Family Values (Candyman 2: Farewell to the Flesh, 1995)

Bill Condon (God’s and Monsters, Mr. Holmes, the upcoming Beauty & The Beast) took over the franchise with Farewell to the Flesh. The setting moves from Chicago to New Orleans just before Mardi Gras, and focuses on a young teacher Annie and her family. Her father died the year before in what appeared to be a Candyman Murder. Her brother gets in trouble when he threatens an author who wrote a book on Candyman and said author is gutted.

This film focuses heavily on the backstory of the Candyman as Annie starts to discover that her family has a deep connection to him. Annie unwittingly calls him forth and he comes and speaks to her, killing those nearby. He also seems to start influencing the children of her class.

There are some interesting ideas at play here, but it does not always make a lot of sense. Why exactly is the Candyman trying to kill his descendants? Why is he seeking to destroy himself? Does he not want his family line to continue?

Todd, as with the first film gives a dependable performance, imbuing the Candyman with a dark threatening and yet tragic nature. But the film never comes together, and has a tendency to feel all over the place. While not a terrible sequel, it is not as good a follow up as one would hope.

October 12, 2016 0

He’d Like to Come and Meet Us (Starman, 1984)

Starman is a whimsical tale of an inquisitive alien who adopts a human identity. Of course, he chooses the form of a grieving widow’s dead husband. This is one of the rare contributions of Carpenter that is about hope.

At first widow Jenny is horrified and frightened by the naked man in her home. But she cautiously trusts him. As they run, Jenny starts to help the Starman understand what he is experiencing. He is perplexed by our human insecurities. He is full of kindness, but finds our unkindness to be senseless. Starman is trying to show a better path, but mankind rejects this, seeing him as a threat.

Starman is remarkably upbeat for a guy who has an Apocalyptic Trilogy.

And yet, in spite of this…it is like this little bit of hopefulness slipped out. And I like it. Carpenter is a lot more thoughtful of a storyteller than some might think, but he often often slips it in beneath buckets of blood and goo.

It is a heartwarming film, much because of Jeff Bridges’ performance. He plays the Starman in a kind way, as a child just discovering that life is not fair. Allen is terrific in a potentially thankless role. She brings heart to Starman’s goodness. More than one film since has aped Starman’s inspiring behavior. Starman is not one of Carpenter’s more talked about films, and that is a shame. It is not a common film for him, but it is touching and a good little film.

October 12, 2016 0

Hooked (Candyman, 1992)

Based on a short story by Clive Barker called the Forbidden, Candyman is a film about urban legends. Helen Lyle (Virginia Madsen) is a grad student who is doing a thesis on urban legends. She discovers a legend within the tenements of Cabrini-Green of the Candyman. Borrowing from the famous Bloody Mary, the belief is that if you look in a mirror and say his name five times, Candyman appears behind you and guts you with his hook.

As Helen becomes more obsessed with delving into the heart of the Candyman myth, she starts to miss signs that other parts of her life are falling apart…especially her marriage. Her husband has an ongoing affair with one of his students. Candyman seems drawn to Helen, and commits murders to frame her.

Candyman is a pretty unique film, as it focuses on black urban communities (as did Wes Craven’s The People Under the Stairs a year earlier). The short story was set in England, but director Bernard Rose (Immortal Beloved) felt setting it in America would be a better and more appropriate choice. And the setting of Cabrini-Green was a masterful choice.

The film is highly effective. The backstory of the Candyman makes him and effective and tragic monster. The son of a slave, the Candyman had grown to prominence as an artist. He was renowned for his portraits. He fell in love with and had a child with a white woman. A mob chased him down, severed his hand, covering him in honey and replacing his hand with a hook. As he is dying, he is covered in bees…ultimately dying from the stings. This creates a powerful visual, as the Candyman is often covered in bees.

Much of what makes this film work is Tony Todd. Todd plays the character as charmingly regal, yet very menacing. Eddie Murphy had been considered for the role, but thankfully he was out of the price range. Because Tony Todd makes the character work in a way few actors could have. The film is definitely a gorefest, so the squeamish may wish to avoid the film.

Candyman adds to the pantheon of great monsters and is a solid fright film.

