John Carpenter - The Master of Horror 1978-1982 Part 2

Halloween and The Fog brought John Carpenter to everybody's attention not just in the producer's office's of Hollywood but also film audience's worldwide. After the success of Halloween John Carpenter became an "overnight" success. John Carpenter had established himself as The Prince of Darkness.

Although not technically a horror film, been based in the Sc-Fi genre, Escape From New York released in 1981 brought maybe John Carpenters most memorable film character ( maybe apart from Michael Myres) Snake Plissken, the heroic one eyed vigilante who is sent into New York, which is now one large walled prison, not a city, to rescue the President after his plane crashed landed and he was kidnapped by The Duke, who now runs New York.

Made on a budget of $6,000,000 and grossed in a estimated total of $25,000,0000 (USA only) it was not a major success in the box office such as Halloween and The Fog, but it became a instant cult classic, more specifically Snake Plisskin became a cult character. Portrayed by Kurt Russell, Snake became a fan favourite thanks to one liners such as "Call me Snake" and after been called a cop he replies with " Im an asshole", and his little appreciation for authority.  Which could be Carpenter trying to say that even if we despise authority, at the end of the day we always end up doing exactly what they ask of us, maybe not so much now but in the 80's when this film was released.

After enjoying his time on Halloween as Dr. Sam Loomis, Donald Pleasence was cast as the President, he even came up with a backstory as to why the American President was British but John Carpenter decided not to use it.

The film established John Carpenter as a cross genre director. The film had a questionable sequel (Escape From L.A, again directed by Carpenter) but is viewed by many as a poor film.

When Kurt Russell was cast in Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof, on the dvd extra interview when he is asked about Kurt Russell Tarantino simply shouts SNAKE PLISSKEN!

Once again a remake is in the line. Gerard Butler turned down the chance to play Snake, other actors in the line to play Snake are Josh Brolin and Jeremy Renner. All I can say is please..... Do NOT make this film.

In 1982 Carpenter returned to horror films with the fantastic The Thing.

The poster claims it is "The Ultimate in Alien Terror" and it certainly wasn't wrong. The basic plot of the film is this: Scientists  in the Antarctic are confronted by a shape shifting alien that transforms  into the human that it has killed. Genius.... Just genius. Simple but effective. John Carpenter at his very best.

Once again collaborating with Kurt Russell, Donald Pleasence was also offered a role but had to turn it down due to scheduling conflicts.

The Thing is John Carpenter's favourite film from the films he has made, but it was not a massive box office success and Carpenter has been quoted saying he takes all of his failures hard but he took this one the hardest.

The film is seen as a benchmark in special effects, Rob Bottin is the man to thank for this, he was only 22 when he made this film and has since gone on to work on David Fincher's Se7en and Fight Club as well as Mission impossible. Rob was sent to the hospital by John Carpenter after filming was finished and he was diagnosed  with extreme exhaustion and Rob vowed never to work so hard again.

The film was so shocking upon its release it was actually banned in Finland.

The Thing finished off John Carpenter's most successful four years in the movie industry. And I don't mean success in how much money they made, I mean success in the way that after 1982 everybody wanted to see every John Carpenter film that came out.

For a director that's more important then the money.