I guess this really belongs in the "what are you listening to" thread but seeing as it's an unfilmed Hammer script i thought i should put it here.
Besides i watched it all in my head.:brainfood:

The Unquenchable Thirst Of Dracula

Attachment 198542

Suddenly remembered this was on BBC radio at Halloween so thought i'd see if it was still on BBC iplayer.:pumpkin:

This would have made a really interesting Hammer film but it was never to be so instead Mark Gatiss has produced it as a radioplay, Gatiss certainly knows his Hammer stuff and his affection shows because this recalls many moments of Hammer.

There is some nice scene setting music that recalls the Hammer style and he made a good choice for the voice actor of Dracula who's voice resembled Christopher Lee in many instances.:vamp:

The story is set in India in the 1930's and we follow the arrival of a young woman who is in search of her sister, the last letter she received placed her in the vicinity of a ancient cave before she disappeared.
On arrival she makes friends with some locals who kindly allow her to stay with them. Later she makes her way to the caves and into the lair of Count Dracula.:bat:

I found this to be a really interesting premise, relocating the count to India, and i also found the actual play to be really well made and involving, all the voice artists are very good and the fact that many of the locals are played by Indian actors adds to the realism greatly. It is narrated very well as well with a nice air of creepy authority and pace by Michael Sheen.

The main woman is very self sufficient and strong willed, and the atmosphere is heavy as she investigates the caves and underground passages below a local Maharaja's palace. The story weaves in a dancing girl, a King Cobra, a blood cult and a group of Dracula's brides, there is a set piece with a large crowd of locals that would have stretched Hammer's budget somewhat, and it all climaxes in a satisfying ending.

I for one was totally caught up in the story and would love to have seen this filmed.:ghostclap:

It's still available on the iplayer for another few weeks, so if you are a Hammer fan i would urge you to give it a go.:coffin:

Showed my friend this last night and I'm going to change it from a 7 to an 8/10 because of Richard Lynch; who steals the show from the beginning to the end. Even though he likes to shoot men in the dick, probably penis envy I suppose.

Sent from my MediaPad T1 8.0 Pro using Tapatalk

The Sadistic Baron Von Klaus (1962)

This dreary Jess Franco film concerns an Austrian legend about a ghostly Baron who supposedly rises from the swamps and murders women. When real murders are discovered, the local police immediately suspect Baron Von Klaus's relative (Howard Vernon) who resides in a spooky old mansion on the edge of the swamp.

A film saved only by it's last half hour. This early Franco Gothic is downright boring during it's first two thirds, he clearly had no eye for atmosphere at this stage in his career unlike Bava, someone should have told him that easy jazz does not add anything to a stalk and slash scene, although to give him his due i think it was the Spanish maestro's first attempt at the horror genre.

The final reels do redeem the film though as we finally get some horror and sleaze in the form of the brutal whipping of a naked woman as well as knife slaying galore. Although the end result is enjoyable (The final scene resembles Hammer's first Mummy film of three years previous to the point of plagiarism) i wouldn't recommend this to non-Francophiles.

Ganja and Hess

Attachment 198657

A rich black anthropologist Hess lives alone with his servant, his house holds many tribal artifacts from his work, he has an assistant who is unstable and suicidal. He manages to talk the guy out of suicide but is rewarded by being stabbed later that night by the man using an ancient artifact that bestows Hess with the curse of vampirism.
Afterwards the guy kills himself anyway.
Awakening Hess finds the corpse and is drawn to drink his spilled blood, he is then plunged into an addictive lifestyle in his search for blood.
Later the assistants wife shows up and the two fall in love, complicating matters as he still has the corpse in his freezer.:skull:

There's not a lot of story here to be honest, the film is more of a character study, but instead we get a lot of arty/experimental photography with images being overlaid and blending into each other.:frank:

Attachment 198658

Duane Jones from 'Night of the living dead' stars and gives a sedate, reserved but strong performance as Hess, the female role of Ganja is also unusually played, at first she comes across as a cynical bitch but seems to mellow as she reveals more about herself.

