Autumn and its misty nights, the ideal time to remake the filmography of movie monster John Carpenter. The opportunity here to dive into his most forgotten films. If everyone has in mind the theme ofThe Night of Masks, the explosion of visceraThe Thingor rubbing of kingian sheet metal inChristine, it is much less well-known maestro films that deserve a lot of attention. Retrospective...
A band start
If we look at John Carpenter's filmography, jumping from the most intimate to the best known, we must start with his very first film:Dark Star(1974). The worst of all his films, one of the most barred too, since we find there a handful of man locked in a spaceship with a revealed and philosopher system, in which they let a strange alien enter. In addition to the fact that we already read all the themes that will obsess Carpenter like the destabilising mixture between the ultra-serious of a2001: Space Odysseyand a totally absurd comic that could have been attributed to Monty Python, the film is totally unpredictable.
If the budget (or rather its absence) has a certain visual impact, the inventiveness of the very young Carpenter manages at least in part to compensate for it, according to the director himself, his «Waiting for Godotspace ».
But it's only with his second film.Assault(1976) that Carpenter's cinema can take on its full scope. Tribute to theRio BravoA handful of people were followed by Howard Hawks, who were cut off in a police station besieged by members of a powerful gang. The occasion for Carpenter to film with long panoramic views of the desolate landscapes of the suburbs of Los Angeles and to lorgnate on the side of Romero by creating these crooks roaming like zombies through the glauque alleys of this neighborhood.
While the film has been a success in Europe, it does not meet its audience or international criticism and becomes a commercial failure. An oven that Christophe Gans explains in a long timeInterviewabout this second film: for him, in post-Vietnam America in which the feature film was released, the vision of heroism portrayed byAssaultturned him into a reactionary film that his audience was baffling. In short, a Carpenter who tries to Western in an industrial matrix that no longer practices it. A work in contrast with its time, but which has, over time, found enthusiastic spectators.
Carpenter explosion
Shortly after exit ofAssaultCarpenter is contacted by producers wishing to entrust him with the production of a feature film centered on a psychotic killer. Thus bornHalloween, Night of Masks(read ourtechnical test) and the huge success that surrounded him, making him one of the most profitable independent films in history.
But let's move on to focus on his next film, the least known.The Fog (1980). If he is not inspired by Stephen King and hisBrume(adapted later by Darabont)Fogby James Herbert, Carpenter takes a little of the recipe of his previous film: Jamie Lee Curtis at the casting, Debra Hill who participates in the script, a similar duration and inevitably the same horrific genre. On the story side, exit Michael Myers, there is rather a strange fog and myriads of ghost sailors... A vast subject, whose first milling satisfies only moderately Carpenter who will return part of the scenes as well as the music.
Following this film, Carpenter will align a winning combo:New York 1997 (1981), The Thing(read ourtechnical test) andChristine (1983). Three cult films, the first two with Kurt Russell leading the poster and the last adapted from a Stephen King novel. But let's go back to his filmography, more obscure and forgotten:Starman (1984).
Redescent
So no,StarmanIt is not a biopic on David Bowie, but the return of the maestro to space science-fiction dealing with communication with aliens. More than just a personal project for John Carpenter, since after the commercial failure ofThe Thing,He must have accepted that command film. A notable fact, since he will not participate in the writing or the production of music, unlike most of his other feature films.
Carpenter will chain withJack Burton's Adventures in Mandarin's Claws(1986), a great gap since he explores here the comedy adventure at Indiana Jones with Kurt Russell as his head still appearing. And unfortunately for him, this sorcerer's story on Chinatown's background will only be a little federate to the public: the film with the title with extension is a critical and resounding commercial furnace. It will then be necessary to wait for his VHS release to be re-evaluated and become a cult.
It's no coincidence that his next movie,Prince of Darkness(1987) will have a budget almost divided by ten. There will be Donald Pleasence, present inThe Night of MasksandNew York 1997, but also, and it's more unusual, Alice Cooper in a sadistic bum role that fits her perfectly. A captivating film, traversed by terrifying moments of fear and makeup that will make you rise the hairs of the neck, and whose final image will remain engraved long in the retinas.
