SOUNDS FROM THE CRYPT- John Carpenter's The Thing

     On top of being one of the best sci-fi/horror films of all time, Carpenter's classic also boasts a stunningly eerie score by legendary composer Ennio Morricone.  It's a superb and chilling piece that perfectly compliments the bleak terror of the film.  Good stuff.

The Many Faces of Michael Myers

     Maybe it's me, but I just don't find Michael Myers in any of the latter HALLOWEEN sequels to be frightening, and it's definitely the mask that ruins it all. Why? Because they obviously don't use the same one, kittens.Does nobody else notice this? It was the mask that made the original so creepy in the first place. Just finding some cheap, white mask that somewhat resembles the original just doesn't cut it for me. I don't care what anybody says- it's just not the same.  The original, Shatner mask is so much more frightening.  So I've rounded up shots from each HALLOWEEN film to compare. What do you think?


     The mask that launched a million nightmares... John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN. Simple. Iconic, Terrifying.
                   

 Michael still looked like Michael in HALLOWEEN 2, and was still pretty damn scary.  

                                               
     Okay, in HALLOWEEN 4: THE RETURN OF MICHAEL MYERS, this is where they lost me. What is this? This looks like a $5 knockoff you get at Wal-Mart. And it kinda resembles the lead singer from Sugar Ray. No.
         

     So I really hate this next one.  It looks like Tim Allen for crying out loud.  And HALLOWEEN 5: THE REVENGE OF MICHAEL MYERS is just a terrible movie period.

Okay, in HALLOWEEN 6: THE CURSE OF MICHAEL MYERS, it's closer to the original Shatner mask, but still not quite right.  But even if they had used the original mask, this movie would still suck donkey balls.

Again, close to the original, but not quite...HALLOWEEN: H20...

HALLOWEEN: RESURRECTION... lol enough said...

           I'm not even commenting on these...  Rob Zombie's HALLOWEEN.
                 

Rob Zombie's HALLOWEEN 2.

So there you have it.  I can honestly only take the first two seriously. After that, the films are far too corny to take seriously, and the mask only makes them all the more humorous. Just me though.  

Halloween

      In the small town of Haddonfield, Illinois, on Halloween night, 1963, a young boy brutally stabs and kills his sister . After being institutionalized for fifteen years, he escapes and returns to Haddonfield, armed with one spooky mask and a large knife.  Sam Loomis, his doctor, is on the hunt to find him before he kills again. 

     What is there left to say about John Carpenter's "Halloween" that hasn't already been said?  This was the movie that made me the horror fan I am today, on top of scaring the hell out of my 9 year old self. And it's still one of my all-time favorite movies of any genre.  "Halloween" is one of the most famous and influential horror films in history.  For what little budget they had, John Carpenter and  Debra Hill made an extremely effective, but completely independent and low budget movie that until 1999's "The Blair Witch Project" was the single highest-grossing independent movie of all time- and scared the pants off an entire generation of movie-goers while doing so.  Jamie Lee Curtis and John Carpenter became household names and Michael Myers became an icon of terror.

     Carpenter's original Michael Myers is so scary because he gives us no back story whatsoever.  All we know is some guy in a really creepy mask is stalking babysitters on Halloween night in a midwestern small town. That's it. It's so blatantly simple. And scary. "Halloween" scares us on a psychological level.  John Carpenter never really gives us a full, good look at Michael Myers really until the last 20 minutes or so.  Like the shark in "JAWS", we hardly ever see him. Only fleetingly, here and there.  He's always silently lurking off to the side, or in the shadows.  We are forced to use our imaginations while watching "Halloween".  John Carpenter expertly strings us along- tensing us up one minute, then allowing us to relax the next.  Then taking us off guard, Michael strikes.

     "Halloween" instantly takes us back to childhood, and how scary childhood could be.  What was that noise outside my window?  What was that shadow?  We all know what it's like to be home alone.  Or the boogeyman in our closet.  Just the word "babysitter" alone used to strike terror in the hearts of many children around the world.  Somehow, you were never as safe as you were with your parents home.  Especially on Halloween night.  "Halloween" personifies everything that scares us, then and now, and does exactly what it was meant to do to us- frighten us to death.  It's so frightening because we relate to it- it's every small town we all grew up in.  From that horrifying opening POV shot to that last, blood-freezing frame, we're mercilessly at the hand of the director- and he knows it.  Carpenter's use of light and shadow, color and darkness, plus that unforgettable music combine to make horror history.