There's not a lot of horror here, there are a few blood drinking scenes but they are subdued, this seems more concerned with relationships and an examination of the black culture's spiritual division between tribal and adopted christian faith.

Attachment 198660

The film has more in relation to 'Martin' i felt although this predated that film, it is interesting to wonder whether Romero saw this, seeing as it has one of his associates in a lead role he very well could have.
This is also very late 60's/early 70's in it's style, reminding me also of 'Easy Rider' in it's experimental approach and low key delivery of dialogue, but also the direction felt like Nicholas Roeg in the way it was disjointed and arty.:brainfood:

Apparently this was mean't to be a Blaxploitation film but the producers were disappointed when they saw the film that was delivered, they recut it and tinkered, the original version went undistributed.
This version is back to the director's vision.

At first i was unsure of how i felt about the film, i found it admirable and interesting but not particularly enjoyable.
I read the liner notes and some background on the film and let it rattle about in my head for the next day.
It's difficult to recommend to a horror fan who wants the norm, but interesting enough to not be dismissable. I liked it and am sure i will appreciate it more on rewatch.

The Eureka Blu ray is good but the picture is very grainy and flawed, and has a washed out look at times. This is obviously due to the history of the film and is acceptable as it's probably the best print available.

Unfortunately the blu does not include alternative takes and deleted scenes that exist because they are on youtube.
Spike Lee remade this recently as 'Da sweet blood of Jesus' which isn't released in the U.K, looking at the trailer it seems a more linear retelling, but it looks a bit bland.

I liked it. 7/10 :coffin:

Attachment 198659

I haven't been watching many films lately, as I've mostly been revisiting It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, but here's what I've seen since my last post...

Leatherface (2017)

*** out of *****


Flatliners (2017)

* out of *****


Wheelman (2017)

A very good neo-noir action crime thriller. Frank Grillo is as awesome as always.

***1/2 out of *****


Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

Easily one of my top 3 MCU movies. I don’t know if I can say it’s better than Captain America: The Winter Soldier and the first Guardians of the Galaxy, but it at least comes mighty close.

**** out of *****

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ex3zOcJcM0U


Doctor Faustus (1967, Richard Burton/ Nevill Coghill)

From the striking opening image, you would be forgiven (HA!) in believing that you were in for a fairly standard 60s Gothic pile. But hold on isn't that Dickie Burton exclaiming for all he's worth centre stage?? It bloody is, you know....

Where? What? WHY???
As films go, what audience this was created for surely hath the ranking of a lowly serf in a puddle. The Freudians would have a veritable field week with this as 'er indoors plays all the female parts. The beautifully crisp image in some scenes a joy to behold. This being based on Chrissy Marlowe's play about a geezer what gains the 'ole world (HA!!)
but loses 'is soul proper like. Some wacky 60s stuff mingled in here as well. Free love! But no combs it seems ....
I recommend this highly ... to any Doctor Who fans. See Ian Marter!
Plus it makes the whole sacrifice bit look a bit shit tbh ...... a genuine oddity.

Torture chamber of Dr Sadism ( Castle of the walking dead / Snakepit and the pendulum)

Attachment 198689

There's a few different titles for this film, but whatever you want to call it or know it as it's a really entertaining gothic romp.:ghost:

The story concerns the sadistic Count Regula (Christopher Lee) who kills 12 virgins to use their blood to make a potion that will give him immortality, his final intended victim escapes so his potion is incomplete.
Regula is captured, has a mask with spikes put on his face and is pulled apart by horses...nice.

Attachment 198691

Years pass and we meet the descendants of his intended victim and the man who sentenced him to death, both of which are unaware of their relatives actions.
They both receive an invitation to a castle and on their journey cross paths, along for the ride is the woman's friend and a monk who they meet.

