A John Carpenter Poll

I think they are on DVD.

I certainly hope Carpenter's segments were better than Joe Dante's ludicrously overrated one about Republicans and elections, et al.

Cage and Carpenter both need a movie like this. I'm going to cross my fingers at least as this could be terrific...

Nicolas Cage to Star in John Carpenter’s Scared Straight

I think almost everyone has been subjected to Arnold Shapiro’s documentary Scared Straight! in High School. But for those who haven’t, the film follows a group of delinquent teens who are brought into a maximum security prison to help them change their ways. Supposedly, many of the teens in the original program were, in fact, “scared straight” and went on to lead happy, productive lives. As a result of the film, many states introduced “scared straight” programs in an attempt to rehabilitate young delinquents. While I was never a troublemaker, one of my high school sociology classes took a field trip to our local prison. I remember on the bus ride over, talking to friends about what would happen if a riot broke out while we were in the prison. It seemed like a great idea for a movie. Looks like someone else also had the same idea.

Nicolas Cage is in final negotiations to star in John Carpenter’s Scared Straight, a prison thriller about a troubled youth who is sent to the Scared Straight crime-prevention program. But when a riot breaks out and the prisoners take him hostage, a lifer (played by Cage) is forced to help the young man out. xXx director Rob Cohen was attached to the project when it was set-up at New Line. Carpenter is a huge step up. I’ve heard that the original spec script by Joe Gazzam was rather weak. Ron Brinkerhoff, who wrote The Guardian, has since rewritten the entire screenplay.

Con-Air 2

this will be terrible

It seemed like a great idea for a movie

WRONG

xXx director Rob Cohen was attached to the project when it was set-up at New Line. Carpenter is a huge step up.

lol @ Slashfilm's specious logic & editorializing based on films Carpenter made 25-30 years ago (tho I'm always up for a return to non-shittiness from JC)

the writer of The Guardian really shouldn't be allowed near a word processor.

Just watched Starman again for the first time in years...kind of an adult version of E.T.....love the "main theme" by Jack Nitzsche, though. Whatever happened to the great Charles Martin Smith? Now I need to re-watch Never Cry Wolf.....

ZERO FUCKING VOTES for In the Mouth of Madness?

WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE

ESPECIALLY WHOEVER VOTED FOR CHRISTINE INSTEAD

I don't think anyone's denying it's a good film, but look at what it's up against - this should be a POX thread.

just watched In the Mouth of Madness last week, and yeah, it was pretty well-done

The fight scene in They Live should be considered as its own feature.

http://theofficialjohncarpenter.com/

I logged on just to enthuse about The Eyes of Laura Mars, scripted by Carpenter. Turns out I already did that two years ago. Anyway, great, great movie. Like an early Argento vision of decadent 70's NY, and Faye is utterly fabulous.

Prince of Darkness is way better than half the films that got points in this poll btw. But anyway.

ESPECIALLY WHOEVER VOTED FOR CHRISTINE INSTEAD

Christine is actually a pretty fantastic movie.

Oh, that it is, but what it isn't is In the Mouth of Madness.

"Mouth" was better than I remembered it. "Prince" was worse. Is "Invisible Man" even on DVD, or was it disowned by all involved?

unimpeachable run imo

Assault On Precinct 13 (1976)
Halloween (1978)
Escape from New York (1981)
The Thing (1982)
Big Trouble in Little China (1986)
They Live (1988)

you're skipping some things

I just c&p'd

Good news everyone!

You will have to indulge the fanboy in me while I rejoice in the fact that ELVIS will be released on DVD for the first time on March 2, 2010. In my opinion, this was one the greatest musical biopics ever produced, and the fact it was originally made for the small screen is even more remarkable.

In 1979, John Carpenter was hot after HALLOWEEN and Kurt Russell was transitioning from Disney child star into more mature roles ... who knew back then that they would go on to collaborate four more times including ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK and THE THING, two groundbreaking (classic) movies that still stand the test of time today.

Other than the length of time it has taken for this movie to become available, the biggest surprise is that the movie doesn't actually feature any original Presley songs. Even though they were made available at the time, Carpenter chose to use country singer Ronnie McDowell to sing the songs, and he nails it.

John Carpenter, talking about things.

How do you see the horror genre having changed over the years, especially as you’re coming back into it at this point in time?

