Long rumoured, confirmed yesterday: John Carpenter is returning to score this year's HALLOWEEN, directed by David Gordon Green. A HALLOWEEN film, from the director of the magnificent JOE, starring Jamie Lee Curtis, and scored by the master himself? Time to get hyped people. Footage screened for press and industry types this week was allegedly impressive.
The questions on my mind: what form will Carpenter's new score take? Will it be nearly identical to the original, or will he expand and/or alter it significantly? Will he write something entirely new? Will it have a harder, more rock edge, like his recent reworking of the ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK theme?
We'll see in October. Or perhaps sooner in a trailer?
Holy shit, this new beefed-up reworking of the title track from IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS is so good it gave me goosebumps. As usual, Carpenter's new band is simply laying waste to all in its path, and I'm dying to hear the rest of their upcoming Anthology LP (once again on the excellent Sacred Bones Records).
While I escape the winter blues by heading up to the Northern Hemisphere for a week, I'll leave you with this A-number 1 new poster for Escape from New York by Kilian Eng. Lots of cool easter eggs hidden in the graffiti, but the glow-in-the-dark layer takes it to the next level.
Following on from this post, here's another glacially cool video of Carpenter performing with his new band, this time the main title theme from Escape from New York. This live version has a much harder, more muscular edge than the original, and it is absolutely badass. A friend of a friend of mine just saw Carpenter perform in Berlin and said it was incredible. The Southern Hemisphere awaits you Mr. Carpenter.
Now check out that killer tribute to the master at top, art courtesy of Kid Eternity. It's nice to see In the Mouth of Madness get thrown in with some of Carpenter's more conventionally appreciated films for once, as it's too often ignored. Madness is one of my personal faves, and is long overdue a stacked blu-ray release.
The good news on the blu-ray front is that Shout! Factory is releasing a new SE of The Thing this September, featuring a ton of new special features and a new 2K transfer approved by Dean Cundey. The old Universal SE is still great (in terms of its special features), but a spiffy new transfer is long overdue. That Universal release was one of the first dvds to hit the market (I think it was the first dvd I ever bought, back in '99 or 2000!).
The big, BIG news is that there's a new Halloween movie on the way, a Miramax/Blumhouse co-production. Rumoured directors are The Guest's Adam Wingard and Oculus' Mike Flanagan, both of whom are excellent choices. Carpenter would be executive producing in a "hands on" capacity (unlike his producing credit on the woeful The Fog remake, for which he accepted a cheque and simply walked away), but perhaps the most exciting bit of news is that he's in talks to come on board to write and perform the score.
Videos for "Night" from last year's Lost Themes and "Distant Dream" from the freshly released Lost Themes II, both on Sacred Bones Records. The new video - directed by the man himself - is obviously selling the live experience ahead of the band's 26-date tour of Europe and the US. I'm really hoping the tour goes well, and that Carpenter enjoys himself, for the purely selfish reason that I want him to bring his band down here.
Not only is it a considerably more satisfying Western than Django Unchained, The Hateful Eight is undeniable top-tier Tarantino, right up there with the Kill Bill movies and Inglourious Basterds*. I don't dislike Django, but for my tastes the odds are heavily stacked in The Hateful Eight's favour. I'm a sucker for tense, confined chamber pieces with strong ensemble casts, but my real bias towards QT's latest is that I'm an inveterate fan of John Carpenter's The Thing.
Going in, I was fully aware that Tarantino had infused his new film with the spirit of the sci-fi horror classic. He's gone on record as saying “The Thing is the one movie that is the most influential on this movie". I was expecting the obvious superficial connections: Kurt Russell in a lead role; an Ennio Morricone score; an almost entirely male ensemble trapped in a confined space during a blizzard. What I wasn't prepared for is the revelation that The Hateful Eight hews so closely and faithfully to Carpenter's film, that for all intents and purposes it has to be considered a spiritual remake. I say "spiritual" because of course there's no DNA assimilating alien monster here. However, make no mistake, in every other sense this is a far more effective remake of the 1982 film than the dismal prequel that came out five years ago.
"Somebody in this camp ain't what he appears to be"
- Kurt Russell, The Thing
"One of them fellas is not what he says he is"
- Kurt Russell, The Hateful Eight
Those echoing lines, deliberately calculated to jog the viewer's memory, are just the tip of the iceberg. For starters, passages are lifted wholesale from Morricone's score for The Thing, most noticeably "Despair" (as well as some unused material that can be found on The Thing's OST). Entire scenes and sequences from the '82 film are blatantly referenced, if not straight up copied. The blood testing sequence is reinterpreted as a scene in which Samuel Jackson's Major Marquis Warren holds the surviving lodgers of Minnie's Haberdashery at gunpoint. Also faithfully recreated are the tense exchanges between characters, as they test the true nature of each other's identities and attempt to form fragile alliances. Several instances of characters struggling off into the blizzard, their isolation from the group making them instant red herrings, are also the most obvious visual references. The final exchange, in the aftermath of the violence, between an exhausted MacReady and Childs is also cribbed. It's all there.
