The Thing” is 7th on my list of my top ten all time favorite movies, and it remains to date the best horror film remake ever. That’s an especially high mark in cinema considering that today’s film market is overflowing with horror remakes, most of them being sacrilegious crap. While the movie was not a big hit when it was first released, it has since developed a huge cult following thanks to home video and DVD and has finally been recognized as the masterpiece it has always been. 80% of the audience there that evening has probably seen this movie at least several dozen times, but even if they have lines memorized and know everything that happens, they still jumped in surprise during the movie’s most shocking moments.

After the movie ended and the end credits were all finished, John Carpenter was brought out into the audience and was met with a standing ovation and thunderous applause from all those who came out to see him. Once the audience sat down, he immediately thanked them for coming on out to see this movie when they could have just watched it at home. One fan in turn thanked him for coming on out to visit with us as he has millions of fans all over the world, and yet he chose to hang out with us.

Today, as the emcee pointed out, many are surprised to hear that “The Thing” was not a big hit when it was first released back in 1982. Carpenter put it all the more bluntly:

“It tanked! 1982 was supposed to be the summer of love. It was the summer of “E.T.,” and it was the summer of freedom and hope, and “The Thing” was about as bleak a movie as any that could have been released that year. People hated it for that, and all the sci-fi fans out there absolutely hated it and trashed it when it first came out.”

As Carpenter pointed out to actor and friend Kurt Russell on the DVD commentary of the movie:

“We came out two weeks after “E.T.” And while there’s was all warm and cuddly, ours was ugly and hideous.”

Universal Pictures, which released both movies that summer, attempted to make it the summer of the extra terrestrials, but the timing did not work at all in Carpenter’s favor, and it later cost him the job of directing a Stephen King adaptation, “Firestarter.”

One fan pointed out that this film was unique in a sense in that this is one of the few John Carpenter’s that he did not compose the score for himself. While it does indeed have that Carpenter sound that we have come to recognize in his movies, the score was actually composed by Ennio Morricone. Carpenter replied that Morricone is one of the greatest composers of ever in film, and this was met with loud applause from the audience. John did point out that there is one synthesizer piece of music played in the music that was not composed by Ennio. Now he wouldn’t say who did it, but for those of you who did see the movie, I’m sure we can all say who it was.

Someone asked if it was possible for John to talk the powers that be in to getting the soundtrack to “The Thing” re-released, as it has been out of print now for several years. John replied that unfortunately he has no juice with the powers that be, so it looks like fans everywhere will still have to shell out an obscene amount of money in collector’s market to get the Varese Sarabande release at conventions or online.

Another guy in the audience pointed out that several of his movies have been remade such as “Assault on Precinct 13,” “The Fog,” and “Halloween,” and that a remake of “Escape From New York” is in the works. This guy said he found these remakes blasphemous, and he asked John how he felt about them. John replied:

“I actually find it flattering. They also have to pay me a lot of money when they do that!”

Dean Cundey, director of photography on “The Thing,” has worked on several of Carpenter’s movies including the all time classic “Halloween.” John has actually not worked with Cundey for a long time now, and one man asked why that was the case, and if there had been some falling out between the two of them. Carpenter replied that there has been no falling out between the two of them, and that he recently caught up with Dean at a movie shoot in Canada. John did however point out why they haven’t worked together in a long time:

“Dean wanted to be a director. And when you have a director on a movie, and a director of photography who wants to be a director, that’s just not gonna work out.”

Everyone who knows John Carpenter knows that he himself is a big fan of westerns, and he recently recorded a commentary track for the special edition DVD release of the John Wayne classic, “Rio Bravo.” Many wonder why he has never get around to doing a western of his own. John replied that he honestly didn’t know, but that he did come close several times. The closest he said that he had ever come to doing one was when he wrote the script for “El Diablo” which was made into a cable movie (he won a Cable Ace Award for his script that year). If you look closely at his film work, all of his movies do have western elements to them. The closest he has ever gotten to making a western is arguably “Vampires” with James Woods.

Carpenter also made it official that “Masters Of Horror,” the Showtime network’s original anthology series, is now dead. John directed two of the series’ best episodes with “Cigarette Burns” and “Pro-Life,” and he said that the show has now turned into an NBC show called “Fear Itself” which is being worked on by the same people. While this incarnation of the horror anthology series may open itself up to a bigger audience than it found on cable, Carpenter said that there is not much to be feared about it.

John Carpenter has not actually directed a full length feature film since “Ghosts of Mars” which came out back in 2001. Many are wondering, and it was asked, what future projects he has on tap, and of what his current passions are. His reply:

“Current passions? I’m playing Ninja Gaiden, I just got Metal Gear Solid 4 for Playstation 3… No seriously, I have a couple of things I’m looking at doing, so we’ll see what happens.”

Before he left, he did have some things to say about “The Fog” which start showing a few minutes later:

“I have heard that the print for this movie is not in the greatest shape, and that it is pretty faded. But keep in mind that when we made this movie, we made it for only $1 million dollars… So, please be kind.”

Rising again to a big standing ovation, John thanked everyone again for coming and strode out of the theater. He did however stick around outside of the theater for a bit to take pictures with the fans and sign autographs. I’ve seen John do many different showings of his movies, and of him talking with the audience after the movie ended. With this one, he seemed to enjoy himself a lot more than he usually does. I can imagine that he gets sick at times of talking about the same movies over and over again, and he has probably discussed them to death in different arenas, but he still shows up to meet with the fans. You have to figure that he has had the last laugh on the critics and audiences who tore his movies apart when they first opened years ago. Many of his movies were way ahead of their time, but people eventually did catch on to his work, and they love it just like they should have in the beginning.

John Carpenter will be back tonight for a double feature of “Escape From New York” and the vastly underappreciated “Escape From LA.” Hopefully, we’ll see John make another big screen film at some point again in the future.

Written by Ben Kenber