This is a hodge podge of gothic idea's nicked from tradition and mixed with Corman's Pit and the Pendulum then laced with a pinch of Bava, topped off with a soundtrack that seems to channel early Scooby doo at points.:ghostclap:

We get cobwebbed corridors, skeletons, standing suits of armour, spiders, scorpions, snakes, mist, an iron maiden and other devices of death and even a row of smoking test tubes.
The walls of the castle bear Hieronymus Bosch inspired murals that are straight out of Corman's film as is the pendulum.

Attachment 198690

It shouldn't work but i really enjoyed it, two scenes really stand out to me, a carriage ride through the night where all the trees they pass have dead bodies hanging from them. Also the scene where the heroine is on a ledge above a pit of snakes that is slowly being pulled from under her feet.

The female lead is Karin Dor who has sadly just passed away and inspired me to give this a rewatch tonight.

I really like this film, it may not be particularly scary but it has a lot of entertaining moments and nice touches that make it an enjoyable watch.

Recommended 8/10 :coffin:

Attachment 198692 :graveconcern:

The problem with this film is many of the dvd releases are sub-par, it was released in the U.K as 'Castle of the walking dead' a few years back, this release is full of scratches to such an extent that it's barely watchable.
Because of this i ended up getting this release -

Attachment 198693

This release is non anamorphic but is widescreen with very slight black bars at either side, but setting it to 16:9 solves this problem.
There are no scratches on this print but the picture is a bit soft and lacking sharpness, also the blacks aren't dark enough.
I adjusted the brightness levels on my T.V slightly and it looked a lot better.
After adjustments i found it perfectly watchable, so i am fairly happy with my copy (as a bonus 'Death smiles on a murderer' is on this disc too, but that is also a bit washed out, but i doesn't look like this is available elsewhere.)
There is also a German disc but i haven't seen that so i don't know what the P.Q on that is like.

Someone really needs to give this a decent properly restored release.:brainfood:

Deadbeat at Dawn (1988)

***1/2 out of *****

Savage dog

After being pleasantly surprised by Hard Target 2 I decided to give this Scott Adkins action fest a go. Its not as 'fluid' as Hard Target 2 but if your looking for a hyper violent action flick in the mold of some of Cannon films more demented output this is worth a punt.
Adkins is an Irish fighter in late 50's indo-china. He's fighting tournaments run by local warlords and European war criminals. Eventually things go wrong and he decides to go on a killing spree when his friend (played by Keith David no less) and his lady are murdered.
Squibs are deployed liberally, limbs are hacked off, at one point Adkins goes for a drink carrying a severed head and the blood stained machete he used to do the deed. He even cuts someones heart out and eats it in front of them!
Technically its fairly generic, and its not winning any awards. However if you'd rented this back in the day from the video store with an eight pack of lager you'd be left fairly satisfied. I dug this a lot.
**I should add the version on Netflix, I stongly suspect its been cut. There's some scope for shotgun decapitations, given how bloody the rest of the film is its strange that it seems to cut away at these points***

Low Blow
A rich mans daughter joins a Jonestown type religious cult, her father requests a former cop turned PI to find out where she is and bring her back. So he decides to create a super team to storm the place to do so.
This isn't a bad movie. Leo Fong is a great laugh, especially when he's terribly driving his car. The fight choreography is good, the only let down unfortunately is Cameron Mitchell who spends most of his time sitting in a chair and mumbling.
6/10

Sent from my MediaPad T1 8.0 Pro using Tapatalk

Planet terror 2007

A gas designed to take out a population and turn people into zombies is released in a poplutated area in Texas, a band of survivors, Go-Go dancer Cherry, El wray, nurse dakota Block, Sherrif Hague and his brother J.T. who sells the best barbacue steaks in Texas, try to escape the nightmare.

