Dario Argento and others thrillers/horror movies directors

[Guillaume]

from beyond - i like it definately more than re-animator, i think its way better in terms of atmosphere.

I like it too! Yes, in some ways it's more atmospheric and crazier than "Reanimator"...the "resonator" thing pushing people to be/act crazy! Great ending too!
By the way, why Stuart Gordon doesn't direct movies anymore?   His last movie is from 2005 or 2006..."Re-animator", "From beyond", "Dolls", "Fortress", "Castle freak", "Edmond" are great B movies!

dead & buried - this one i find has so many levels to it, creepy, atmospheric, strange and weird and totally entertaining at the same time.

of course! i forgot that one! fantastic!
it's everything you said..the screenplay is great with its existencial dark undertone and its totally bleak ending twist! Great finale. At times the atmosphere recalls a bit "The Fog".
Have you seen some others Gary Sherman movies? His early movies were really good..."Dead and buried" but also "Death Line"/"Raw meat", a sad bleak and darkly funny story, also the very good thriller "Vice squad".

and i'm thinking: next time we should be by chance at a concert together somehow, there has to be a video session together!

Yes! and why not, a NMA concert with the band playing over some videos of the 20 desert island movies we chose in this thread? 
From time to time bands are playing in front of videos of movies...i've seen a Goblin concert almost ten years ago and it was like that, great.  Also Carpenter's concerts are like that, him and his band playing against videos of his movies!!

[Master Ray]

More love here for From Beyond and Dead And Buried.  I had a cracking good DVD of DAB with many extras but lent to it to someone in the past and never got it back...  terrific film that, honestly, I once watched with my grandmother.  ... and she rather liked it!   

I've noticed that FB is on Netflix, it's been many a long year since I saw it, I must get around to that.

Oh, and Death Line is excellent and I seem to remember seeing Vice Squad back in the day, and liking it, but I remember nothing about it...

Now I must get around to posting on other film related threads...   

[Master Ray]

So, John Carpenter...   

Where were we up to?  OK,  Starman it is.  Carpenter goes full-on Hollywood!  And it's superb.  A genuinely moving film, one that is cheesy as heck but gets away with it because of the wonderful performances, great direction and, yes, that terrific soundtrack, by Jack Nitzsche, Carpenter stepping aside here and deservedly so.  Yes, it's as corny as heck in places, but so was Field Of Dreams, so was It's A Wonderful Life, so was Up, so was Rocky, so was ET...  I'll underline it here, but there is nothing wrong with a movie that properly plucks on your heartstrings! And Starman does that in spades.  Lovely film, one I'll return to again and again...

So where did JC go to next... the absolute insanity of Big Trouble In Little China.  Sadly, another one that didn't do terribly well at the cinema but it's grown to be a classic.  Kurt Russell put forward as the hero, but he was actually the clown (well, up until the ending... 'it's all in the reflexes'... ) just shows that Mr Russell can bring the comedy when needed... such an entertaining movie.  In the last couple of days , it seems like Dwayne Johnson is making a remake... I'll be OK with that if Old Jack Burton, at some point,  shows up, looks  at The Rock and stares that big sucker right back in the eye, and remembers what ol' Jack Burton always says at a time like that: "Have ya paid your dues, Dwayne?" "Yessir, the check is in the mail."   

Oh, and here's the Gangnam Style thing about BTILC that always makes me laugh...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xiAbDkXDgg

[Master Ray]

So, let's carry on with Mr Carpenter as he leaves the realm of 'big budget' movies and gets back to his low-budget roots.
Prince Of Darkness... a cracking good horror film with some truly creepy moments.  The 'shot on grainy  video' / 'dreams' scenes are awesome, the last one is one of the best endings to any horror movie I ever saw.  It's one of the few films that I ever saw twice at the cinema, on consecutive nights no less!

