Cult classic
February 21, 2016 1:38 AM   Subscribe

 
I love The Thing, but Assault on Precinct 13 is one of a small group of movies which for me approach perfection. So much love.
posted by tavegyl at 2:22 AM on February 21, 2016 [3 favorites]


Always loved Escape From New York even if it is kinda stolen from the novel Damnation Alley
posted by GallonOfAlan at 2:36 AM on February 21, 2016 [1 favorite]


John Carpenter is by far my favorite director. When I was younger I was so obsessed that I'd watch his movies again and again, and assume that I'd get into USC to follow in his footsteps. Didn't work out that way, but still love him. He's just such a solid filmmaker, and I always got the sense that he was never taken so seriously because of the kinds of movies he made.
posted by teponaztli at 2:47 AM on February 21, 2016


Halloween was such a good horror flick that it not only had umpteen sequels but the whole '80s slasher genre used it as a template. And The Thing was a masterpiece of sci-fi horror. Two movies that belong on at least the top 10 horror films of the 20th century is nothing to sneeze at. I also think his In the Mouth of Madness is an underappreciated gem and one of the best movies to use Lovecraftian themes. I guess the message is that I love Carpenter's horror output best, and am glad that he's getting recognition.
posted by graymouser at 3:34 AM on February 21, 2016 [2 favorites]


I didn't see Halloween until late in my horror education, and I was surprised by how little I liked it. Technically, it's flawless—the cinematography, pacing and editing are all superb—and Michael Myers ("The Shape") projects a perfect aura of implacable menace. But at the same time, the dialogue is largely laughable, characters' behaviors and motivations are incomprehensible, and Jamie Lee Curtis and Donald Pleasence are the only speaking actors whose performances rise above the abominable. And yes, I think the plink-plonk musical score is silly.

Is its status as a classic due mainly to Carpenter's skill as a director compared to similar schlock of the time?
posted by Faint of Butt at 4:15 AM on February 21, 2016 [1 favorite]


characters' behaviors and motivations are incomprehensible

I'm super-curious to hear more about this because virtually all of the characters in that film are teenagers whose motivations look pretty clear to me.
posted by Pope Guilty at 5:06 AM on February 21, 2016 [4 favorites]


I am a huge John Carpenter fan, and I definitely think his talent is underrated precisely as teponaztli said. Halloween is just an amazing piece of filmmaking, for the same reasons the best Stephen King novels are so good: he puts you in a situation that is completely familiar (suburbs, babysitting, teenagers, Halloween), so when the Bad Stuff starts happening, it's just so visceral and immediate. And when we first see Michael Myers in the town it's done so casually, he is just there in broad daylight and the camera (IIRC) just passes over him. That is one of the most genuinely creepy moments in horror movie history.

I also love Assault on Precinct 13 because it does such a great job of building the tension and claustrophobia and realization that help isn't coming (it's like they're in Escape from New York New York already). Plus it's more or less a Western.

And The Thing is a work of genius.

Some of the unavoidable things in his films haven't aged well (clothing, for one), but I do think that anyone who really appreciates the horror/suspense/thriller genre as an art form has to really appreciate John Carpenter's enormous contributions.

The only Carpenter film I really can't stand is Vampires, I have only seen it once, but it left me with such a bad taste of woman-hating sexism in my mouth that I have never wanted to see it again (similar to Species II, which had been the most woman-hating movie I'd ever seen UNTIL I saw Vampires). I am willing to have my mind changed though.
posted by biscotti at 5:59 AM on February 21, 2016 [4 favorites]


I think Halloween has its reputation because it's bare-bones almost to the point of minimalism but manages to do everything a horror film needs to do well. If you don't like the score, well, there's no accounting for taste. But IMO it's just a beautifully crafted suspenseful horror movie. Talking about performances and motivations in a film where everything but the horror itself is supposed to be extremely quotidian seems to miss the point a tad.
posted by graymouser at 7:30 AM on February 21, 2016 [1 favorite]


"I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass...and I'm all out of bubblegum."
posted by linux at 8:05 AM on February 21, 2016 [6 favorites]


I love the look of his movies more than anything. The framing, the saturation of colors. Amazing. But thematically I actually find them kind of empty. Maybe I'm missing something? I'd love to read some more critical theory about his movies, if anyone can recommend anything.
posted by balmore at 8:09 AM on February 21, 2016 [1 favorite]


He's touring with his tunes, too. I need to try and see him perform live.
posted by chainlinkspiral at 8:16 AM on February 21, 2016


Juan Cole on "Halloween"
posted by clavdivs at 8:18 AM on February 21, 2016 [1 favorite]


They Live. One for being simply a great action film. and two, for letting the left wing claim the interracial-buddy action film tradition for ourselves as well. Three, for the best fistfight ever. and four, the best acting performance by a wrestler, ever.
posted by jonmc at 8:35 AM on February 21, 2016 [5 favorites]


Besides all the obvious wonderful things that everyone loves about his movies, I love watching how he edits action sequences. Every action has a consequence.
posted by lownote at 9:38 AM on February 21, 2016 [2 favorites]


> and four, the best acting performance by a wrestler, ever.