From director Robert Rodriguez director of Desperado, The Faculty, Sin City brings us this movie, filmed like a bad 70s horror movie but dont let that put you off, this film has it all, comedy, action, blood, gore and strippers. The movie does start off a bit slow then all hell breaks loose. The film didnt do great at cinema and was released along side Death Proof and became a bit more of a hit, it is worth a watch, 8 out of 10.

Moon of the Wolf (1972) Scream of the Wolf (1974)

A couple of made for tv movies which although two years apart have a lot in common. Both have name directors - Daniel Petrie and Dan Curtis - both have recognizable stars - David Jannsen and Peter Graves - with plenty of 'What have i seen them in before' co-stars who add credibility, both feature rural communities under threat and both are solidly made if not exactly horrifying werewolf thrillers which prove entertaining enough in an undemanding way. Both are well worth a watch.

The House that screamed.

Attachment 198733

First time viewing for this Spanish film by the same bloke who made 'Who could kill a child' a film that i really like, so i had high hopes for this.
Did it live up to my expectations, hell yes.:nod:

Attachment 198734

The story is about a young girl (played by Cristina Galbo from 'Living dead at the Manchester Morgue') who arrives at a boarding school for girls and finds sinister things are going on.
The school is run by a strict Headmistress and her sidekick student Irene who helps to keep the students in check, while her mollycoddled son sneaks around spying on all the girls.
Irene comes to the forefront, given some power she tries to rule the girls and at times torments them, some of the students are unhappy with the strict regime and attempt to escape but are never heard from again.
What is going on in 'The house that screamed'?

Attachment 198735

I really liked this, it has a creepy claustrophobic atmosphere as the entire film takes place within the schools walls and has enough twists to keep the viewer
asking questions, the performances are all good and the cinematography is beautiful.
This seems to have been an inspiration for the setting of 'Suspiria' and a couple of scenes reminded me of Argento moments, specifically a shot that follows water pipes along into a shower room.
The film is slow moving but i was never bored, there is not much in the way of gore or nudity but i was just swept along by the visuals and music, also i was surprised when one of the main characters met their demise, totally unexpected.:cool:

The Shout factory blu i have is region A locked but if you can play it i recommend it as it contains a theatrical version and extended cut (8mins added, the colours fade slightly during the inserts) . It looks absolutely stunning,apparently there's never been a decent dvd release before and i've wanted to see this film for a while so i am glad i saw this copy first.:clap:

Attachment 198736

Recommended 8.5/10 :pop2:

I LOVE this series

Wind River (2017)

**** out of *****

Les yeux sans visage (1960)

Les yeux sans visage or Eyes Without a Face, an early European Gothic from director Georges Franju is a classy affair. Morbid and yet quite beautiful at the same time with a sumptuous atmosphere that builds throughout.

The film is about a young woman (Edith Scob) left horribly disfigured following a car crash meaning she must wear a mask to hide her injuries and her surgeon father (Pierre Brasseur) who together with his assistant (Alida Valli) kidnap girls and attempt to graft their surgically removed faces onto his daughter.

Whilst it harks back to typical mad scientist movies, Les yeux sans visage has a style all it's own. It's a beautifully photographed film with excellent composition and framing - Scob, wandering the mansion in mask and flowing dress is a haunting sight and will linger long in the memory as will the grotesque (for their time) scenes of surgery and face removal.

Brilliantly acted and paced magnificently, Les yeux sans visage was a first time viewing for me and i don't think it's intricacies have properly sunk in yet. I will say that the film's theme music which runs throughout was a little too much like Frolic from Curb Your Enthusiasm which played on my mind at times when i should have been concentrating on the film. Finally i must mention Auguste Capellier who created the expressionless and utterly iconic mask worn by Scobb.

The film's theme music is so romantic and so eery at the same time. In my eyes, it's Christiane's emotions turned into notes. Maurice Jarre was a musical genius. I adore the score.

Nice review of an excellent film, by the way.

