Charles Cyphers – Tripping Through Gateways

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.

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.

The same year Carpenter unleashed Halloween, he wrote and directed this television thriller. Lauren Hutton is Leigh Michaels, a television producer, new to Los Angeles. She moves into a high-rise apartment and then starts to receive ominous calls from a creepy voiced stranger who seems to know a lot about her. She has an ex who won’t give up and is trying to start a relationship up with a new man.

As the calls escalate (even after changing her number) and she is receiving mystery gifts, the Police let her know there is nothing they can do. Leigh retorts “Well, if he kills me, you will be the first to know!” As plots go, Someone is Watching Me is pretty pedestrian. And considering there are many true crime shows dedicated to stalking now, well, this probably seemed a bit freakier in a time when people were not really talking about stalking. It also becomes a bit like a reverse Rear Window.

It has a strong core cast with Hutton, Adrienne Barbeau and David Birney. Barbeau plays Hutton’s lesbian co-worker. I only note this because the film plays it off as merely another aspect of who she is. It is neither played as a joke or a sign of her being a suspicious individual.

Not unlike Halloween, Carpenter spends much of his time establishing the characters and building tension until the final twenty minutes or so when her stalker gets murderous and she struggles to convince her boyfriend and the authorities she is not making this all up.

Overall, you can see the spark of Carpenter’s film-making gifts. He takes a standard TV movie plot and manages to give his characters personality and build tension, throughout the film.

Tag: Charles Cyphers

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

Wisps (the Fog, 1980)

I Always Feel Like (Someone’s Watching Me!, 1978)