Things That Bump : John Carpenter
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It’s been almost three years. Three long years of watching PFC bloom. From those early days of Anurag Kashyap’s ‘Black Friday’ stories to one and only one (sigh) post from Santosh Sivan to a plethora of exclusive bloggers and some really talented ‘passionate’ writes like Magik, Oz etc. I never really realized that when PFC became a part of my life and so far, in a part where I often bare my heart as someone putting down a comment for articles which I like or hate. Those comments, sometimes they brought back ire sometimes supports but once again reinstated my faith that PFC runs in a democracy often not seen in most powerful countries of the world, in its own matrix where none, however big his name is can gulp you down some BS.
This is my humble effort to share with all the like-minded PFCers out there about a few movie directors who helped me to understand this beautiful fraud called cinema a little better. I do not claim to be a master for all of their works as some of them have a volume of work and that too so intricate that it will take a few more lifetimes to completely grasp them. My only request is, if you find these directors interesting and if you have not gone through their works before, then, please gives them a try. Only then it will be a satisfying effort for me. And for all those people familiar with these directors’ works, please correct me as I may falter in my small knowledge.
Anothe small preambling: As an undying fan of horror movies who still hopes against hope that next ‘8 movies to die for’ series will bring him something new in horror (and as always, finds that hopes having a premature death), this series will have a little propensity towards horror directors coz horror as uncle Stevie often said in his EW columns is the “mother and father of all human emotions”.
So Here We Go:
Things That Bump: John Carpenter
World cinema (if it ever felt the need) will remember John Carpenter as a horror movie director who came to prominence somewhere between late ’70s to mid ‘8o’s , went to that favorite resting ground called oblivion and never really emerged again. If pressed a little more, it might pay homage to him for discovering/formulating Slasher genre with a movie called “Halloween”, which almost 20 years later will be butchered more mercilessly than even Mike Myers could think of in the hand of a director called Rob Zombie.
But John Carpenter was more than Halloween. The man who now fumbles to find a good finance for his projects and long been buried from popular consciousness as another auteur of blaxploitation movies, very gracefully enriched the world of horror cinema with a whole lot of new perspectives. Sadly, when we talk about directors from his era Scorses or Palma will inevitably top the chart and he will be left alone coz he was typed as ‘B’ genre. So that brings to the question, what makes John Carpenter unique? And my answer is his lifelong support for one genre, for one craft even when that genre was long toppled from the top billing for movie-going juntas.
Is it like Carpenter never made a compromise? Nope, he ain’t no Lars Von Trier or Pierre Paolo Passolini and honestly he never aimed to be so. To keep his juggernaut rolling he mixed horror with comedy (Big Trouble in Little China), with sci-fi(Ghosts of Mars, Escape from New York) and with plain cheesiness(Vampires). But somewhere deep inside his awestruck feeling for that ‘true’ horror remained intact. It was like a teenager’s first peep at a real naked female (Malena, anyone?). You might bed thousand bodies throughout your life but that one face, that one touch keeps lingering on. And that is one quality of Carpenter for which I will always respect him. A man who knew his craft. His craft that waned, rusted, got uprooted but never really abandoned him. Today, when I see the gorefest of Hollywood from likes of Eli Roth and direct-to-dvd horror movies, the lack of suspense or originality from screenplay or from the terrible remake on which Universal now cashes in like anything (Speaking of which Carpenter’s Halloween survived two pathetic attacks from that rock star turned horror movie director turned dud Rob Zombie) I really understand that within his limitation why Carpenter remained as true Master of Horror.
Here are three of his movies which I consider his best works yet, or ever. Your remarks are welcome.
1. In The Mouth of Madness : When ITMOM came out in 1995 , I was getting initiated to horror lit and movies by the way of William Peter Blatty’s exorcist or Devid Seltzer’s the omen. In those days ITMOM was something that I have never seen before. 14 years later when I watch it again, obviously some loopholes for Carpenter’s trademark shoestring budget pokes at me. But you know, an enchantment for all those long-gone years, I value them more than tons of analytical weeds/intellect that grew in. The story of ITMOM goes like: Shutter Cane is a very big horror writer (Think Stephen King). Suddenly he disappeared before delivering his latest book which is called, In The Mouth Of Madness. The book company (Think Bantam) hires an insurance detective (Sam Neil) to find out whereabouts of Shutter Cane. With some clues buried in previous books of Cane, the detective reaches to a place called Hobb’s End only to find out that there is no longer a story. Whatever Cane has written so far is coming out in reality and Cane’s last book is actually to bring apocalypse where the detective is bound to play the role of the failed protagonist. It was like hell of a ride for me and it gave me one last scene which wows me after all these years. In that last scene, Sam Neil enters a deserted movie theatre where a movie is playing on screen. What he sees on that screen puts the movie and the audience in one ‘endless’ loop. Pretty intelligent, pretty fantastic.