October 11, 2016 0

Guys Love Their Cars (Christine, 1983)

After the Thing, Carpenter went with a different type of terror. In some ways, it is a return to the ghostly tale of the Fog. But instead of Leper Pirates, Christine is the tale of an obsessive car.

Nerdy Arnie is put upon…he has one friend (athlete Dennis) and overbearing parents. He discovers a decaying old car, a 57 Plymouth Fury. It’s first owner named it Christine and Arnie falls in love. He buys the car, and it begins to love him back. Christine brings about a change in Arnie. He dresses a bit cooler, he behaves with a bit more attitude. He even gets a girlfriend. Attractive Leigh, who is new to the school. Christine begins to take out the bullies who make Arnie miserable, but the obsession between Arnie and Christine grows and becomes dangerous to his only friends.

Christine is a very good adaption of Stephen King’s work. It focuses on what is important, even when it makes changes. Christine’s first owner (Roland LeBay) is the ghost that haunts her. Arnie purchases the car from him and then he dies. It is revealed he was a dark man and he has a dark history.

Carpenter optioned to, instead, make Christine a spirit of her own. And it works quite effectively. Keith Gordon (Jaws 2, Dressed to Kill) captures Arnie’s descent into truly obsessive behavior effectively. He take Arnie from Sympathetic to frightening so well.

Visually, the movie is impressive. There are some amazing shots of Christine (one where she is driving down the road engulfed in flames). The effects are “simple” but very effective. When Christine is damaged, she “fixes” herself and it looks great.

It is interesting to note that the initial negative response to Carpenter’s The Thing left John feeling like he had to take the job. He did not find the book particularly scary. And yet, in the end, he created an effect story of obsession certainly belonging in a list of great John Carpenter films.

October 11, 2016 1

How It All Began… (The Thing, 2011)

When it was announced that they were making a movie connected to John Carpenter’s the Thing, the internet seemed unsure how to describe it. Is it a Sequel? No. Is it a reboot? No. Is it a remake? No. But boy, I saw it constantly referred to as a remake and a reboot, even after it came out. Here is the thing, there is literally no doubt that this is a prequel. It is set shortly before Carpenter’s film at the Norwegian camp that discovers the alien thing.

Of course, being a prequel, the film spends a lot of time trying to set up and explain stuff we saw in the first film. How was the ship so exposed? How did the alien get out of the block of ice?

This is not to say they do not try and be a bit different.

For one, the cast has female characters, rather than the original’s exclusively male cast. Specifically, Mary Elizabeth Winstead plays Kate Lloyd, a scientist brought by an old friend to the Norwegian base for mysterious reasons. Of course, once she arrives, she can see why they were not so quick to tell her what they found.

They discover a body in the ice, and bring it back to the base. They start to investigate, and are all excited, imagining what this discovery means. But of course, that is when the creature awakens and the horror begins. Once the infection starts, it moves through the cast quickly. One of the things that they successfully do differently is how the characters determine infected from uninfected. This all leads to an eventful showdown as the alien tries to take off with his ship.

Unlike the original, which often would slow down, and the ending fight was small and contained, this film is full of major action on a regular basis. The paranoia takes a back seat to fast action sequences.

While there were actually quite a bit of practical effects designed for the film, the studio pushed for more digital. The digital is not terrible in the film, but still, it feels less real than the effects of the original.

As the film races towards the end it becomes heavily focused on filling in the blanks of the destruction discovered by Kurt Russell and Richard Dysart in Carpenter’s film. In the end, while a strong idea supports this film, the execution never comes close to having the impact of John Carpenter’s the Thing.

October 10, 2016 0

Mighty Mutatin’ Machine (The Thing, 1982)

Hot on the heels of Escape From New York, Carpenter and Russell worked together on the Thing. A film based on the short story “Who Goes There” (which had been adapted previously as The Thing From Another World).

Focusing on a research team in a remote arctic location, this story of paranoia is highly effective. The team is attacked by a pair of Norwegians. When they go visit the base, they find the remains of some major mayhem. They also find some bizarre corpses and video evidence of something discovered within the ice.