Just to leave you in absolutely no doubt that what you're watching is actually nihilistic horror in the guise of a Western, Tarantino throws in a cue from Last House on the Left - David Hess' "Now You're All Alone". Further confirmation of that comes in the form of exploding heads, vomited innards and splattering squibs. This is far and away Tarantino's goriest film since Kill Bill.
Watching The Hateful Eight was a blast for me. On top of the usual qualities that you expect from one of Tarantino's best - great dialogue, characters, score, visuals and action - this was the closest I've ever gotten to reliving the thrill of seeing Carpenter's masterpiece for the first time thirty-four years ago. Countless filmmakers have tried to emulate The Thing by one-upping Rob Bottin's fx (a lost cause from the get go), but Tarantino wisely approaches the material from the human angle, which is plenty alienating enough. As with The Thing, the result is riveting - a tangled web of paranoia, hidden identities and shifting allegiances that keeps you guessing until the final scene.
I couldn't be happier with the new breed of high quality, ultra violent Western that we're seeing (and I'm including the lesser, but still very enjoyable The Revenant). It's like an exploitation fan's dream come true to have a pair of Kurt Russell starring oaters that are as indebted to Deodato and Carpenter as they are to Corbucci, Peckinpah and Leone. Next up, following his strongest film to date (The Sacrament), I have high hopes for Ti West's In a Valley of Violence.
*I'm aware that this is a very subjective statement, and I admit that my appreciation of Tarantino's movies is largely driven by my preference for certain genres over others. Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction are objectively better movies than Death Proof any day of the week, but I'm more likely to want to revisit a violent horror/exploitation hybrid (starring Kurt Russell) than a straight up crime film.
It's a new morning in America... fresh, vital. The old cynicism is gone. We have faith in our leaders. We're optimistic as to what becomes of it all. It really boils down to our ability to accept. We don't need pessimism. There are no limits.
Sometimes an actor becomes a cultural icon for a single role (and a single incredibly famous line). Roddy Piper and his ass-kicking performance as Nada in John Carpenter's They Live is the quintessential example.
Piper's stoic, working class everyman turned revolutionary hero became a popular symbol for many of my generation, the disgruntled teens of the Reagan/Thatcher era. For those of us who weren't happy about the rise of mega-consumerism, media-saturation and corporate dominance, it was a kind of watershed moment when Nada put on those sunglasses. The perfect visual representation of what we were all thinking.
Roddy Piper was a survivor of exactly the same disease that I'm currently in remission from, Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Where I had four years of chemo and radiation, Piper beat his in only a year, an indication that he really was every bit as tough as he looked. It was his heart that got him in the end.
His swansong may be a good one. Filming finished a while ago on Vivieno Caldinelli's Piper vs Cthulhu short film, Portal to Hell!!!. With Twitch's Todd Brown (ABCs of Death, The Raid) as producer and Astron-6's Steven Kostanski providing makeup and fx, this little short will hopefully provide a fitting send-off for the big guy.
Chew some bubblegum. Kick some ass. Watch They Live.
To offset this week's (almost certainly) bad news that the Escape from New York remake is still a thing that's happening*, here's something really cool for Carpenter fans to look forward to.
Intriguing Brooklyn based label Sacred Bones Records is just about to drop Lost Themes, Carpenter's first ever LP of non-film score music (If you don't count the Coupe de Villes). It will feature an album's worth of unused material from his past, reworked in collaboration with Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies. I've never heard of the latter, but I know Cody as the spawn of Carpenter and Adrienne Barbeau (loved for her roles in The Fog, EFNY and Romero's Creepshow). He's previously collaborated with his father on Ghosts of Mars, as well as scoring both Cigarette Burns and Pro-Life for the Masters of Horror series.
I say that Sacred Bones is an intriguing label because I think their output is really interesting and eclectic. They release a diverse range of music that spans punk/post-punk, new wave, psychedelia, film music etc. At the punk end of the spectrum you've got bands like Austin's Institute (whose Giddy Boys 7'' on Katorga Works is fucking great by the way), New York goth punx Anasazi and Arizonan heavy psych/noise freaks Destruction Unit. They also distribute some stuff by Brooklyn artist Alexander Heir, whose work makes me drool and whose shop makes me lament the lack of cash in my wallet.