Wonder Woman

Captain America in a frock with hippy dippy peace and love vibes. Lacks the wankability of the TV show.

Death Wish
A mother is beaten and dies in hospital and and her daughter is raped. The father tries to cope, but gets tired off the police so shoots down muggers. The public loves and the police despise him.
This is the first time I have watched this and I loved it Bronson is awesome as Paul Kersey and his performance stands out. The opening sequence is rather uncomfortable especially when you're looking at Jeff Goldblums bum.
9/10

Sent from my MediaPad T1 8.0 Pro using Tapatalk

Phantasm. Notable (to me) as a horror film where the protagonists are pleasant people who like each other and do their best to help each other through a strange, dreamlike world where 'The Tall Man' and his army of dwarf slaves from another dimension play about with the corpses of a small town. Add in misuse of the inimitable flying sphere, add pre-Freddy dreamscapes and shocks (surely Elm Street nicked a fair bit from this movie) and you've got a fairly unique experience.

I like the atmosphere of 'hardy boys meet the grim reaper' but it probably doesn't appeal to everyone. It probably doesn't help that the best acting performance is from the slightly annoying kid, but you can't have everything.

In the Eye of the Hurricane (1971)

Whoever writes the blurb for the back of 88 Films discs clearly hasn't seen the film. - Sex and spice, boobs and bruises, The Bird With the Crystal Plumage, uncut and uncensored - Seriously, In the Eye of the Hurricane features none of these elements and as for uncut? It borders on a 12 certificate.

Just ignore the 88 hype and enjoy what is an Italian / Spanish take on the Hitchcock classic Suspicion. Quite slow moving to begin with the story about a soon to be divorced 40 year old woman (AnalÃ*a Gadé) who cavorts with playboy Jean Sorel in a bid to extract money from her ex- husband, which of course involves murderous twists and turns. It would be unfair to expand any further as it would spoil things for people like myself who had never seen the film previously.

The film is nicely acted by Gade, Sorel, Tony Kendall and Rosanna Yanni and all play their parts convincingly especially Gade whose vulnerability adds to the twist, it's also a well photographed film with some delightful coast line locations which look superb thanks to 88's 4K transfer.

I enjoyed In the Eye of the Hurricane even if it is at times snail paced and lacks any of the usual giallo-esq sex, blood and violence.

Wreckage (2010)

Four friends hole up in an old scrap yard and find it's the domain of a serial killer.

Wreckage was one of those films that played out totally different on screen to how i imagined beforehand. It's quite a twisty turny affair and not just as low budget as you might think. Whether it being different is actually a good thing is debatable as i never found the film completely compelling nor particularly gripping but it was certainly watchable but not really one that's worth shelf space especially when your shelves are at bursting point.

SILKWOOD 1983

A worker at a plutonium processing plant believes she has been purposlely contaminated and murdered to prevent her blowing the whistle on a number of safety issues.


based on the the true story of Karen Silkwood, power plant worker to activist in safety whose death that happened 43 years ago today has never been solved was her death accident or murder. Meryl Streep gives the finest performance of the main character as a happy go lucky gal enjoying life then its slowly turned upside down. This is a film that will keep you glued to the screen for the two hours duration. 10 out of 10.

Adaline: The Conjured (2015)

A young woman moves into an old house left to her by a long lost aunt. Shortly after her move she starts having terrifying visions of the past.

Except they aren't terrifying. Nothing about this film is terrifying, except maybe the lifeless script. The film itself is well made. There's some terrific aerial photography as Daniela, our heroine, drives out of San Francisco and into the country and the acting from Jill Evyn is fine, she's even happy to shed her clothes every so often and there's the odd scene of heart ripping gore on show as well.

The problem is the story. There basically isn't enough there to keep you interested for 92 minutes, neither is the direction good enough to make the film feel atmospheric as to hide the thinness of the plot.

