Classic 80's Horror Double Feature: The Fog and The Howling

Recently the greatest studio known to man or beast, Shout Factory, opened the flood gates on horror fans with brand new transfers of The Howling and The Fog onto baby blu. I figured it'd be a good time to rewatch these classics and pay homage to two of my favorite directors.

The Fog
(1980) [Trailer]
Director: John Carpenter [IMDB]

My worship of John Carpenter has been well documented with the hallowed halls of Williams Film Review... don't believe me, then click here. It would be extremely perplexing to try and arrange JC's movies in order from "best" to "not so great" (he doesn't make "worst" films... well maybe, I just have a hard time dealing with it.) Let's say I were to try... The Fog would be in the upper echelon, maybe like 4th or 5th, but definitely in the top 3 for horror from him.

This is the part where I'd normally say "let's put this in and see how it holds up", but that's not needed here... it holds.

Synopsis: Shit gets weird when a small California town stands at the threshold of it's 100 year anniversary and a looming fog roles in off the sound.

I really dig how The Fog opens up, especially the first 20 minutes which are truly ominous and strange. It's fun to watch the town slowly break and shatter as the initial wave of fog creeps onto the scene. After that, when the first daybreak hits, it's Carpenter's job to reel in the story and give you context, which he does masterfully. Then that ending... it's sick. The cross that's too hot to handle for the priest carrying the sins of Antonio Bay, the red eyed veiled threat slowly marching towards its victims, and just when you think everything is cool... nope.

The Fog is indeed a classic. It's a juicy filet mignon, with the correct proportions of seasoning, seared off in a little butter and served medium... in other words... a nice meal.

The Howling
(1981) [Trailer]
Director: Joe Dante [IMDB]

I also love Joe Dante. His films are like tequila... when I drink one I feel all warm inside and if his titles are like tequila brands, then The Howling is like his Patron (that's a nice tequila right?) It has been years since I took a swig of this concoction and as I recollect, it was terrifying, especially the transformation scenes... I mean look at that poster over there to the left... scary shit man.

Synopsis: A killer is on the lose in San Fran. A local reporter gets tangled up in a trail that leads to the killer and a lot more.... and by more I mean killer werewolves.

Upon inserting the blu-ray into my player I began to hear the intro music on the menu screen and a huge smile developed on my face. It was comforting, just like this rest of the film. I was surprised to remember so much of The Howling as it unfolded before me. It's still creepy and weird and totally feels like a Dante film. It's a little slow moving during the first half, but makes up for it by the end. The special effects are like a fine chevre and just get better with time, people may disagree with the statement, but they would be wrong.

If you're into werewolves and want to see what they were like in film before Twilight, give this a poke.

Escape from New York & L.A.

John Carpenter... the man, the myth, the legend. Probably my favorite director of all time (well him and a few others) and one whose movies I can easily watch at the drop of a dime. I decided to rewatch two classics in his arsenal... Escape from New York and it's predecessor Escape from L.A. Boom!

Escape from New York
(1981) [Trailer]
Director: John Carpenter [IMDB]

Synopsis: In a dystopian future Manhattan Island has become home to all the United State's prisoners... glad I moved over to Queens recently.

A good way for me to write you off as a person is for you to tell me you don't like this movie. Sure you could joke around and say it, but if you were honest, I'd would think differently about you.

This film is so easy to watch and take in... and even as ridiculous as the concept is, it still makes for a great film. It obviously takes some suspension of disbelief to get behind what Carpenter is selling in EFNY, but if you can, you'll find a story that's dark, satirical, and filled with suspense. I've said on the site before how much I love Kurt Russell and in the role of Snake Plisskin he is the man. A quiet badass who doesn't give a shit about anyone, but still has this code that he follows that make you respect his character.

I could go on about this title, but you just need to see it; stop reading and watch it, or rewatch it.

Escape from L.A.
(1996) [IMDB]
Director: John Carpenter [IMDB]

Synopsis: Same thing as Escape from New York, except in L.A.

