Search
Search results
LeftSideCut (3778 KP) rated Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) in Movies
Jul 14, 2021
Assault on Precinct 13 is great for many reasons, but chiefly it's all down to the characters. Austin Stoker, Darwin Joston, and Laurie Zimmer head up a diverse cast, and off the top of my head, I struggle to think of a trio of leads that are so well realised and put together. Their struggle through an evening of violence is one you want them to live through.
The narrative is straightforward and engaging, the villains are pretty faceless but intimidating, the action is decent, the cinematography is visually pleasing, and director John Carpenter provides yet another banging soundtrack to one of his own films.
It's a gritty and hard hitting thriller that serves as further evidence for why Carpenter is one of the greatest.
The narrative is straightforward and engaging, the villains are pretty faceless but intimidating, the action is decent, the cinematography is visually pleasing, and director John Carpenter provides yet another banging soundtrack to one of his own films.
It's a gritty and hard hitting thriller that serves as further evidence for why Carpenter is one of the greatest.
Leigh J (71 KP) rated Body Bags (1993) in Movies
Nov 18, 2019
An Anthology to die for!
A woman is working at a Gas Station alone when a Serial Killer is on the loose. A balding man goes to extreme lengths to grow his locks. A man has an Eye Transplant... but whose Eye did he get? Skin crawling tales all directed and introduced by a (dead) John Carpenter. Tobe Hooper as a Co-Director. It's a Horror fans wet dream... and best (yes, best) nightmare!
Oh. My. Days... This Anthology is absolutely amazing! I loved every story (each one had a fantastic twist), I adored the John Carpenter moments (his moments were actually my favourite part of the Anthology) and there are some Horror-glitterati cast members who are just the Cherry on top of an ass-kicking, scream inducing Cake. It really captures the wierd and wonderful of Horror and it's one of the best Anthologies I've ever seen. I just wish it would get a decent UK release... so I could watch it everyday!!
Oh. My. Days... This Anthology is absolutely amazing! I loved every story (each one had a fantastic twist), I adored the John Carpenter moments (his moments were actually my favourite part of the Anthology) and there are some Horror-glitterati cast members who are just the Cherry on top of an ass-kicking, scream inducing Cake. It really captures the wierd and wonderful of Horror and it's one of the best Anthologies I've ever seen. I just wish it would get a decent UK release... so I could watch it everyday!!
Awix (3310 KP) rated Village of the Damned (1995) in Movies
Nov 16, 2019
Thumpingly unsubtle SF remake turns up the horror dial but doesn't seem aware that sometimes less is more. After a strange town-wide blackout, the citizens of Midwich (do they really have 'villages' in Northern California, anyway?) discover ten women have simultaneously become pregnant. They give birth to eerily similar children who seem to have psychic powers.
Released in 1995, this is very much The Midwich Cuckoos for the X Files generation, but ends up just another signpost marking the decline of John Carpenter as a film-maker worth paying attention to. The sad thing is that he really does seem familiar with both the original British film and the source novel (elements of the book missing from the 1960 film reappear here) and is obviously trying to do his best to honour them, but where John Wyndham is chillingly subtle and understated, John Carpenter is just walloping the audience with a succession of predictable set-piece 'shocks'. Reasonable CGI but overall it looks cheap and unconvincing; some reasonable performances from an interesting cast, but there's a limit to what they can do with such a duff script.
Released in 1995, this is very much The Midwich Cuckoos for the X Files generation, but ends up just another signpost marking the decline of John Carpenter as a film-maker worth paying attention to. The sad thing is that he really does seem familiar with both the original British film and the source novel (elements of the book missing from the 1960 film reappear here) and is obviously trying to do his best to honour them, but where John Wyndham is chillingly subtle and understated, John Carpenter is just walloping the audience with a succession of predictable set-piece 'shocks'. Reasonable CGI but overall it looks cheap and unconvincing; some reasonable performances from an interesting cast, but there's a limit to what they can do with such a duff script.
Bostonian916 (449 KP) rated They Live (1988) in Movies
Aug 17, 2020 (Updated Aug 17, 2020)
John Carpenter's brilliance shines through in this adaptation that demonstrates (be it, in an over the top, Carpenter-esque manner) what happens when the world blindly follows what is being fed to them.
Roddy Piper (in arguably the role of his career) and Keith David both work tirelessly to do their part in creating an in film world where, through complete happenstance, they are gifted the ability to see the world for what it really is beyond the "truth" that is being shown to them. Both characters work feverishly to expose the wickedness of the world around them while being beat back around every bend.
All in all a very good action flick, especially given the tools available at the time to the film makers.
While John Carpenter is very widely known and revered in the industry, it is my opinion that They Live might be the most important work of his long and illustrious career. A scathing criticism of corporate and political greed and misdeeds the world over, displayed in a way that is oddly relatable over thirty years later.
Roddy Piper (in arguably the role of his career) and Keith David both work tirelessly to do their part in creating an in film world where, through complete happenstance, they are gifted the ability to see the world for what it really is beyond the "truth" that is being shown to them. Both characters work feverishly to expose the wickedness of the world around them while being beat back around every bend.
All in all a very good action flick, especially given the tools available at the time to the film makers.
While John Carpenter is very widely known and revered in the industry, it is my opinion that They Live might be the most important work of his long and illustrious career. A scathing criticism of corporate and political greed and misdeeds the world over, displayed in a way that is oddly relatable over thirty years later.
Matthew Krueger (10051 KP) rated Prince of Darkness (1987) in Movies
Jun 23, 2019
A underrated horror film
Contains spoilers, click to show
Prince of darkness- is a underrated horror film directed by john carpenter and stars donald pleasences.
the film is the second installment in what Carpenter calls his "Apocalypse Trilogy", which began with The Thing (1982) and concludes with In the Mouth of Madness (1995).