What they do not realize, until it is to late is that the Norwegians were not attacking them…they were after something else…something protected by our American team.

And what they discover is an alien lifeform that can mimic any life form it encounters. And that is when it really gets interesting. Who can you trust? Who is human and who is not? Carpenter uses this to fuel a paranoid and exciting story full of twists and turns. Kurt Russell’s helicopter pilot becomes a defacto leader, much to the annoyance of Garry (Donald Moffat) and Childs (Keith David).

The cast is excellent. It is hard to go wrong with guys like Keith David and Kurt Russell, but the entire cast are top notch in their performances. The film is full of tense moments that lead up to shocking moments. The shocks are courtesy of FX guru rob Bottin and his crew. The transformations are bizarre and gruesome in the best way possible. This film is a benchmark of effects achievement, and it is a great selling point for practical effects.

John Carpenter’s The Thing is an absolute sci-fi and horror classic and one of Carpenter’s best films.

This month, Shout!Factory has released an all new Blu-Ray of the film. The Two disc Special Edition has a very nice 2K scan, resulting in an excellent picture. The packaging has lush new cover art. It also has the Drew Struzan original on the reverse side.

The special features are are numerous and about as comprehensive as a package is eve be. There is a brand new interview with Carpenter by director Mick Garris. Another new feature is the Men of Outpost 31 which features interviews with several cast members (though, no Kurt Russell). Both of these offer new and entertaining insights to the film. They also included the Terror Takes Shape, a 90 minute making of film from the original DVD. It was left off the previous Blu-Ray.

The set also includes vintage featurettes, audio commentaries (a new one with Director of Photography Dean Cundey), outtakes and one of the more surprising inclusions the Network broadcast version of the film.

This is a set worth having in one’s collection. It is filled to the brim with features to explore the history and design of the film. Shout!Factory has done a stellar job here.

October 10, 2016 0

I Heart New York (Escape From New York, 1981)

1981’s Escape from New York was a large change from the Fog and Halloween. There were no supernatural elements and it was not a slasher. Instead, it was a straight up action film set in the distant future of 1997. Reagan married Thatcher and they had a kid who became President. Or something. Anyways, the president gets stuck in the worlds largest maximum penitentiary. Also known as New York.

Snake Plissken is coerced into slipping into Manhattan and saving the president. A pardon is promised. Of course, nothing turns out to be easy. Snake ends up with a small band of folks who help him save the President as well as a cassette tape with top secret intel.

This marked the second of several films John made with Kurt Russell. At the time, Russell was known for a string of Disney films. The character of Snake Plissken was rugged. He had an eye-patch, wore a trench-coat…he was a badass anti-hero. In the end, Plissken is basically an opportunist and an anarchist. He is not saving the president because he cares.

Carpenter gets action, and has Plissken face several jams, cunningly escaping each one. His accidental team include a cabbie (named Cabbie, played with dopey charm by Ernest Borgnine), former partner Brain (Harry Dean Stanton) and his girlfriend Maggie (Adrienne Barbeau). Their biggest impediment is the Duke (Isaak Hayes) who rules Manhattan.

I would say the weirdest thing is that some of the technology seems like it lacked creativity. Seriously, cassette Tapes??? On the other hand, the create computer graphics with models that create an impressive effect.

For a lower budget action film, Carpenter keeps the story moving as Snake runs a gauntlet of trouble. It is an exciting and entertaining film. This is one of Carpenter’s great films, and in the early eighties, he was on a real role.

October 9, 2016 0

Oops! I Hope He Was a Zombie (Return of the Living Dead: Rave to the Grave, 2005)

This was filmed back to back with Necropolis and feature much of the same cast and crew. The kids from Necropolis are in college and getting their learn on or whatever. Uncle Charles is in Russia trying to see the Trioxin gas to Russian mobsters or something. The deal goes bad, and eventually, a canister of Trioxin ends up in the hands of his nephew Julian and his friends. They start experimenting with it, resulting in a potent hallucinogenic drug creatively called “Z”. Of course, the drug has a side effect…it turns you into a zombie. I am sure there is a subtle metaphor there. The finale plays out against a big rave with Russian mobsters blowing stuff up.