It’s changed. It’s like it always has been, in some ways. There are a few really good horror movies made each year, but mostly they’re shit. Most all of them are bad. Most are derivative. Most don’t try anything new. Now they pick up whatever style has just been popular and they just use it. People like to associate horror now with torture movies because of the popularity of Saw… I thought Saw was a good movie, I really enjoyed Saw. It was fun, it had a great twist ending…

What did you think of it by the time we got to Saw VII?

You know, I got a little bored with it. It’s the same thing over and over, but it’s OK. People want to see that. It’s like Jackass. Let’s see people — and in Jackass they’re willing! They’re willing to be tortured and made fun of and have cruel things done to them, and they think it’s cool. People nowadays, I think because of the internet and the culture, have become more cruel than when I was young. Look at the bullying. Look at what it does to people. Look at cyberbullying.

Does that then make the way that horror movies are consumed vastly different?

Oh, yeah. They’re consumed like a lot of entertainment, it’s just disposable. What you try to do is fight through that somehow, try to get the audience’s attention in a more direct way. The really good movies do it. The Social Network was a terrific movie — not a horror film, but boy, that did it. I don’t care about what happened, but I started to care. Wow, look at this! Look at the issues we’re dealing with in this!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoGIyAtCJ-k

carpenter/cronenberg/landis '82

"Starman" is just "The Thing" standing on its head.

This.

New best thing ever:

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/483946_10151394084333406_329496144_n.jpg

Great photo of myself and Kurt Russell from the empireonline.com interview

Meanwhile, Christine is one of the fastest-selling-out Blu-rays in Twilight Time history. Should I sell my review copy for the asking price of $100+?

Great things about Prince of Darkness:

- Dennis Dun tears it up. "You could almost pass for Asian" - "Normally I like being dominated by two women." - and "Holy Shit!" which is perhaps the truest line in the whole movie -- the reaction you're expecting everyone else to express.

- Donald Pleasance. In a reversal from his role of the hunter from Halloween, he becomes the hunted.

- Victor Wong - doesn't seem completely there.

- 'This is a transmission' - the grainy dream.

-The final flicker of light illuminating a desperate Catherine just after the mirror shatters.

i wish he'd have done more like Starman. was it influenced by ET or was it written years earlier?

-Victor Wong: "Cause precedes effect - fruit rots, water flows downstream. We're born, we age, we die. The reverse never happens. None of this is truth! Say goodbye to classical reality, because our logic collapses on the subatomic level into ghosts and shadows."

also:

http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/SG4FemqT-7I/0.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/mXhgjCp.jpg

Confirmed sexist and proud of it! Hey, I was just joking? What happened? You talk numbers, you get romantic. You talk people, you clam up.

- 'This is a transmission' - the grainy dream.

This is one of my favorite things in any horror movie ever.

Prince of Darkness was the first horror movie I saw in the theater at age 13 or so. It scared THE HELL out of me, with the transmissions triggering my imagination like few other things.

NYC retro next month, he will attend

http://www.bam.org/film/2015/john-carpenter-master-of-fear

I might go to The Thing if someone holds my hand.

NPR is streaming his new album

JC used to harp about trouble getting funding to make his movies, and because I am such a huge fan I would feel bad for him. But his last four movies have been so bad that even a big budget could not have helped, and he has no one to blame but himself for that. Prince of Darkness and In the Mouth of Madness fine last gasps of his not quite genius but great talent nonetheless.

That one he made a couple of years ago, for hire, with what's-her-face, that took place in the mental asylum, was so bad I was embarrassed for everyone involved. His two "Masters of Horror" eps were good, though.

I think I made it 10 minutes into the asylum one.

Despite Ward (which I haven't seen), most of his "recent" films were so long ago I don't think they're much evidence to go on.

Carpenter's quality control has always been iffy, but it seems to be completely broken now

I'd love to see The Thing on a big screen, ideally as a double feature with the Hawks version

Prince of Darkness (1987) 0

:|

-Victor Wong: "Cause precedes effect - fruit rots, water flows downstream. We're born, we age, we die. The reverse never happens. None of this is truth! Say goodbye to classical reality, because our logic collapses on the subatomic level into ghosts and shadows."

― how's life, Friday, August 8, 2014 3:09 AM (four years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yessss

http://wingkong.net/mm/sounds/ - under Egg Shen's, the glee in the last word of "And now for some bad news. Ready?" never fails to make me laugh.

Lo Pan's "Indeed!" also.

all of those posts are gibberish to me

I don't have much experience with John Carpenter, but I did see Halloween with my best friend when it came out. It was so traumatizing that neither of us has ever wanted to watch a horror film like that again

Victor Wong makes pretty much every line he speaks quotable