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Pat Healy recommended Videodrome (1983) in Movies (curated)

 
Videodrome (1983)
Videodrome (1983)
1983 | Horror, Sci-Fi

"I love David Cronenberg and everything he is about. He’s crawled inside my head and shown me dreams I never thought I’d have. His seminal 1983 psychodrama about the power of the media to corrupt and manipulate the minds of the people through sex and violence is as prophetic as it is horrifying. The mind-boggling effects dreamt up by Cronenberg and the master Rick Baker are a work of art unto themselves. It’s prophetic and horrifying and fascinating. Poetic, where other horror films are just gruesome and punishing. And Cronenberg gives a great commentary in conversation with longtime DP Mark Irwin. The edition also contains one of my favorite special features ever: Fear on Film, a half-hour roundtable discussion with Cronenberg, John Landis, and John Carpenter, who were all making classic horror films at Universal at the same time. It’s a nice little taste of what it must have been like to be around at a revolutionary time for American horror. I wish I had been there"

Source
  
Trick 'r Treat (2007)
Trick 'r Treat (2007)
2007 | Horror
Great anthology stories that overlap (3 more)
Great characters
Good make-up effects
Good cast
A new Halloween classic
A great collection of Halloween tales that overlap each other on one Halloween night in a small town. It has some great moments in the 4 main stories, mixing up an urban ghost story, scary creatures, slasher and just the plain weird. It has a good cast including Brian Cox looking a little John Carpenter like and Anna Paquin of True Blood. The film also reminds the viewers of the reasons behind some of the traditions. A bit short at 80mins but very enjoyable, one of the best horror anthologies around! This could become a cult film taking into account it didn't get a cinema release....who knows why!? Plenty of extras on the DVD as well.
  
Big Trouble in Little China (1986)
Big Trouble in Little China (1986)
1986 | Action, Comedy, Fantasy
Escape from china town
Big Trouble in Little China is a 1986 martial arts comedy movie.
the story follows Jack Burton, a man who agrees to help his friend Wang Chi rescue his green-eyed fiancée from bandits in San Francisco's Chinatown. Their mission leads them to a mysterious underworld beneath Chinatown, where they face an ancient sorcerer named Lo Pan, who requires a woman with green eyes to marry him in order to release him from a centuries-old curse.

Directed by John Carpenter and starring Kurt Russell, Kim Cattrall, Dennis Dun and James Hong

Great storyline, cheesy old school graphics and action, brilliant characters and cast.
Absolute classic.




release date: July 2, 1986
Running time: 99 minutes

Fun fact:

The project fulfilled Carpenter's long-standing desire to make a martial arts movie.
  
Escape from New York (1981)
Escape from New York (1981)
1981 | Action, Sci-Fi
9
8.2 (20 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Snaaaaaake!
Escape from New York is a 1981 dystopian science fiction-action film.


In 1997, a major war between the U.S and Russia is continuing and the whole of Manhattan has been converted into a giant free roaming maximum security prison. When Air Force One is hijacked and crashes into the island, the president is taken hostage by inmates. Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell), a former Special Forces soldier turned criminal, is recruited to retrieve the president in exchange for his own freedom.

Dark toned action adventure spawning a cult franchise and heavily inspired the Metal Gear Solid franchise. (I mean its lead character is snake plissken)

co-written, co-scored and directed by John Carpenter.
 It stars Kurt Russell, Lee Van Cleef, Donald Pleasence, Ernest Borgnine, Isaac Hayes, Adrienne Barbeau, and Harry Dean Stanton
  
Escape from New York (1981)
Escape from New York (1981)
1981 | Action, Sci-Fi
9
8.2 (20 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Kurt Russell (0 more)
Snake
Escape From New York is a excellent movie. That combines sci-fi, action, adventure, suspense and thrills.

The plot: In 1997, a major war between the United States and the Soviet Union is concluding, and the entire island of Manhattan has been converted into a giant maximum security prison. When Air Force One is hijacked and crashes into the island, the president (Donald Pleasence) is taken hostage by a group of inmates. Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell), a former Special Forces soldier turned criminal, is recruited to retrieve the president in exchange for his own freedom.

The cast is full of people who have or will work will john carpenter. Kurt Russell, Nick Castle, Tom Atkins, Donald Pleaseance, Jamie Lee Curtis and Nancy Stephens all in this film.

