Does no one else like Someone's Watching Me? It's the one where Lauren Hutton is stalked after she moves into a high rise apartment. Carpenter's wife at the time played her gay friend. It's quite spooky and sinister and edge-of-seat.
I got the US blu ray of Christime last week...a very limited run of 3000 copies. Excellent transfer and great DTS sound.
It has the same extras as the previous SE DVD, commentary from Carpenterand Keith Gordon, 3 making of featurettes, Isolated score and a bunch of deleted scenes.
I hesitate to call it a horror movie, and that's certainly not to denigrate it in any way. But there is very little horror, no blood and most deaths either happen off-camera or are completely gore-free.
The strength of the movie lies in the characterisation, and Carpenters sound decision to exploit the transformation of the main character Arnie, who essentially becomes posessed by the 'spirit' of the car...but rather than a cliched Jekyll and Hyde style change, Arnie goes from being that wimpy, geeky, four-eyed kid who is always getting teased and beaten up, to a confident, arrogant cool kid who ends up with the best looking girl in College...which does not go down well with Christine, who seems to become jealous of the relationship and almost chokes her to death at one point. Plus she also takes revenge on the school bullies who had humiliated Arnie. I always liked the idea that you never know if Arnie is in the car or not when the attacks take place.
There are elements of the typical rites-of-passage and growing pains that you would associate with typical teen movies, but Carpenter uses these to create a refreshingly non-typical, non-cliched movie, which in lesser hands could have been simply another killer machine on the loose/demonic posession style movie.
Watched They Live the other week. It had it's moments and the idea was interesting but it just was just hard to gauge just exactly what Carpenter was aiming for.
My favourite is definitely Big Trouble In Little China.:D I absolutely love everything about the film.I'm sure that it was one of the first wire-fu movies made in Hollywood.I don't think it did jack at the box office,perhaps people just didn't 'get it'.... "Shut up,Mr Burton.You are not brought upon this world to get it!"....There are just so many outlandish scenes and great quotes in the film,and they never get tired.The film certainly was not his usual kind,but it is a deserved cult classic.
Of the rest of his films,I can't watch Halloween because I can not handle all the girlie screaming,and let's be honest,the film is so ludicrous that there was hardly any need to make a parody of it.I suppose it was groundbreaking for its day,though.
After Big Trouble,my favourites are The Thing,The Fog,and Escape From New York.They may seem dated now,but still good to watch.Starman was quaintly charming,and Christine was enjoyable nonsense.And I do remember the tv movie,Somebody's Watching Me.Very good film.
If I could go back in time and stop the whole concept of Escape From LA from ever happening,it would be great.One of the most awful films ever,and if I were Carpenter I would disown it and credit it to Alan Smithee.:mad:
Halloween is the obvious, the greatest horror movie of all time with the greatest horror villain of all time. They Live has always been a favorite of mine, bloody love it. Piper and aliens, cant ask for much more than that!
The Thing <-- top favourite
Escape from New York
The Fog
Prince of Darkness
Assault on Precinct 13
Starman
In the Mouth of Madness
They Live
Unlike the others, I'm indifferent to the Halloween series. It's from that period when it seemed every video release during the 1980s was a slasher film. Films like Sleepaway Camp, Friday the 13th, Happy Birthday to Me, Don't Go in the House, Train of Terror, April Fool, Slumber Party, A Nightmare on Elm Street, etc. After enduring that period, slasher films generally don't interest me.
The Fog is one of the few exceptions because it's essentially a ghost story. Plus, I loved the back story, Adrienne Barbeau's character's dilemma and in spite of the obvious limitations on production, a good suspenseful build-up. The remake is repulsively awful.
I would also have to vote for the Thing. In spite of it's crudeness due to a lack of budget, it still retained a high degree of class in the way some of the sequences were shot.
Definitely 'The Thing'. It isn't often that a remake is better than the original (and I loved the original) but Carpenter's was bloody brilliant.
I also loved Assault on Precinct 13, Halloween and In The Mouth of Madness
Of the others I've seen - I wasn't fond of Escape From New York or Big Trouble In Little China or even Christine (although Christine is my son's favourite film).
I did like the episode of Masters of Horror he did though - Cigarette Burns.