The film is about cellar, a priest finds an otherworldly vial filled with slime. Frightened, he brings his discovery to a circle of top scholars and scientists, who eventually learn that the strange liquid is the essence of Satan. The slime then begins to seep out, turning some of the academics into zombified killers. As the possessed battle the survivors, student Kelly is infected by a large quantity of the liquid and becomes Satan personified.
It has supernatural elements, psychological elements and horror elements.
Its underreated and i think more people should watch it.
the film is the second installment in what Carpenter calls his "Apocalypse Trilogy", which began with The Thing (1982) and concludes with In the Mouth of Madness (1995).
The film is about cellar, a priest finds an otherworldly vial filled with slime. Frightened, he brings his discovery to a circle of top scholars and scientists, who eventually learn that the strange liquid is the essence of Satan. The slime then begins to seep out, turning some of the academics into zombified killers. As the possessed battle the survivors, student Kelly is infected by a large quantity of the liquid and becomes Satan personified.
It has supernatural elements, psychological elements and horror elements.
Its underreated and i think more people should watch it.
Suswatibasu (1701 KP) rated It Follows (2015) in Movies
Sep 21, 2017
A teen flick wrapped up in a John Carpenter film
There are many elements of 1970's and 80's horror films in this modern movie. From the panning cinematography and quietness of The Shining, to the virgin aspect of Halloween and Friday 13th. In this case, they've used the idea of sex to transmit a curse hence the plot is rather thin. And while the dream like quality is always eerie, the story wasn't strong enough to warrant a good rating.
Sarah (7798 KP) rated The Ward (2010) in Movies
Nov 9, 2019
Very poor
I've considered this film every time I've looked through horror films on Sky, mainly because it's John Carpenter, and I finally decided to give it a go this evening. Sadly I wish I hadn't bothered.
This film might have been made in 2010, but it looks a lot more like it was filmed when the film is actually set in the 60s. And I don't mean from a realism point of view either. It looks and feels that bad, the effects are awful - admittedly this is kind of explained during the ending but for me it was still no excuse for shoddy physical effects. Amber Heard is actually okay in this but sadly the rest of the cast are rather unremarkable. The wonderful Jared Harris is definitely underused. The whole film relies on poor effects and predictable and rather pathetic jump scares that aren't even scary. The horror aspect of this film is sadly lacking.
I didn't see the ending coming, but even when it did this sort of storyline has been done in much bigger and better films. And the final scene was rather pathetic and obvious.
Overall a very poor return for John Carpenter.
This film might have been made in 2010, but it looks a lot more like it was filmed when the film is actually set in the 60s. And I don't mean from a realism point of view either. It looks and feels that bad, the effects are awful - admittedly this is kind of explained during the ending but for me it was still no excuse for shoddy physical effects. Amber Heard is actually okay in this but sadly the rest of the cast are rather unremarkable. The wonderful Jared Harris is definitely underused. The whole film relies on poor effects and predictable and rather pathetic jump scares that aren't even scary. The horror aspect of this film is sadly lacking.
I didn't see the ending coming, but even when it did this sort of storyline has been done in much bigger and better films. And the final scene was rather pathetic and obvious.
Overall a very poor return for John Carpenter.
LeftSideCut (3778 KP) rated Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982) in Movies
Mar 9, 2021
It's a shame that this movie gets generally overlooked due to the absence of Michael Myers. As its own thing, Halloween III is a suitably ridiculous piece of horror/sci-fi/mystery cheese that deserb s more love dammit!
It has the always reliable Tom Atkins in the lead role, Dan O'Herlihy as this movies James Bond level villain, some pretty fun gory moments, a sub plot that has something to do with Stonehenge, a wonderful music score from John Carpenter and Alan Howarth (ignoring that truly grating Silver Shamrock jingle), and a mostly solid mystery narrative. There's a lot to love here that unfortunately get buried under nothing more than its title.
It has the always reliable Tom Atkins in the lead role, Dan O'Herlihy as this movies James Bond level villain, some pretty fun gory moments, a sub plot that has something to do with Stonehenge, a wonderful music score from John Carpenter and Alan Howarth (ignoring that truly grating Silver Shamrock jingle), and a mostly solid mystery narrative. There's a lot to love here that unfortunately get buried under nothing more than its title.
Awix (3310 KP) rated Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) in Movies
Jul 2, 2020
'Why would someone shoot at a police station?' John Carpenter's exemplary action exploitation movie is set in mid-70s Los Angeles but is basically a mash-up of a western and a zombie movie. Two convicts, a secretary and a highway patrol officer find themselves besieged in a soon-to-be-derelict police precinct by hordes of psychopathic street gang members.
One of those examples of a virtually perfect movie: an incredibly economical script with immaculate storytelling is brought to the screen with immensely charismatic performances by the three leads (you watch it now and it's genuinely baffling that none of them had more substantial movie careers). Also a fascinating mixture of old-style and new Hollywood - scenes pastiching the style of Howard Hawks movies sit alongside genuinely provocative moments like the ice cream scene. Overall, though, just a tremendously enjoyable action film, and exhibit A for the case that John Carpenter did his career backwards.
One of those examples of a virtually perfect movie: an incredibly economical script with immaculate storytelling is brought to the screen with immensely charismatic performances by the three leads (you watch it now and it's genuinely baffling that none of them had more substantial movie careers). Also a fascinating mixture of old-style and new Hollywood - scenes pastiching the style of Howard Hawks movies sit alongside genuinely provocative moments like the ice cream scene. Overall, though, just a tremendously enjoyable action film, and exhibit A for the case that John Carpenter did his career backwards.
