GHOSTS OF MARS *** USA 2001 Dir: John Carpenter. 98 mins One of Carpenter’s least admired movies, this formed part of his cycle of 90’s FX-driven studio movies and was also one of the decade’s under-performing big budget Mars movies. It’s a knockabout horror-infused action movie with a great cast,…
Browsing: John Carpenter
VAMPIRES **** USA 1998 Dir: John Carpenter. 108 mins The most stylish and bloodiest of Carpenter’s 90’s movies, this adaptation of John Steakley’s novel (by LIFEFORCE screenwriter Don Jakoby) followed major studio R-rated vampire movies FROM DUSK TILL DAWN and BLADE and, like those, led to a pair of (pretty…
ESCAPE FROM L.A. **** USA 1996 Dir: John Carpenter. 99 mins Paramount gave Carpenter his biggest budget to date to make his only sequel as director : the result, co-written with Debra Hill and Kurt Russell, was one of the most bleakest “fun” movies of the 1990’s. It follows other…
VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED *** USA 1995 Dir: John Carpenter. 97 mins Carpenter’s modern interpretation of the John Wyndham novel (and its much admired 1960 film adaptation) relocates the story to small town USA and opens on a suitably uncanny note. Whispering voices and ominous music on the soundtrack accompany…
IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS ***** USA 1994 Dir: John Carpenter. 95 mins Carpenter’s return to horror after an eight-year hiatus is, like the same year’s WES CRAVEN’S NEW NIGHTMARE a scary, witty commentary on the genre itself in which the “unreal” accepted as a kind of religion by some…