Snake is back, yeah buddy! I think the last time I saw this was when I was fresh out of high school.  I had forgotten most of it and really the only thing I remember is everyone always saying it sucked. I would disagree completely. This movie rules and if you're a fan of the first one there's no reason not to like this. It's more of the same... only slightly different. I felt like EFLA was a lot more satirical... I especially loved that they moved the capital of the U.S. to Lynchburg, VA. The story is still completely absurd and some of the effects don't hold up, but I really thought this was a fun movie.

Also the surfing scene with Peter Fonda is incredible... one for the history books.

They Live

They Live
(1988) [Trailer]
Director: John Carpenter [IMDB]

This week saw the arrival of They Live on blu-ray... one of my favorite horror films and one of the best John Carpenter movies ever. I've eagerly been awaiting this title on blu and after watching it last night I can tell you... it did not disappoint.

Synopsis: A drifter stumbles upon a rebel force who have discovered a secret race of aliens who hide as humans and can only been seen with special glasses.

This a must for any horror and sci-fi fan and it looks glorious on blu-ray... it's a perfect transfer. This movie rules so much, now let me tell you why.

1. They Live has the best fight scene in film history... ok maybe not the best but it's one of the best.
2. The subliminal secret world of the aliens is a work of art, there are scenes and matte paintings in this that are fantastic and stills of them should be hanging in a museum.
3. The score, like all Carpenter films is the best.

This movie's rewatchability is insane, I feel like I could pop it back on right now and still love every second.

Halloween Anthology

Here's a beautiful poem called 'Halloween' to get you in the mood for this upcoming holiday season... Bonfires burning bright. Pumpkin faces in the night. I remember Halloween. Dead cats hanging from poles. Little dead are out in droves. I remember Halloween. If this beautiful limerick from the great Glenn Danzig doesn't do it for you, maybe a full detailed analysis of the Halloween anthology will.

Halloween

(1978) [Trailer]

Director: John Carpenter [IMDB]

Synopsis: A psycho killer escapes from the mental ward and goes on a killing spree.

I consider this one of the greatest horror films of all time and it's absolutely the best slasher film ever made. From that very first long extended shot of Micheal going through the house and killing his sister... I instantly fell in love with this movie. I really dig how Carpenter keeps injecting Michael into the background and letting the viewer know that he's always stalking his prey. The score is a masterpiece and untouched by any other horror film. For it's genre and time, it is perfection for me. Get on it.

Halloween II

(1981) [Trailer]

Director: Rick Rosenthal [IMDB]

Synopsis: Picking up moments after the ending of part 1... Michael returns to kill again.

Rick Rosenthal takes the directing reins, but Carpenter is still involved as a writer, so for me part two feels similar to it's predecessor. However, it's not nearly as good in my opinion. It's tends to drag it's feet a little towards the end and I started to lose interest. I'm not saying this is a bad film, it's not, it's just hard to recreate the glory of the first installment.

It was nice to see the kid from The Last Starfighter in this and also the return of Donald Pleasence and Jamie Lee Curtis.

Halloween III: Season of the Witch
(1982) [Trailer]
Director: Tommy Lee Wallace [IMDB]

Synopsis: Michael is back and ready for... wait... no he's not.

You read that right, there's no Michael Myers in this chapter and honestly I couldn't give a shit. I have 5 other movies starring that fucker that I have to watch, so it's a nice change of pace for me. Basically this film feels like an extended episode of the Twilight Zone but with a little more gore. It also reminded me a lot of They Live and Invasion of the Body Snatchers. I really enjoyed this much more than I thought I would. The concept is a bit involved and the execution of it isn't 100%, but it's still solid film. Highlights for me were: 1. The overly catchy shamrock song I will probably be singing tomorrow. 2. The Doctor and girl's hook up that starts with the line "Where would you like to sleep, Dr. Challis?" 3. The score. 4. The creepy old lady knitting. 5. The kid being murdered... that's always fun.

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers
(1988) [Trailer]
Director: Dwight H. Little [IMDB]

Synopsis: Michaels back alright...

This film pays heavy homage to the first chapter. It hits on everything that makes these movies click and does a decent job at it. It's not miraculous but it's pretty entertaining. Acting wise it's alright, there are some spotty moments here and there. Donald Pleasence is back and this time there's a little girl that eats up most of the screen time, she's okay I guess... you may recognize her from Adventures in Babysitting.   The Return of Michaels Myers best moments come towards the last 20 minutes and the ending of the film is really solid.

Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers
(1989) [Trailer]
Director: Dominique Othenin-Girard (IMDB)

Synopsis: Do I really need to add a synopsis at this point... I don't think so.

If part 4's intent was to emulate part 1, part 5's intent is to emulate part 4... basically it's the same soup warmed over... and definitely not as good. Judging from the close proximity of the release dates, it seems like this installment was cranked out to ride on the success of part 4. Revenge stars the same little girl, Donald Pleasence, and the main older teen from part 4. The weird thing is the older teenage girl is killed in the first 15 minutes and after she's killed it seems like no one even cares where she is or if she's ok... especially considering the circumstances. It seems pretty useless to me to bring that character back. Also there are these two cops who are partners and the director tries to give them this hokey slap stick vibe which didn't work for me... even going as far as to put these weird sound effects in, which were ridiculous. The last thing is the ending, it was bad... I won't spoil it but there's this unseen man with steel toed boots that's completely unexplained and pointless.

Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers

(1995) [Trailer]

Director: Joe Chappelle [IMDB]

Synopsis: Refer to part 4.

This movie is a mess. Tonally 'The Curse of Michael Myers' is completely unlike the others so far and you immediately know that it was made in the 90's. I knew instantly that I was going to hate this film when the narration started in the beginning... you have this guy lazily giving you back story that really doesn't help support the film itself. I felt like most of this movie didn't really add up to anything cohesive. There's zero character development, so everyone that you're introduced to you could give a shit about when Michael is hacking them up. The addition of the druids and their back story didn't add much to this film as well.

One other glaring problem is... this is 6 years after the last movie, which would mean that Michael's niece (the little girl from the last two movies) is 15 years old and pregnant... there's no way the girl cast in this film is anywhere near 15.

Halloween H20: 20 Years Later
(1998) [Trailer]
Director: Steve Miner [IMDB]

Synopsis: Jamie Lee Curtis is back along with director Steve Miner from the Friday the 13th franchise.

This film moves back towards the original tone of the first two. There's a pretty long stretch with no activity in the middle of H20, and by no activity I mean... Michael chopping up people. You actually have a surprising cast of people who went on to bigger and better things... Josh Hartnett, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michelle Williams... oh yeah and L...L... Cool J? This installment focuses on Jamie Lee Curtis getting over her fear of Michael and confronting him head on. H20 is ok I guess and not as bad as I had heard.

One thing real quick... Michael steals a car in Illinois and drives it all the way to California.... how's he getting gas?

Halloween: Resurrection
(2002) [Trailer]
Director: Rick Rosenthal [IMDB]

Synopsis: Michael terrorizes a group of reality TV stars who invade his former home.

This movie is a turd. It's chopped full of product placement to the point where it bothered me, which it normally doesn't. It's a pretty weak story and delivered by a bunch of shit actors including Busta Rhymes. I'll be honest... I fell asleep halfway through this and I seriously have no desire to go back and see how it ended.

  

Carpenter Fest: Dark Star, Vampires, and Ghosts of Mars.

John Carpenter... the man, the myth, the legend. He's one of my favorite directors, so I thought I'd sit down with three films of his that I haven't seen and knock them out.

Dark Star
(1974) [Full Movie]
Director: John Carpenter (IMDB)

Synopsis: Grizzled astronauts are traveling through space blowing up stars and also having to deal with an asshole beach ball mascot.

As you can tell by the synopsis, this movie is a weird one. It's Carpenter's first full length film and stands out as a rarity from anything I've seen of his. For being released 3 years before I was born, the movie holds up for me in a strange way. The effects, set pieces, and models they used were a little dated... but still fun to watch.

The beach ball critter is just way out there and a very odd addition to the movie. It's a bit silly, but I think that's the point of it.

The pitfalls for me were the dialog and plot, which aren't the best. I did love the ending of the movie, I won't spoil it for you, but it's "totally gnarly!"

Vampires
(1998) [Full Movie]
Director: John Carpenter (IMDB)

Synopsis: James Woods and Daniel Baldwin (the unpopular one) head a group of vampire hunters hired by the Catholic Church to track down blood suckers and you guessed it... kill them.

