Tag Archives: John Carpenter
Halloween 40
John Carpenter’s original Halloween film splattered screens forty years ago, and I just got out of a preview screening for the new film with the same name. Carpenter’s original found the him co-writing the script, directing the picture, and writing and performing its iconic synthesizer score. In 1978, Halloween seemed wholly original with its fighting [...]
Halloween 40
So last week I posted about John Carpenter’s 70th birthday and his films like They Live and The Thing. Carpenter’s Halloween isn’t 70, but the film is celebrating its 40th birthday and the slash-terpiece will get re-booted by David Fincher this October. Despite sequels/prequels and remakes/reimaginings, nobody has been able to rekindle the magic of [...]
A King is Born
Elvis Presley was born on January 8, 1935. Here’s Kurt Russell as The King in John Carpenter’s 1979 made-for-TV-movie, Elvis. As I remember, this is the end of the opening scene, before we flashback to Elvis’ childhood in Mississippi. Celebrate the birth of rock ‘n’ roll by watching TV Elvis shoot a hotel television… Please [...]
Rakka Roll
On Halloween night I was watching the original Halloween film — John Carpenter’s first masterpiece pioneered the slasher genre, provided us with an unforgettable score, and introduced the world to Jamie Lee Curtis. The flick is a classic of course even if it’s still controversial in some circles. Given the season I’m assuming that interested [...]
Horror’s the Thing
Just opened up YouTube wondering out loud what kind of spooky, Halloween horror I should post for today’s blog before I saw the very first recommended video. Here’s the making of John Carpenter’s The Thing… Stay Awake! Please subscribe to my YouTube channel where I archive all of the videos I curate at Insomnia. Click here to check [...]
Fear on Film
I’m back on my October horror kick today with this great panel discussion about the history of scary cinema with three of my favorite auteurs of the awful: John Landis, John Carpenter, and David Cronenberg. Landis is the director of the best werewolf film of all time, American Werewolf in London. Carpenter’s Halloween is the [...]
40 Years of Assault
After spending nearly a week lounging in the Gulf of Mexico I spent Sunday afternoon lounging on the rocks in the water at Dale Hollow reservoir. All this warm weather resting has reminded me what a sun worshiper I’ve always been — I think most summer babies are. I brought two songs back from the [...]
Carpenter, Candid
I’m not a big horror movie fan, but that’s mainly because so many of the sub-genres and trends tend to be so limiting: shocking for shock’s sake, gore for gore’s sake. I also think its because I was spoiled as a Generation X kid who grew up during horror’s most recent golden age when directors [...]
THEY LIVE at 25
John Carpenter’s They Live (1988) doesn’t sound like a classic movie: A drifter wanders into Nowheresville USA — a Los Angeles neighborhood devastated by an economic recession. After witnessing some suspicious activity surrounding a strange church, the man discovers a box of special sunglasses which reveal that the reality he’s come to take for granted [...]
