I’m a huge fan of horror films. Many of my childhood movie staples included the films of John Carpenter (They Live, Big Trouble In Little China, Prince of Darkness), which has resulted in my sometimes blind love of anything Carpenter releases. (Ghosts of Mars and Escape From L.A. both ruled.) Thanks to Leigh at I Spit On Your Movie, i’ve recently found out that Carpenter will be appearing in a documentary called ‘Going To Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film’. The film chronicles the growth of the horror genre, focusing mainly on ‘Slasher’ films. Here’s what the press release had to say:
‘Going to Pieces provieds a comprehensive look at the importance, prominence and newfound legitimacy of the horror genre, specifically “slasher” films. The feature-length documentary contains interviews with pre-eminent actors, directors and producers, special effecst masters, composers and experts, many of whom are considered founders and gurus of the genres, including Wes Craven, John Carpenter, Rob Zmobie, special effects legend Tom Savini, Stan Winston, Joseph Sefano, and Betsy Palmer, just to name a few.’
So it looks like they’ve got quite the list of who’s who in the horror industry. The release also features a fairly long list of the films featured in the documentary. I won’t bother posting it here, but let’s just say it’s quite comprehensive. In the past i’ve usually found documentaries about other films and their era’s pretty bland, crossing over into ‘promotional material’ territory, compiling interviews with movie clips. In this case, i’m hoping to learn a bit more about the genre I love and maybe even pick up a few classic recommendatoins. ‘Going To Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film’ will premiere on Starz October 13th (which also happens to be a Friday!) at 9pm (ET/PT). Stay tuned to The Documentary Blog for a review of the film in the near future.
“Many of my childhood movie staples included the films of John Carpenter (They Live, Big Trouble In Little China, Prince of Darkness), which has resulted in my sometimes blind love of anything Carpenter releases. (Ghosts of Mars and Escape From L.A. both ruled.)” … I feel the same way John Carpenter is the man! They Live is the movie I have watched more times than any other.
They Live is definitely a classic. Prince of Darkness was one of three movies that scared me as a child. The other two were The Exorcist and Black Christmas. I couldn’t watch the part where his bloodshot eye is peeking around the corner. YYYYYAAAAAOOOOOWZZZAAAAAASSSSSSS (pulls collar and makes unusual Abbot and Costello scary noise)
John Carpenter thrilled me as a youngster and I still marvel at the films that you brought up. He really knew how to get your adrenaline going. Not only was his films realistically frightening but his music was terrifying and he composed it. What an amazing talent he is. Not sure if anyone mentioned “In The Mouth Of Madness” that film was blew me away. I wish I had some “They Live” sunglasses right now to see who the hell is running this country.
John Carpenter is definitely underrated. His earlier films are especially great, but I think even some of his later stuff has its moments. As you mentioned, ‘In the Mouth of Madness’ was awesome and pretty chaotic for a studio film…I also think that Escape From LA, Vampires and Ghosts of Mars were great attempts at bringing back the anti-hero and the Western archetypes that are pretty much passe nowadays. That’s probably why his movies fail at the box office.