Vampires is a decent enough movie and has a definite Carpenter feel to it. The cinematography is pretty cool. I noticed a strange reddish tint on a lot of the shots and I don't know if that was intentional or not, but I kind of liked it. There were a lot of great kill scenes and a decent amount of gore throughout. It was also fun to see Laura Palmer back in action, Twin Peaks fans rejoice!

I wasn't a fan of a lot of the dialog in this and some of the acting was shit. Example: there's a scene where James Woods is telling a Priest that he can forget everything he learned about killing Vampires in the movies, like garlic and crosses... then immediately follows it with... the only way to kill these vampires are by sunlight or a stake to the heart?

If you're into JC, John Carpenter not Jesus Christ, then I would check this out. If you're not, you could pass on it and still lead a good life.

Ghosts of Mars
(2001) [Full Movie]
Director: John Carpenter (IMDB)

Synopsis: In the future, we run shit on Mars, but one colony soon finds out that they're not alone on the planet. When the police show up to capture Ice Cube, they get into a lot more then they bargained for.

Sadly, this movie didn't really do a lot for me. Like Vampires, the dialog and acting aren't impressive. The score is the worst of any Carpenter film (which always have killer scores) or any other film for that matter. Also the fight scenes seem extremely slow and overly choreographed.

I did enjoy the set pieces and the overall futuristic look of Mars. The bad guys looked freaky and the buzz saw thingys they threw resulted in some amazing kill shots.

The Thing vs The Thing

I love John Carpenter, he's up there as one of my all time favorite directors, and definitely my favorite Horror director. I also love The Thing, and when I found out they were remaking it... I was PISSED!!!! Not really, they remake all his shit, so I wasn't surprised. I finally got to watch the remake/prequel last night for the first time and in doing so, went right into watching the original again for a verses battle!

The Thing

(2011) [Trailer]
Director: Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. (IMDB)

I figured I'd start with the remake, since technically I watched it first, and It's actually a prequel to the original 1982 film. I'm actually really glad I watched them back to back and I would recommend you do the same.

This film takes place days before the original and centers around the Norwegian team that originally dug up the alien. They discover an alien ship and a frozen critter which prompts them to call upon the help of a couple of American scientists. They soon realize the alien isn't friendly and the death toll starts to rise.

I was really pleased with this movie. I thought I was going to tear it apart, but honestly, it's very solid. Especially a lot of the set pieces and call backs to the original. They did a great job recreating everything based off the little amount of time they spent at the Norwegian base in the first film. The effects were good, but there was some CGI that wasn't amazing. I would say the Achilles heel of this movie would be the characters. I found the original crew to be really interesting and varied, this new crew wasn't. I mean you have Kurt Russell with the sweetest beard in film history vs Mary Elisabeth Winstead... you're always gonna go with the Russell. Overall it's pretty successful and flows right into the original with ease, which I was really happy about.

The Thing

(1982) [Trailer]
Director: John Carpenter (IMDB)

So if you haven't seen this film, I feel bad for you, go get on it and stop reading this. The Thing is a loose remake on Howard Hawks' film The Thing from Another World, which is a really cool B movie from the 50's. Carpenter basically took Howard's original idea and remade a masterpiece in modern horror.

An alien ship crash lands in Antarctica, the alien freezes, then is thawed out by some Norwegians... which it kills. A sole husky escapes carrying the alien life form to a new snow base filled with Kurt Russel, Wilford Brimley, and a bunch of other awesomely grizzled dudes. The alien has the uncanny ability to eat you, then turn into you. The crew realize they're in deep shit and start to fight for their lives.

Every time I watch this movie I love it more and more. The direction is superb and flawless in my opinion. I love the way Carpenter builds the suspense of this story, it's like a pressure cooker building up a fine roast. His use of blue and red lights against the all white canvas of the Antarctic is really unique and the score (which Carpenter wrote) is chilling and suits the overall tone perfectly. Kurt Russell is badass, and all the other players are great. The practical effects are alittle dated, but look awesome, I miss stuff like that in horror. I'd recommend you pick up the blu-ray and check this out, it's probably one of the best transfers I've seen.