     It's a bona-fide classic that inspired a million knock-offs and changed horror forever.  "Halloween" was no product of Hollywood studios.  This was an organic labor of love by a bunch of twenty year olds making a low-budget, independent movie for about $300,000 because they were passionate about it.  It was truly fresh and inventive, and there's a reason why it was so successful.  John Carpenter and Debra Hill joined creative forces, went against the grain, and came up with a classic horror film that will be remembered forever.  And "Halloween" has probably the most famous score ever for a horror film, besides "JAWS".  Kudos to "Black Christmas" and "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" for laying the groundwork, and for John Carpenter, who, inspired by it, created and unleashed a horror masterpiece.

Christine

     An awkward, shy high-schooler buys a delapidated 1958 Plymouth Fury and soon finds himself completely and totally under its spell.  The car, born on a Detriot assembly line, is no ordinary car.  Deep within lives an evil, indestructible vengeance that will destroy anybody who gets in her way...

     There's something fascinating about "Christine"-I'm including both novel and film here.   Of all his books, "Christine" is criminally underrated, especially the ones from his golden years, and upon recently revisiting the book, I still find it to be one of his best.  King takes an unlikely and somewhat silly premise and makes it totally chilling and believable.  As for the movie, John Carpenter did a fantastic job translating it to the big screen.  Carpenter's work is always either hit or miss- and when he hits, it's a home run ("Halloween", "The Fog", "The Thing"...).  "Christine" most definitely falls into the 'hit' category.

     Starting the movie with a sharply compelling look at teenage life in the late 70's,  the movie soon takes a much darker turn as Arnie Cunningham stumbles across the rusty dinosaur that is Christine.  He immediately becomes hellbent on fixing the car up, his own personality making a frightening metamorphosis in the process.  Carpenter has assembled a great cast of actors here, and working from a great script, the movie comes off as far more mature than your average teenage horror film.  The acting is pretty damn good, especially Keith Gordon.  His Arnie is completely believable, and his intimate scenes with the car are honestly frightening.  Watching his transformation from lonely nerd to stud is a tense and creepy process.

      John Stockwell, apart from being great eye-candy and a likable hero, also delivers a strong performance as Arnie's best friend Dennis.  Alexandra Paul adds a dose of camp to the mix, and we're treated to a slew of great cameos- including Harry Dean Stanton, Robert Proskey, and Roberts Blossom.  "Christine" made a huge impact on me back in the day, and it hasn't aged one bit- everything still rings true and holds up just fine today..  And you will never forget the scenes with Christine mercilessly going after the bullies who taunt Arnie, especially the haunting shot of Christine silently gliding down a dark highway in flames.  It's an unforgettable scene, and a truly chilling one.

     Shot during a time when graphic and violent death scenes were extremely popular, "Christine" defied the current trend and managed to be scary without throwing a bunch of blood and guts at us.  With slick, polished cinematography, an awesomely spooky Carpenter score, and a jukebox worth of classic 50's oldies (which highly adds to the overall effect and makes the songs themselves spooky...), "Christine" is a great but lost movie from the magical 80's.  Silly?  Sure.  Let's be honest.  But an oh-so-satisfying revenge flick nonetheless!  Hands down the best "killer car" movie of all time- yet it's also a much more deep look at isolation and the agonies of the teenage years.  Like I said, I think this movie is vastly underrated.  

     Carpenter was definitely in "on" mode with this one- his direction mixed with the cinematography of Donald M. Morgan (which makes great use of the widescreen photography) certainly helps the movie. "Christine" is a completely different kind of horror movie- movies like this don't come along very often.  It's not out to gross us out- there's really only a smidge of blood in the whole movie.  It's more of an eerie little movie.  "Christine" is a great story to begin with.  Let's be real.  I don't honestly see how it could have been brought to life any better- besides a couple of scenes here and there that were cut from the story, for whatever reasons.  I think Carpenter and team did a pretty respectable job bringing King's book to life.  This is John Carpenter at his peak- and his last great effort, in my humble opinion, after the magnificent "The Thing".  This movie deserves the deluxe DVD treatment- hopefully one day we'll see one.  And the book it's based on is an amazingly rich read- it was one of the first King books I ever read, and is still one of my favorites.  I highly recommend taking a ride in Stephen King's lean, mean killing machine.