Assault on Precinct 13
Halloween
The Fog
Someone's Watching Me
Escape from New York
The Thing
Christine
Starman
Big Trouble in Little China
They Live
Escape from L.A
I also enjoyed The Ward and his segments in Body Bags.
Comments
Christine
Halloween
The Thing.
Big Trouble was good but different obviously from what he usually used to do.
The Thing
Escape from New York
Big Trouble in Little China
Halloween
Christine
It has the same extras as the previous SE DVD, commentary from Carpenterand Keith Gordon, 3 making of featurettes, Isolated score and a bunch of deleted scenes.
I hesitate to call it a horror movie, and that's certainly not to denigrate it in any way. But there is very little horror, no blood and most deaths either happen off-camera or are completely gore-free.
The strength of the movie lies in the characterisation, and Carpenters sound decision to exploit the transformation of the main character Arnie, who essentially becomes posessed by the 'spirit' of the car...but rather than a cliched Jekyll and Hyde style change, Arnie goes from being that wimpy, geeky, four-eyed kid who is always getting teased and beaten up, to a confident, arrogant cool kid who ends up with the best looking girl in College...which does not go down well with Christine, who seems to become jealous of the relationship and almost chokes her to death at one point. Plus she also takes revenge on the school bullies who had humiliated Arnie. I always liked the idea that you never know if Arnie is in the car or not when the attacks take place.
There are elements of the typical rites-of-passage and growing pains that you would associate with typical teen movies, but Carpenter uses these to create a refreshingly non-typical, non-cliched movie, which in lesser hands could have been simply another killer machine on the loose/demonic posession style movie.
followed by Halloween.
Watched They Live the other week. It had it's moments and the idea was interesting but it just was just hard to gauge just exactly what Carpenter was aiming for.
Halloween
Big Trouble in Little China
The Thing
Of the rest of his films,I can't watch Halloween because I can not handle all the girlie screaming,and let's be honest,the film is so ludicrous that there was hardly any need to make a parody of it.I suppose it was groundbreaking for its day,though.
After Big Trouble,my favourites are The Thing,The Fog,and Escape From New York.They may seem dated now,but still good to watch.Starman was quaintly charming,and Christine was enjoyable nonsense.And I do remember the tv movie,Somebody's Watching Me.Very good film.
If I could go back in time and stop the whole concept of Escape From LA from ever happening,it would be great.One of the most awful films ever,and if I were Carpenter I would disown it and credit it to Alan Smithee.:mad:
Halloween is the obvious, the greatest horror movie of all time with the greatest horror villain of all time. They Live has always been a favorite of mine, bloody love it. Piper and aliens, cant ask for much more than that!
Carpenter is mostly brilliant.
Escape from New York
The Fog
Prince of Darkness
Assault on Precinct 13
Starman
In the Mouth of Madness
They Live
Unlike the others, I'm indifferent to the Halloween series. It's from that period when it seemed every video release during the 1980s was a slasher film. Films like Sleepaway Camp, Friday the 13th, Happy Birthday to Me, Don't Go in the House, Train of Terror, April Fool, Slumber Party, A Nightmare on Elm Street, etc. After enduring that period, slasher films generally don't interest me.
The Fog is one of the few exceptions because it's essentially a ghost story. Plus, I loved the back story, Adrienne Barbeau's character's dilemma and in spite of the obvious limitations on production, a good suspenseful build-up. The remake is repulsively awful.
I'm not a fan of Halloween or Escape from New York.
I also loved Assault on Precinct 13, Halloween and In The Mouth of Madness
Of the others I've seen - I wasn't fond of Escape From New York or Big Trouble In Little China or even Christine (although Christine is my son's favourite film).
I did like the episode of Masters of Horror he did though - Cigarette Burns.
Halloween
The Fog
Escape From New York
all great movies and still watch able years after they were made.
All of the above with escape from new york included.
Halloween series when I'm in the right mood.
The fog
The thing
Christine
Vampires
Ghosts of mars
Possibly the ward once i have gotten round to watching my dvd of it
Halloween
The Fog
Someone's Watching Me
Escape from New York
The Thing
Christine
Starman
Big Trouble in Little China
They Live
Escape from L.A
I also enjoyed The Ward and his segments in Body Bags.
.......by a long way.