As far as film related music, David Lynch seems to have found himself a comfortable home at the label, with a number of releases of original material as well as OSTs for Eraserhead and Twin Peaks in their catalogue. There's also a Jim Jarmusch collaborative project that appears to be tangentially connected to Only Lovers Left Alive.
Back to Carpenter, who had this to say about the upcoming LP:
“Lost Themes was all about having fun. It can be both great and bad to score over images, which is what I’m used to. Here there were no pressures. No actors asking me what they’re supposed to do. No crew waiting. No cutting room to go to. No release pending. It’s just fun. And I couldn't have a better set-up at my house, where I depended on Cody and Daniel to bring me ideas as we began improvising. The plan was to make my music more complete and fuller, because we had unlimited tracks. I wasn't dealing with just analogue anymore. It’s a brand new world. And there was nothing in any of our heads when we started other than to make it moody.”
It's interesting to note herethat once again he's being less than subtle in voicing his distaste for the filmmaking process. I don't think I can think of another director who's been so brutally honest about becoming burnt out by the system. I get the sense that he's extremely cynical about the industry now, to the point that he seems to loath it. Some people disparage his attitude, but as far as I'm concerned they're entitled little whiners who should consider shutting the fuck up. If Carps wants to spend the rest of his days sitting on the couch playing video games and watching basketball, than good for him. He's damn well earned it.
That said, I'm grateful that he's still got enough creative energy left in him to bring us this new album.
You can stream a track from Lost Themes called "Vortex"here. The album hits in a couple of weeks in a gatefold edition. The coloured wax editions have already sold out, but don't worry, you'll be able to buy one from some collector scum on ebay for hundreds of dollars soon.
To wrap up by looking back thirty years, here's my favourite Coupe de Villes track, "1967". I love this song for the smoothness of Carpenter's vocals as well as the sombreness of his lyrics. His pain is palpable as he mourns the wasted promise of the optimistic '60s, and bemoans the empty, soulless avarice of the Reagan era. By his own admission here, the '80s left him feeling like a stranger in a strange land, and you can see that theme of alienation running through both The Thing and Starman. That this was also his most dynamically creative period is no coincidence, as great work is usually born of anger, not apathy. I've always seen this song as an odd little companion piece to They Live.
*I might change my tune if they hired Gareth Huw Evans or the Dredd directing duo of Pete Travis & Alex Garland to helm it.
A mere three months (almost to the day) before The Thing 2011 hits theatres, and Universal has finally seen fit to release the film's first promotional material. I like the logo's simplicity, and that it's so similar to the '82 poster logo. It's also interesting to note that they've opted for a painted image, obviously reminiscent of Drew Struzan's iconic artwork for Carpenter's film (right). The image also recalls the transformation and demise of poor Bennings (below).
I move home from the Krankenhaus tomorrow, so it's time to get back to this blogging business. I still feel like shit and my brain is moving like industrial sludge, so my posts over the next few weeks will probably be of the less verbose variety. Maybe just some pretty pictures to viddy, my droogs.
Had to share this (via Fangoria), because it's just so damned cool. How cool? It's Snake Plissken, so it's holding steady on trajectory in the Gullfire and fast approaching Absolute Zero. For my money, there simply is no cooler badass in SF lore. Incidentally, check out the cover of the latest Fango. Fuck yeah.
This is a five minute clip of the legendary Alan Howarth performing music from EFNY and Christine just a couple of weeks ago at the Unsound Festival in New York. As the faithful already know, Alan also collaborated with JC on Big Trouble In Little China, Prince Of Darkness and They Live. The sound on this is good, so crank it up and enjoy!
Not enough? Well then, click the quote below for the OST to Escape From New York in all it's analog glory.
My last post prompted reader Steven to ask about some of the Thing From Another World books, published by Dark Horse Comics back in the early '90s. They released a few mini-series', this short two-parter being the first (and probably best) of the bunch. The first issue's lurid cover art appears to be based on the demonic visage of the Norris monster from the movie.
This pseudo-sequel to Carpenter's film picks up immediately after the movie's conclusion: Mac and Childs suspiciously eyeing each other off amongst the burning ruins of Outpost 31, resigned to the inevitability of their fates - hypothermia or assimilation. The action in this story plays out entirely in Antarctica, a locale that the comic's writers would unwisely leave behind for future miniseries'... discouraging me from bothering to read any further. I'm not interested in seeing this ancient extraterrestrial depart the frozen wastes that it has haunted down the lonely aeons - entombed in primordial ice, patiently sleeping alongside it's literary brethren, the Elder Things. Hit the link to get weird and pissed off.