Let's go over the excellent but more famousInvasion Los Angeles(1988) which, a year later, brought Carpenter back to pure dystopic science fiction. A strange, hybrid film between ultra kitsch a little dated and moments of tension and horror quite hallucinating.
He followed a four-year hole in Carpenter's career, returning to the dark rooms with a Franco-American co-production:The adventures of an invisible man. Incarnate by Chevy Chase – as fans of the seriesCommunityWill recognize without difficulty – alongside Sam Neill, in a strange comedy SF that will not convince the public, nor the critics.
End of Revelation
Chaining chess, Carpenter realizes I'm a fool1995 He himself will enter the « trilogy of Revelation » withThe ThingandPrince of Darknessto which we could informally addThe absolute end of the world, segment of the anthological seriesMasters of Horror(2006) to be discussed later.
An ultra-referenced and meta horrific thriller, there is a Sam Neill looking for a writer with strange power over his readers. Bathing in the universe of Stephen King and H.P. Lovecraft without being a direct adaptation,I'm a foolexplores the theme of the power of art. Unfortunately for Carpenter, this is an umpteenth commercial failure. And as often, it will take several years for the film to obtain critical legitimacy. About the same spell awaits his next film,Los Angeles 2013(read ourtechnical test), the direct follow-up ofNew York 1997also with Kurt Russell.
In 1998, Carpenter chose to adapt the novelVampire$John Steakley. In his story,Vampires involves these eager beings of hemoglobin within the Catholic Church itself. Carpenter made James Woods play there, but also a certain Sheryl Lee who performed, a few years earlier, Laura Palmer's legendary role in theTwin PeaksDavid Lynch. A good pick for the maestro, since it will be the only profitable film of its 1990s. The film will be entitled to several suites, including one produced by Carpenter in person.
The years 2000
Probably not the most fat for Carpenter, as his shooting rate drops drastically. Only two feature films will be released:Ghosts of Mars(2001) andThe Ward: Hospital of Terror (2011). The first is a pure return to SF for Carpenter, but also a commercial and critical furnace. And you know the song,Ghosts of Marswill be rehabilitated over time. And for the time being, let's greet the lunar side (it's not a science fiction film for nothing) of the casting: Ice Cube plays alongside Jason Statham and Pam Grier (Jackie Brown, Mars Attacks!).
Then,The Ward: Hospital of Terror, Carpenter's latest feature film to date and a return to horrific sources. He's going to flirt on the side of the psychiatric asylum movie, with a well-frozen Amber Heard, in an atmosphere similar toKingdom Hospital, where Stephen King adapted the Lars Von Trier series. Unsurprisingly, a commercial failure that has never even crossed the path of theaters in France. And unfortunately, not really the best Carpenter... At least for now, since his films seem to be getting better with age.
One last word
If his psychiatric hospital movie is for now his last –We're waiting on foot to close your new movie John, but it's been almost eleven years...– it would be sin to close this article without mentioning two segments that he made in the anthological seriesMasters of Horror.
Created by Mick Garris (official adapter of Stephen King who committed, among other things, the mini-seriesFlaw, that onShiningand adaptation ofBagrenownedThe house on the lake), The Masters of Horror gathers in two zero seasons other than Carpenter, but also Tobe Hooper, Dario Argento, Joe Dante or John Landis to name but a few.
Two Carpenter films worth a look at,Trapped insidebut above allThe Absolute End of the World, orCigarette Burnsin English. A title which comes from the marks affixed to the film to indicate to the operator the time of the reel change. A black work with surprising gore projections, in line with the rest of his filmography and where he will again question the power of the image.
So this is for the round-up of Carpenter's more unsung filmography, hoping to make you want some nuggets to taste under a plaid on Halloween night. And we can only advise you the recentBlow-Upd
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