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…
Browsing: John Carpenter
BODY BAGS **** USA 1993 Dir: John Carpenter / Tobe Hooper / Larry Sulkis. 91 mins Showtime’s attempt to cash in on the success of HBO’s TALES FROM THE CRYPT resulted in this one-off horror anthology, framed by amusingly bad taste scenes of a coroner (the appropriately cadaverous John Carpenter,…
MEMOIRS OF AN INVISIBLE MAN **** USA 1992 Dir: John Carpenter. 99 mins A financial flop at the time, this adaptation of H.F. Saint’s novel about the loneliness of invisibility was a pet project for Chevy Chase who, wanting more serious roles, agreed to do NATIONAL LAMPOON’S CHRISTMAS VACATION for…
THEY LIVE ***** USA 1988 Dir: John Carpenter. 95 mins Carpenter’s most enduring sci-fi movie is this frighteningly prescient Reagan-era political satire, following drifter Roddy Piper, who believes in America and is happy to follow the rules. He joins a working homeless community incorporating Carpenter regulars George “Buck” Flower and…
PRINCE OF DARKNESS **** USA 1987 Dir: John Carpenter. 97 mins Considered the middle part of an “apocalypse” trilogy bracketed by THE THING and IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS, this was Carpenter’s return to low budget filmmaking after several years of working for Hollywood studios. A mature and unfashionable 80’s…