And then we've got the great  'They Live', which is an out and out comedy, albeit with horror / sci-fi stuff... I think that Mr Carpenter just went 'well, **** it, I'm rich and well-regarded with a massive fanbase, so I'll make a film like this just because I CAN and who cares if anyone likes it or not! I might even cast a wrestler and throw in a pointless ten minute wrestling scene!'  And it's all the better that he did for those same reasons!  Love this flick.  Fun as heck.

Now, a confession... I'm not a huge fan of 'In The Mouth Of Madness' but, in my defence, I only watched it the once, way back in the day, and I'm a different person now,  so I will be re-investigating...

And now we're really gonna get into the diversive Carpenter stuff, but that's one for tomorrow night...

[Whirlwind]

Uhh, is anybody here really waiting for one person's endless words about one particular subject?

Please, folks, offer your thoughts on the various subjects here on this thread. It's called a community. Some do not understand that.

[Guillaume]

And then we've got the great  'They Live', which is an out and out comedy, albeit with horror / sci-fi stuff... I think that Mr Carpenter just went 'well, **** it, I'm rich and well-regarded with a massive fanbase

Here's a very cool documentary about John Carpenter, talking about himself, his career...also his "team" is interviewed:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ait8nwwVpw

It was a documentary made between 2004 and 2006, if i remember well. According to the director of this documentary, Carpenter is a rich man since the early 90's, because of the success of some of his movies and soundtracks...

And now we're really gonna get into the diversive Carpenter stuff

According to the director of this documentary everyone he interviewed from Carpenter's team/crew said that Carpenter wasn't anymore the same director when he divorced/broke up from Adrienne Barbeau (seen in "the fog" and "escape from NY") and married then with the film's producer Sandy King. According to people who worked with Carpenter, Sandy King had a kind of negative influence over Carpenter's artistic choices in the 90's and 2000's..i guess that Adrienne Barbeau when married to Carpenter was a kind of muse to him? 

[Master Ray]

Well, she'd be a muse to me!  Interesting thought, I will check out that documentary asap...

[Master Ray]

And now to the final part of my big JC retrospective... and the tail end of his carer that isn't terribly impressive, a fine director running out of steam...   

Village Of The Damned... seen it two or three times, yet still remember very little about it.  Utterly nothing about it sticks in my memory.  Perhaps I should watch it again?  Or perhaps just regard it as a 'somewhat nothing' movie that I'd rather forget from a director I loved?

Well, I wish I could forget 'Escape From LA'.  A movie I utterly and absolutely hate!  I remember going to the cinema, on opening night, SO excited at seeing Snake back on the big screen, one of my favourite movie characters returning after so many years...  and within thirty minutes I was utterly depressed.  Yes, the SFX were dreadful, but many were in the 90's.  I just hated the dreary rehashed storyline, the utter lethargy of everyone 'going through the motions', the way it made little sense... there are only two things I liked about it.  The 'rocked-up' version of the awesome theme tune and the funny 'Bangkok Rules' scene (which was in the trailer)... Deffo the bottom of the barrel as far as Mr Carpenter is concerned, IMHO.  This film is utterly shithouse.

Then we got 'Vampires' which I rewatched recently, and it's pretty decent, one of his better later flicks.  Mind you, after EFLA, he could have directed furniture commercials with a local celebrity and they'd have been more involving... Vampires is surprisingly nasty and with some fine actors, not nearly as good as 'the classics' but something like 'a return to something like form...'

See also 'Ghosts Of Mars', I could post the exact same comment, but the sentiments still stand... a decent enough flick but compared to the old stuff, meh.

And as to his last directorial effort (to date) 'The Ward'.... just unimaginative and I wouldn't be arsed to watch it again.

Thanks to everyone in this great community for trudging through my thoughts.  I'll leave you with a great 50 minute John Carpenter live concert... 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijZBAiaUroI

 

[Guillaume]

Interesting thought, I will check out that documentary asap...

Let me know what you think of it, i think it was a great little documentary, funny and touching at times (the scene where Carpenter goes in the street where he shot "Halloween" in 1978, for example)...

Well, I wish I could forget 'Escape From LA'.  A movie I utterly and absolutely hate! there are only two things I liked about it.  The 'rocked-up' version of the awesome theme tune and the funny 'Bangkok Rules' scene (which was in the trailer)...

