Halloween II–if it isn’t the worst film John Carpenter ever worked on in some capacity–certainly features Carpenter’s worst script. There isn’t a single well-written conversation in the entire picture–the closest one is a couple young women talking; presumably co-writer Debra Hill wrote that conversation–and then it’s one of the handful of scenes Carpenter himself directed. […]
Entries Tagged as 'John Carpenter'
Halloween II (1981, Rick Rosenthal), the television version
March 9th, 2009 · No Comments
Tagged: Debra Hill· Donald Pleasence· John Carpenter· Rick Rosenthal· Universal Pictures· ⓏⒺⓇⓄ
Halloween (1978, John Carpenter)
October 31st, 2008 · No Comments
Halloween is a technical masterpiece. It’s absolutely spectacular to watch. Carpenter’s composition is fantastic, but Dean Cundey’s cinematography and the editing–from Tommy Lee Wallace and Charles Bornstein–creates this uneasy, surreal experience. The way Carpenter uses the wind in the film is probably my favorite, since he establishes it early on and keeps it going until […]
Tagged: Compass International Pictures· Debra Hill· Donald Pleasence· John Carpenter· Tommy Lee Wallace· ★★★
Prince of Darkness (1987, John Carpenter)
July 11th, 2008 · No Comments
I’d forgotten Prince of Darkness’s more fanciful notions–Jesus the space alien, still sent to Earth to save us from the Devil, but this time, the Devil’s kind of a space alien too (or not)–and it’s less creative ones (the Devil uses projectile vomit to posses people). It’s Carpenter at his strangest, the late 1980s period, […]
Tagged: Donald Pleasence· John Carpenter· Universal Pictures· ★½
Assault on Precinct 13 (2005, Jean-François Richet)
July 1st, 2008 · No Comments
Assault on Precinct 13 doesn’t remind of an early 1990s action movie because of Dorian Harewood, Kim Coates or Brian Dennehy showing up–or even because of the movie specific end credits song (by KRS-One no less). It doesn’t even remind of that genre because it lifts the icicle shamelessly from Die Hard 2. Even the […]
Tagged: Brian Dennehy· Gabriel Byrne· James DeMonaco· Jean-François Richet· John Carpenter· Laurence Fishburne· Maria Bello· Rogue Pictures· ★★
Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982, Tommy Lee Wallace)
June 27th, 2008 · 1 Comment
Halloween III: Season of the Witch is a–well, it’s kind of a remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers and not discrete about it at all. The setting has changed and the details, but the movie’s obviously going for the same feel. Occasionally, it even pulls something off. Tommy Lee Wallace is only an adequate […]
Tagged: John Carpenter· Tommy Lee Wallace· Universal Pictures· ⓏⒺⓇⓄ
The Thing (1982, John Carpenter)
June 2nd, 2008 · No Comments
I always say John Carpenter needs to direct something else, something non-genre. A romantic comedy perhaps or a family drama. I guess it never occurred to me, but with The Thing, Carpenter is directing something else. It’s kind of too bad, his best film is the one–in some ways–least like his others. In The Thing, […]
Tagged: Bill Lancaster· John Carpenter· John W. Campbell Jr.· Keith David· Kurt Russell· Universal Pictures· Wilford Brimley· ★★★★



