This cult classic from John Carpenter gave the world the iconic character of Snake Plissken (what a name!). After working together on the TV movie Elvis, Escape From New York was the first theatrical release for the Carpenter/Kurt Russell partnership. Together, they made several more movies, including the classic The Thing plus, regrettably, the lamentable…
Assault On Precinct 13
John Carpenter’s original Assault On Precinct 13 is one of my all-time favourite thrillers. This movie is a master-class in how to make a low-budget exploitation classic. Carpenter shows a sure-hand throughout, beginning with the ear-worm electronic theme tune he composed himself, and he expertly builds the tension before bringing all the characters together in…
Halloween / Halloween II
The original Halloween was and still is my most terrifying experience in a cinema, for reasons that only partly relate to the film itself. True, John Carpenter’s 1978 original is a masterpiece of horror cinema. He practically invented the whole slasher genre, and unwittingly ushered in a slew of inferior imitations. I saw Halloween…
The Thing
John Carpenter’s The Thing is one of those movies whose reputation has grown over the years. It got some stinky reviews when it came out and under-performed at the time, but it has since been reappraised and had a second life on DVD as a horror classic. Carpenter subsequently made some pretty rubbish movies (hello…