Adaline: The Conjured was a film that began promisingly enough but had petered out into nothingness by the hour mark. Disappointing.

You're doing a sterling job here Dem, watching all these low budget modern films so we don't have to.;)

It's a voyage of discovery that i actually enjoy.

A couple of quickies today's visit to the cinema:

Murder on the Orient Express – I haven't read Agatha Chris's novel and surprisingly knew nothing about the story prior to watching the film, something I tried hard to maintain when I booked the tickets last week, so it was refreshing to watch a murder mystery unfold without any knowledge of how it finishes. It is a beautifully designed and filmed movie, with exceptional cinematography, and the all-star cast (Kenneth Branagh, Michelle Pfeiffer, Judi Dench, Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz, Derek Jacobi, Willem Defoe, Daisy Ridley) are all near the top of their games.

Paddington 2 – I was a little sceptical about this because I love the first film, but I needn't have worried as it is equally as endearing, funny and involving. I laughed, I cried, and I wouldn't be averse to a third instalment in the series.

Murder On the Orient Express (1974)

I watched the 1974 film for the first time on Saturday night, also knowing not a thing about the story. I actually figured out what had happened with about half an hour to go. Not because i'm a crime solving genius but because it seemed the only plausible answer given exactly who the passengers were.

Featuring an arguably even more all star cast than the new film - Saen Connery, Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman, John Gielgud, Martin Balsam, Anthony Perkins, Vanessa Redgrave, Michael York, Richard Widmark and Albert Finney as Poirot.

The film is beautifully directed by Sidney Lumet and was clearly and refreshingly all filmed on a moving train.

Interestingly, i thought the way Poirot came to his conclusion, having all the travelers together and basically putting them all on the spot one by one, was exactly the same as Dashiell Hammet and The Thin Man, although in Nick Charles' case it was round a dinner table rather than a train carriage. Neither copied the other as both books came out the same year - 1934.

I'd certainly recommend it to you. But maybe not for a few years as you probably know how it ends. :lol:

I went to buy that from JB as part of the 2 for $20 the other day, and they'd sold out! :whip:

It's something I'd like to watch, but the cheapest I can find the StudioCanal Blu-ray release is £13.30, which is a little much for a blind buy, so I'll wait until it's an offer.

The dvd was £3 in Fopp when you bought any other product.

It's a shame their stores are nowhere near me.

I'm planning to go again in the first week of December. If you'd like me to get you a copy and post it to you i will.

That's very generous. I see it's in the 2 for £25 offer at HMV, so I may buy it from there.

I'll ask you before i go. It will be a couple of weeks away yet. :)

I've been a bit lazy recently in posting reviews. I don't know why as I used to love writing. It just seems like I spend too much time wandering through Youtube. But anyway, here goes. I've been watching a lot of John Carpenter recently.....

Dark star

Carpenters first film is one of the all time great student films. Snatched by Carpenter and his collaborator Dan O'Bannon from the University of southern California who owned all student projects and released by Jack H Harris. It failed to set the box office alight on release but has steadily become a cult classic through home video releases.
In terms of plot its fairly aimless. Just a bunch of slobs in space blowing up unstable planets with sentient bombs and inbetween missions generally dicking around through sheer boredom from the tedium of space travel. O'Bannon plays Pinback, who isn't pinback, just some blue collar guy who ended up on the mission by mistake. A lot of O'Bannons sense of humour comes through in the film. Especially in his interactions with the beach ball alien that somehow works, partially because of how ridiculous it looks.
If your going to pick it up the UK blu-ray is fairly solid. It has two cuts of the fim, the original 90 minute theatrical cut and a shorter 78 minute cut done later by Carpenter that actually works a lot better. Theres also a fascinating documentary that runs at almost two hours!