It is pretty clear that this was an attempt to capture the spirit of the first two films. And there are minor chuckles to be found, but nothing particularly memorable. The movie makes the zombies less threatening. In the first three films, head woulds and being shot did little to nothing. Zombies in Necropolis and Rave to the Grave are pretty easily taken down. This film brings back the Tar Man (seen in the first two films) but even there it feels like a cheap imitation. The Tar Man of Parts one and two had a disjointed yet fluid set of movements, like he was on the verge of falling apart. The Tar Man in this film lacks the movement, at one point walking with a pretty regular stride.

The movie is not a return to the fun monster-fest of the original, though it wants to be.

October 9, 2016 0

In Case You Hadn’t Noticed, I’m Already Dead (Return of the Living Dead: Necropolis, 2005)

It took twelve years before this franchise lurched from the grave. Interestingly, it ties itself loosely to the first three films, introducing us to a company Hybra-Tech. They are the go to guys for stopping zombie outbreaks. According to the opening commercial, the last zombie outbreak was twelve years ago, suggesting this is the same universe as the previous films.

A group of teens are racing on their bikes when one of the kids gets into a severe accident. The kids run to the hospital after their friend only to find out he never arrived at the hospital. Katie (one of the friends and a potential love interest for Julian), who works at Hybra-Tech to raise money for college, calls to say she saw their friend brought into Hybra-Tech’s fortress of a building. Julian has an Uncle working at Hybra-Tech. Uncle Charles has cared for Julian and his little brother since their parents died a year prior. They sneak in with Katie’s help. Of course, things go very wrong, zombie get loose and most devastating for Julian, Uncle Charles had Julian’s dead parents exhumed and used in experiments to weaponize zombies.

The movie is still a pretty serious affair, centered around gore and people running away from zombies. The zombies are mostly verbally inarticulate except for the friend who was hurt, he has a lot of personality as a zombie, gleefully eating brains and conversing with his friends.

The zombie effects are decent enough, though not quite to the level of, say the Walking Dead. The story, on the other hand is cobbled together from previous films, substituting Hybra-Tech for the military. This is not a problem if the film is interesting, but that is not the effect here. This is a pretty sub par sequel and a pretty dull affair.

October 8, 2016 0

Wisps (the Fog, 1980)

After two TV movies, John Carpenter returned to the screen with an old fashioned ghost story. Telling the tale of small seaside town Antonio Bay, the Fog follows events leading up to their Centennial. The town is planning to celebrate the near mythic four founders of the town. In the days leading up, there are mysterious events. Add a dense, unnatural fog. The Fog is not the scary part…there is something in the fog. Something cruel and angry.

Only a few townspeople know the true history. Father Malone is a tortured priest who has kept the secret. And the rest of the town continues on oblivious, writing off his warnings. But people are starting to discover some bizarre incidents. They find a ship that appears abandoned, until they find a sea ravaged body. A body that gets up once on land. There are knocks at doors, but there is nothing there. When the fog finally overtakes the town, the vengeful spirits start to decimate the town, while some race to save others.

This is a wonderfully classic haunting story. The characters are interconnected by the narration of Stevie Wayne, the local DJ who works in a converted lighthouse (it is, of course, related to the horrific history of Antonio Bay). As Stevie, Adrienne Barbeau has a sexy and raspy tone. Stevie is a single mother who is separated from her son, and her only way to communicate the threat is to keep talking on the radio. She also has a playful and flirtatious relationship with weather man Dan (Carpenter regular Charles Cyphers). Their relationship is entirely over the phone, but it is engaging.

Tom Atkins (always welcome in any film) is rugged local Nick Castle who picks up hitchhiker Elizabeth (Jamie Lee Curtis, returning from Halloween). They end up trying to save people after hearing Stevie over the radio. Hal Holbrook’s weary priest is a great performance.

The effects are so simply that they impress. The fog crawls through forests, engulfs houses and the ghosts hidden within are emphasized by eerie back lighting. Carpenter has filled the film with many great little touches, such as using the scenery of the town as a character all its own.

If you want a great and classic ghost story? You won’t go wrong with the Fog.

October 8, 2016 0