Its a excellent movie.
  
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Steve Fearon (84 KP) rated Halloween (1978) in Movies

Sep 5, 2018 (Updated Sep 5, 2018)  
Halloween (1978)
Halloween (1978)
1978 | Horror
Well shot, intense, patient and the birth of a horror icon (0 more)
A little tame compared to the horrors that followed, at times the soundtrack can overwhelm the dialog to the detriment of the film. (0 more)
John Carpenter's Slasher still stands tallest
Contains spoilers, click to show
That theme song starts.

You feel it somewhere deep inside, that feeling that something special is going to happen.

Halloween is THE Slasher, with a silent antagonist, an over-the-top performance from Donald Pleasance, the introduction of Jamie Lee Curtis, and the establishment of John Carpenter as one of the foremost purveyors of horror.

Patiently paced, with little time given to explanation of exposition, we are taken on the slow build up of tension as we go from the legendary intro sequence, to a breakout at the asylum, through to the stalking of teenagers by the man in the William Shatner mask.

Lots of shots of Myers just watching, waiting, judging, which could be interpreted as boring on paper, but it is just the right side of unnerving, and it is this constant threat which means the viewer is constantly scanning the edges of the screen, looking for our antagonist.

It contrasts beautifully with the naivety and innocence of his victims, who are just trying to enjoy Halloween as most teenagers are wont to do.

Yes this film is relatively tame compared to the films that have come after, but few can touch the pure sinister feel and atmosphere that Carpenter creates, and it is a simply iconic entry in cinema history.

Watch it for what it is, a genre changing horror film, that changed all that followed it.

No Myers, No Friday 13th, No Scream, No Nightmare On Elm Street.

Its that important.
  
Escape from New York (1981)
Escape from New York (1981)
1981 | Action, Sci-Fi
8.2 (20 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"Escape From New York, because that’s the one that made me want to make movies. It was a fantasy world. It was like, “What? There’s a wall around New York? It’s a prison? You can do that? You can just make stuff like that up?” That’s a lot of freedom; I thought that was very freeing. I was twelve when I saw that, twelve or thirteen. And I saw that [John Carpenter] wrote it, directed it, and did the music, and I was just like, “This guy’s doing everything. You can do that?” It just felt like, it was so renegade. It was independently done, and it made me want to start making movies, and I started making movies from that point on. It was just very inspiring. I knew I had a lot of interest, and that made me… That was movie that just really marked my life."

Source
  
FIRESTARTER (2022)
FIRESTARTER (2022)
2022 | Action, Horror
3
4.4 (5 Ratings)
Movie Rating
I have a soft spot for the original Firestarter. It's not perfect by any means but it possesses a certain brand of charm. This new version from Blumhouse sucks all of that charm out and then some. The annoying thing is, it's not the worst thing I've ever sat through, but I genuinely don't think I've ever been so fucking bored watching a movie in my life. Every fibre of the finished product is just bland and forgettable, to the point that I had mostly purged it from my mind with minimal effort by the time I got home from the cinema. Kudos to Ryan Kiera Armstrong for doing the best she can with what she was given, and the soundtrack from John and Cody Carpenter, and Daniel A. Davies goes pretty hard, but it's not enough to save this flaming pile of miserable wank.
  
Wonderland: Alice in Poetry
Wonderland: Alice in Poetry
Michaela Morgan | 2016 | Fiction & Poetry
7
7.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Can anybody truly say,
Had you never come our way,
Alice, where we'd be today?

If you love Alice and Wonderland then this is the book for you. Some poems you will know, such as the iconic 'The Walrus and the Carpenter' but there are also some new pieces, inspired by the classic tale, waiting to be discovered.

This collections comprises of 53 poems which was much larger than I was expecting. Obviously, OBVIOUSLY a lot of these are penned by Lewis Carroll: it would be sacrilegious otherwise. However, I was impressed by the inclusion of modern poets in order to appeal to the younger reader: even Facebook gets a mention!

The illustrations by Sir John Tenniel are perfect and I loved the italic additions throughout the book which educate the reader as to the inspiration behind the verses.


An anthology of fantasy; this collection is perfect for our busy lives when we need a quick five minutes of escapism.