2.Prince of Darkness: So there was H.P.Lovecraft. A horror writer from early 20th century who started this concept that there is another dimension where the bad things are. We can not see them coz we have our senses trained in a 3D world. But for some reasons if there is a crack between our dimensions and theirs, ‘bad’ things might come out to do something horrible. Carpenter, like many other artists worldwide, was highly influenced by this concept. But in this movie, generally panned by the critics and looks to formulaic on first viewing, does one wonderful job of mixing that Lovecraftian concept(called Chtulus Mythos) with the biblical concept of Anti-Christ. A taut suspense with some of his apocalyptic visions. The climax is something that still gives me shiver.
3.Escape From New York: Carpenter’s first take on a ‘post-apocalyptic’ world where Manhattan has become a ‘High Security Prison’ post world war 3. What if President of USA is captured and put into this place? Well, a war torn Uncle Sam put a con named Snake Plissken inside to rescue Mr. President. Sounds pretty formulaic? I even thought so. But one watch and I understood that what this guy did hiding this gem in a shell of formula-based ‘B’ movies and cunningly showing politics,cold-war and anxiety in USA of that era brilliantly. Worth at least one watch.
So, that’s my ‘heart baring’ for one of my favorite movie directors John Carpenter. Hope to see you next time and keep being passionate about movies coz movies are nearest to something that man has ever achieved as creating his own universe. Let some of us create and rest of us cherish that universe and thus be enriched. Thanks.
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Satish Kasetty
Happy diwali … to the PFC family… authors, editors, writers, viweres audience and guest celebrities… I missed the Id greetings.. but yes, best wishes are best wishes… to all for every occassion
… wishing each one of you the best…
(wow I also wanted to wish each one of you guys… like saurabh shukla… coming to think of it PFC has become a family… )
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hey LBS… so sorry mate.. was half drunk.. (wts half drunk .. eesh .. drunk) and was wishing folks, thought of dropping a msg at PFC as well .. urs was the first post.. so sorry mate didnt wish to divert the post topic away… all the best..
and wishing the best on diwali …
oz… if PBS has issues can you please delete these posts?
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LDS, Great take off!
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Hey LDS… great post.. simple language and engrossing… guess I might ve started reading cuz of my guilt over my drunk words a few hours back, but once started I couldn’t stop reading… havent followed JOhn Carpenter much have a watched a couple of his movies… and for all reasons had John Carpenter stuck to a genre like making movies out of video games he might ve risen to the top… his movies for sure had that touch of converting video games with actors and special effects.. by the way yes the article does make me curious to watch the 3 movies u’ve mentioned… hang on .. would try to access these movies and pass my review about the same to you … nice post… !
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In The Mouth of Madness is a sublimely haunting film, and definitely Carpenter’s best. But I’m surprised you missed out The Thing, which gave a big boost to the survival horror sub-genre, apart from being a kick-ass horror film.
IMHO, American horror in the last 3 decades have been defined by the troika of Tobe Hooper (Texas Chainsaw, Poltergeist)-Carpenter-Romero. These three were the at the van of a new wave of American horror. So yeah, it’s always nice to see old John being appreciated on PFC. Thanks for the piece!
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Hi LDS, welcome to PFC, and another welcome from a fellow fan of the Horror Genre.
And yeah your post is a welcome relief from the “Blues”.
John Carpenter been one of my horror favorites along with Wes Craven, George Romero, Mario Bava.
Another JC movie that i liked is Christine, about a car possesed by a spirit that goes around killing people. BTW JC also attempted romance with Starman( Jeff Bridges and Karen Allen), it was fine, but loved Karen Allen in it.
Also Memoirs of an Invisible Man, taking off on the Invisible Man theme, pretty much entertaining, and some great special effects too.
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Sorry i meant movie was okayish, but loved Karen Allen in it.
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BTW whats ur take on Wes Craven. His first 2 movies( Last House on Left, Hills Have Eyes) were absolute grindhouse kinda flicks, but Nightmare on Elm Street is for sure one of my favorites in the horror genre.
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Ratnakar,
You watch a whole lotta movies man. Personally, I don’t like ‘Wes Craven’ that much coz 1. I am from Jason of Cystal Lake camp :P 2. I don’t find something cerebral(even if superficial cerebral) in his movies. But yes Nightmare (with or w/out kiddo Depp) was a pathbraking movie till hollywood made it Licorice Gum :P
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Dude..nice write up and I second your thoughts. I love John Carpenter movies and I have seen most of them.
But my only “grudge” against you is, how you could miss “The Thing”?? Maybe personally, you would put it below the mentioned 3 movies. Just wanted to give a shout for my fav & one of THE best horror/thriller films ever!!
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Satish,
I put ‘The Thing’ out of the list as I said in the preface that motive of this blog is to make someone, uninitiated in Carpenter’s work, curious. And as I said my knowledge may falter (Although I gladly agree with you that ‘The Thing’ is one of the best sci-fi horror ever made but I prefer to keep ‘Alien’ as numero uno in this sub-genre) and therefore it is fellow PFCers like you who can enrich my effort.
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“The Thing” is sci-fi horror flick. “They Live” was another sci-fi horror. My personal favourite is “Big Trouble in Little China”, cheesecake at its best.
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Big Trouble in Little China…
Man, some fond memories and that too before I watched any Rahanikant movie :P
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