Assault on Precinct 13

After Dark Star failed to propel him into the stratosphere, Carpenter made this ultra low budget urban horror western. Stylistically coming from the exploitation market with nods to Blaxploitation, Urban action cinema and Horror, Carpenter liberally borrows from his favourite films, most noticeably Rio Bravo where he lifts whole sequences to the point where if he changed his name to Quentin Tarantino a lot of people online would be calling him a hack.
Nevertheless Assault is a blistering, action packed slice of entertainment that holds up all these years later. Austin Stoker plays Ethan Bishop, sounding very much like a character name reserved for John Wayne, who plays a cop left to babysit a closed down police station in a bad neighbourhood. Darwin Joston plays Napoleon Wilson, a convicted death row killer with an almost perverse heart of gold who threatens to steal all of his scenes. Laurie Zimmer is also great playing the tough as nails lady who holds her own in a crisis.

Halloween

While Assault was not an immediate success. It would take a hugely successful run in Britain for people to start paying attention. Carpenter was offered the opportunity to direct a film based on the idea of someone killing off babysitters. At this point, the slasher film sort of existed in the form of Black Christmas but it wasn't a style of picture that was being heavily copied. Carpenters film would change this. Shot on a micro budget with a cast of up and coming actors including an as then unknown Jamie lee Curtis, Halloween is a tightly constructed horror movie that delivers on suspense and slow burning menace rather than the overt gore fests the slasher would ultimately become. Part of the reason the film works so well is Carpenters score. Carpenter is clearly a gifted musician but often he would score his own films through budgetary necessity. It worked out for the best though as he's possibly better than any outside composers he might have hired. Even Morricone ended up delivering something that Carpenter himself might have written.

Someone's watching me

Following on from Halloween Carpenter embarked on his first foray into televison work with this Hitchcockian thriller about Leigh Michaels played by Lauren Hutton who plays a young professional woman who is stalked by a mysterious stranger who is watching her from a distant apartment and playing cruel mind games with her. Adrienne Barbeau who would work with carpenter again several times and end up his ex-wife, plays Sophie, Leigh's gay BFF who tries to help her as shes terrorised by the sick creep.
Made in 1978 the film comes from the golden era of TV movies when often, in spite of lower budgets, they were delivering content almost as good as the majors. Think films like Trilogy of terror, satans school for girls, Duel, Kolchack and Dark night of the scarecrow as examples. Someone's watching me is a solid example of this. The film wears its Hitchcock influences on its sleeve from its Saul bass inspired titles to the clear homages to Rear window. Its often negelected when people discuss Carpenter, which is a shame as its terrific.

Elvis

Continuing in TV, Carpenter would work with frequent collaborator and apparent BFF Kurt Russell for the first time. Russell gives a stellar performance in this almost 3 hour TV special as the King of Rock & Roll as the film takes us from Elvis early years to his Vegas comeback. Its a little flat compared to some of his other works, including someones watching me, but its still a solid entry into his filmography thanks to some of the great performances on show.

The Fog

Carpenter Returns to theatres with his take on the campfire ghost story as a crew of leprosy sufferers who were deliberately sunk by a local townsfolk and robbed of their money return to seek vengeance of the town that has benefited from their deaths. Still Relatively low budget, Carpenter worked with Avco Embassy, he managed to score a great cast here. Jamie Lee Curtis returns, Tom Atkins, Adrienne Barbeau, Charles Cyphers and George Buck flowers, all regulars also return. We also get the always great Hal Holbrook as the local priest and Jamie Lee's mother Janet Leigh appears as well.
The film is a masterclass as generating mood and suspense. Carpenter delivers one of his best scores that really helps create the atmosphere Carpenter works wonders with mist and prosthetic zombie ghosts and delivers scenes far more effectively than the bigger budgeted remake could with a hefty amount of CG. Carpenter did need to reshoot some stuff as the original cut apparently didn't work so well. Apparently it was mainly some of the gore, but this doesn't see, to have negatively impacted things. As of writing scream factory's Blu-ray is the one to go for.