S'trewth. Until he actually starts fighting, you totally forget that Piper's a wrestler. Roddy had some range.
posted by davelog at 10:08 AM on February 21, 2016 [1 favorite]


_Halloween_ is a nearly perfect film. It's about many things, one of them being about how children share secrets with each other (Tommy and Lindsey) that grown ups disbelieve and patronize them over.

It's about the thrill of being scared watching horror films on Halloween night in your onesie as well as the horror of being scared because suddenly your life has become the movie and, now, the boogieman is real.

It's about the dark heart of America in Haddonfield, Illinois, where people who live in perfect suburban houses react to pleas for help by turning out the porch light.

There's so much that's perfect about that film. I have said on more than one occasion it is my favorite film of all time. That statement is becoming truer with every passing day.

But if you're looking for something to take from the film, Faint of Butt, read what Carol Clover has to say about the "Final Girl" in _Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Geneder in the Modern Horror Film_.

Carpenter's _Halloween_ heralded an entire cinematic genre featuring resourceful and empowered female leads whose humanities, throughout these films, remain intact.
posted by mistersquid at 10:17 AM on February 21, 2016 [6 favorites]


Halloween is one of my favourite horror films period. I rewatch it every year around Halloween and every time I watch it I find something more interesting.

What I love about it that so few slasher movies did right is the physicality of Michael. A lot of the times when the slasher isn't on screen they might as well not exist. Jason teleports, when he's out of frame he's nowhere. There are so many shots in Halloween where we see Michael do nothing more than simply walk across the room in the back of the scene. Jamie Lee Curtis is comforting the kids in the foreground and Michael walks behind them. Not towards them, just to the other side of the room. "He's still here." John Carpenter says. "Don't forget about him." And I think it's perfect.

I love his B stuff as well. Starman is probably my favourite of those. There's so much emotional intimacy and sincerity for a movie that almost anyone else would have come across as hokey and sappy and awful. And that theme song....wow.
posted by Neronomius at 10:26 AM on February 21, 2016 [3 favorites]


and four, the best acting performance by a wrestler, ever

I love They Live as much as the next man but by God I will not have you disparage Andre the Giant and Mr. The Rock in this way. Nossir. I won't have it.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 10:57 AM on February 21, 2016 [8 favorites]


They Live is every "Stoned in a Jack In The Box at 2am" conversation I had in college, summed up with a lightness of touch that makes it compelling rather than cringe-worthy. It's perfect and I love it to little pieces.

And I love - LOVE - introducing people to The Thing. Its impact hasn't aged a day; just gets such great reactions out of people. It and Halloween are about the best argument for the potential (and even necessity) of horror as I can think of. Creative and layered and tense.
posted by Phobos the Space Potato at 11:16 AM on February 21, 2016 [2 favorites]


I caught the end of Prince of Darkness on TV the other day, the film that Carpenter made after The Thing. It's got a lot of the actors he liked working with in it, a difficult and downbeat ending, and it's a small set shoot that benefits from the claustrophobia. Great stuff.
posted by The River Ivel at 11:39 AM on February 21, 2016 [1 favorite]


Oh my god, "Prince of Darkness." Overall IMO not as good as "The Thing" or "They Live", but... "This is not a dream." That was, and is, the single most viscerally terrifyingly disturbing thing I've ever encountered in a movie. Just thinking about it now is giving me the creeps.
posted by Devoidoid at 7:32 AM on February 22, 2016


I actually didn't like Prince of Darkness- thought it was incoherent and lacked structure. It's like a dream where you go from scene to scene without any real reason why and I just find it confusing instead of frightening.
posted by Pope Guilty at 9:37 AM on February 22, 2016


When the film came out, and for years afterwards, Halloween was totally not a thing in the UK (well may be a bit in Scotland) just some weird American custom (we would be busy celebrating Bonfire Night a few days later). But the brilliance of that film, from when I first saw it as a teenager, has had a lasting effect and I still find the concept of Halloween more than a bit creepy in not good way because of it.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 9:52 AM on February 22, 2016


how is no one talking about big trouble in little china, what is wrong with you all?
posted by Hoopo at 1:10 PM on February 22, 2016 [3 favorites]


The only Carpenter film I really can't stand is Vampires, I have only seen it once, but it left me with such a bad taste of woman-hating sexism in my mouth that I have never wanted to see it again (similar to Species II, which had been the most woman-hating movie I'd ever seen UNTIL I saw Vampires). I am willing to have my mind changed though.

Have you seen Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters? It took me a few minutes into it to realize that every single women in that movie has violence inflicted upon them. In the last 10 years or so there have been a spate of witch movies, and considering that's all rooted in the fucked up idea that 'women are intrinsically evil', I've become more and more dismayed everytime that word pops up in a movie title.
posted by P.o.B. at 1:12 PM on February 22, 2016


how is no one talking about big trouble in little china, what is wrong with you all?

˙sɹǝuuıs uʍop-ǝpısdn ǝɥʇ ɟo ןןǝɥ ǝɥʇ uı ǝɹǝɥ ʞɔnʇs ɯ,ı ʇnq pןnoʍ ı
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 2:03 PM on February 22, 2016 [5 favorites]


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