Don't you like the ending scene? I think it's pretty great, even if the rest of the movie isn't too good, indeed.

I quite like "Village of the damned", first Carpenter movie i've seen on the big screen! First time i was disappointed, thinking the movie was dull, generic, but i liked it a bit more on laserdisc then dvd and blu ray...it's nicely shot and has some good moments and B movie casting!

"Vampires"...i kinda love it...it's flawed (the plot is a bit repetitive and the ending is rushed) but like you say it's nasty, and  i like the visuals and casting.

What do you think of "Invisible man" and "Someone's watching me"?

[cthulhu]

thx master ray, you kept your promise and it was a fine read!
yesterday i went shopping and found "big trouble in litle china" for 5€ on blu-ray and watched it again and had much fun. i think this movie was to weird, the hero to to dumb but very funny, a real movie for nerds but not for the mainstream. the blu-has one of my favourite specials, the isolated soundtrack!

i really like the "invisible man", i love chevy chase and his family movies, i like the special effects and the story. very funny at moments, and has also much suspense. don't know why people don't like it, for me its a very good movie.

[cthulhu]

i recently watched "universal soldier. day of reckoning" due to curiosity and was unexpectedly blown away by it. i would call it a masterpiece by john hyams. this movie is so intense, intelligent and kind of a melting of action and horror. it made me scream out loud while watching it, the action an fighting scenes will get you shaking your head while applauding. well at least for me it did this. you guys should check it out. a masterpiece!

[Guillaume]

thx master ray, you kept your promise and it was a fine read!
yesterday i went shopping and found "big trouble in litle china" for 5€ on blu-ray and watched it again and had much fun. i think this movie was to weird, the hero to to dumb but very funny, a real movie for nerds but not for the mainstream. the blu-has one of my favourite specials, the isolated soundtrack!

i really like the "invisible man", i love chevy chase and his family movies, i like the special effects and the story. very funny at moments, and has also much suspense. don't know why people don't like it, for me its a very good movie.

"Big trouble..." was re-released early this year in french theaters/cinemas, new 4K print...unfortunately i missed the screenings!
I won't miss "Halloween", "Escape from NY" and "Prince of Darkness" next autumn on the big screen, though!

Yes, "Invisible man" is pretty good...Carpenter doesn't seem to rate it highly, because it was a big studio, big budget movie and there were lots of creative interferences according to him during the making of it, that's why there is not "John Carpenter's...'" before the title of this movie.  According to Carpenter, Chevy Chase wanted a more serious, more somber character and tone for the movie but the studio Warner Bros wanted a comedy, so for Carpenter, the film suffered from this...but you can still recognize the master's stamp in his use of Cinemascope, for example. The casting is good, too.


Now, back to Dario..."Suspiria"'s remake is screening tonight, worldwide premiere, at the Venise Film Festival...i will look for the reviews of course, even if i don't really trust the early buzz, good or bad, when films are shown in festivals. 

[Master Ray]

Well, heck, despite my love for Carpenter, I somehow missed out that Invisible Man movie.  Probably it was so underwhelming that it's completely vanished from my memory.  Despite liking Mr Chase very much as a comedic actor back then and having a bit of a crush back then on Ms Hannah!  I must watch this one again.

Never seen 'Someones Watching Me'.  Must catch up on that one.

Your comments have been great, guys, please keep them coming, here and on other parts of this lovely little internet community   

[Master Ray]

First review I've seen about the 'Suspiria' remake, from The Guardian... not terribly good, I'm afraid... 

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/sep/01/suspiria-review-luca-guadagninos-horror-remake-has-sex-and-style-but-fails-to-bewitch#comment-119983456

[Guillaume]

First reviews are very split/mixed indeed, "Love it" or "Hate it" style!...those who don't like it call the "remake" boring, pretentious, overlong, dull looking and not scary...:

http://www.darkhorizons.com/suspiria-early-reviews-prove-very-divisive/