John Carpenter's The Thing

     Exactly how a remake should be done, John Carpenter took an interesting story ripe with possibilities and flat out kicks ass with it. Very underrated when first released, (it opened up against cuddly E.T.: THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL- guess who won?) THE THING now has a reputation for the one of the best sci-fi/horror movies of the 80's, and definitely one of Carpenter's best. Kurt Russell leads an all-star cast as a group of scientists in Antarctica who find a spaceship buried deep in the ice. Unknown to them, there is some sort of lifeform in the ship and it's able to get inside other living creatures without anybody knowing it and take on their shape. That's when the fun begins.

      Besides being extremely claustrophobic- you firmly believe that these men are truly trapped on a polar ice cap and have absolutely nowhere to go, Carpenter treats us to some mind-blowing, stomach-churning effects as the scientists confront the shape-shifting alien who assumes the appearance of the person it kills.  The isolation, the snow, the paranoia- all elements used extremely well in THE SHINING also greatly add to the tension here.

     I don't even know if I would consider this a sci-fi movie- it's pretty much straight-forward horror. Carpenter manages to create a wonderfully dark and paranoiac atmosphere, and his effects simply blow away any modern CGI hocus pocus. These were the days when special effects artists actually earned their paychecks, unlike today when a computer does everything.  It also boasts a haunting, moody synth score by the great Ennio Morricone.

      THE THING is one of the most entertaining horror films of all time- it's smart, brooding, apocalyptic, and as unconventional as a Hollywood movie can get.  And also one of the best movies to watch in anamorphic widescreen- it's truly remarkable. Today, THE THING is considered one of the greatest cult movies of the 80's that's absolutely on the level of 1979's ALIEN, and makes a great double feature with that film. A perfect Creature Feature.

The Fog

     How much do I love THE FOG, you ask? Well, let me tell you. A delicious old fashioned ghost story, THE FOG wonderfully begins with a quote by Edgar Allen Poe, then cuts to salty old sea dog John Houseman telling a ghost story to a bunch of kids huddled around a campfire on a lonely cliff overlooking the sleepy little town of Antonio Bay. It's a simple yet very effective scene, and immediately sets the tone of the film and gives us the chilling back story. The story is one hundred years ago, Antonio Bay was founded on a devilish conspiracy, which resulted in the death of many seamen.  On the anniversary of the tragedy, the ghostly victims rise up from their watery grave for a little old-fashioned revenge on the unsuspecting little town. THE FOG is drenched in eerie, old school atmosphere, and was John Carpenter and Debra Hill's follow-up to their ground-breaking and hugely influential classic, HALLOWEEN. And a damn good one too, in my opinion.

     Although Carpenter surprisingly didn't quite hit a home-run on the level of HALLOWEEN, THE FOG has slowly and surely built a loyal fan base over the years, and is now widely considered a classic of 80's horror. And that cast! Besides Jamie Lee Curtis, we get the original scream queen herself, Janet Leigh. Plus the divine Adrienne Barbeau, Tom Atkins, Charles Cyphers, Nancy Loomis, John Houseman, Hal Holbrook...  I would watch this bunch of actors sit around reading names from a phone book.

     THE FOG is a quiet, unassuming little thriller that doesn't rely on big-budget effects to scare you as it moves slowly but surely along, peppered with a series of well-executed scares, top-notch atmosphere, and solid tension. The film has some great production values, Carpenter's solid direction, and amazing cinematography by Dean Cundey. This is classic ghost story stuff here, kids.

     Carpenter once again offers a sumptuously eerie soundtrack which rivals the score to HALLOWEEN- it's a sadly underrated work of art. Released in the wake of FRIDAY THE 13TH and other splatter flicks, THE FOG quietly joined such intelligent supernatural chillers as THE CHANGELING and THE SHINING for a much more subdued scare. Bottom line- if you want to see a great ghost story done the old-fashioned way, you just can't go wrong with this Carpenter classic!