Full disclosure: one of my most keenly anticipated movies of next year is the prequel to John Carpenter's The Thing.
As I recently said of Alien, The Thing is another of my top-five "Mount Rushmore of Celluloid" films. A movie so influential on me, so close to my black, festering heart that it's position upon that gory edifice is assured until the day I die. So how can I condone this new abomination... this prequel? Quite simply, I just can't help it.
Although I've decried the practice of remaking recent movies, I've made my peace now with the remaking of older films. We've already seen so many of our sacred cows slaughtered (with varying results), it's become obvious that a new version of an old favourite doesn't really damage the original film's legacy. The original still remains - unsullied, unharmed and ready to be discovered by new generations of genre fans.
When it was announced that Dawn Of The Dead was being remade, I was among the hordes of righteously angry Romero fans. It was unthinkable to me that this cinematic sacrilege could possibly result in a good horror movie. But in spite of all my naysaying, James Gunn wrote a good screenplay (intelligent, nuanced, lacking Romero's social commentary but packed with solid characters and genuine pathos), and Zack Snyder directed a gory, scary movie that paid tribute to Romero where appropriate, while treading enough new ground to make it interesting.
Dawn '04 was brought to us by the same production company that is behind next year's The Thing - Strike Entertainment. With only eight films yet released (to my knowledge), Strike already has a very impressive genre pedigree: the aforementioned Romero remake; James Gunn's excellent but criminally overlooked Slither; Alfonso Cuarón's superb SF masterpiece Children Of Men; and this year's critically acclaimed The Last Exorcism (haven't seen it yet). As far as production companies go, The Thing appears to have found a good home (host?).
Who goes there? Not Mac and Childs.
But what of all the little creative details that are so crucially important for this movie, and without which it simply won't work? Well, things aren't looking too bad:
- first time director Matthijs van Heijningen has always maintained that he has a huge amount of respect for Carpenter's film, and wants his prequel to dovetail with it, not "update it" or "make it fresh and hip" (ugh). The tone of the new film is said to be serious, grim and R-rated.
- This attitude is reflected in his casting choices. An interesting ensemble made up of more or less unknown Norwegian actors and a respectable group of english language thesps. The inclusion of an attractive young woman (i.e. the threat of an unnecessary love interest) isn't a worry - Mary Elizabeth Winstead has real acting chops, and van Heijningen is said to have made a point of "plaining her up", as befits her role of archaeologist. I also appreciate the "pseudo remake" casting of Joel Edgerton as a grizzled helicopter pilot and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (excellent in HBO's Oz) as his tough co-pilot. The two are obvious stand-ins for Kurt Russell's MacReady and Keith David's Childs, and I don't mind the homage. Sure, Edgerton is no Russell (who is?), but he's no air-headed pretty boy either.
- In line with the original's theme of isolation (not only in the hostile, remote environment, but within each person, as they come to distrust their colleagues), the word is that a major plot point involves the language barrier contributing to a rift between the inhabitants of the Norwegian base and their invited foreign guests. An interesting idea.
- As reported by various sources, an exhaustive amount of research went into replicating the Norwegian base as seen in the '82 film. Sets like the room that holds the "ice block" have apparently been slavishly recreated down to the finest details. It's also said that the Norwegian base sequence from Carpenter's film was religiously used as the primary source of reference for the screenplay and production design. All of MacReady and Copper's grim discoveries in the original will be included and explained in the prequel.
- The film was shot in the super-wide scope format favoured by Carpenter and frequently collaborating cinematographer Dean Cundey.
- Most importantly the creature FX are said to be mostly practical, generally only utilising CG to enhance details. This process was used extensively in del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth and Hellboy II, and the results there were impressive and sometimes astonishingly good. Also, the company providing the visual FX are the talented folks who worked on District 9, so what CG there is should be top notch. As far as the actual design of the creature, there's a vivid description of one of it's incarnations here, and it sounds pretty much in line with Rob Bottin's work. Although reports of the budget seem to vary at between 35 and 70 million (depending on where you look), Twitchfilm recently quoted an article in Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet, which claimed that 15 million was spent on the creature FX alone. That's a fuckload of writhing, tentacled, DNA assimilating, weird and pissed off... THING.
So. Do I think it'll live up to Carpenter's movie... or come even close to it's awesomeness? No way. I'm not a complete chump. But if any of the above is to be believed, then there is some potential here. Like I said, I'm such a fan of J.C.'s flick that I just can't help but be enthusiastic about revisiting the ultimate in alien terror.
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