The Year John Carpenter Came Home
Hello old friend, it’s been a while. One of the genre’s most well loved, devoted, and masterful directors, John Carpenter, is finally getting his ass back in gear and starting to make movies again. You want to stand up and clap? Go ahead, I’ll wait. Too long has it been since his last directorial effort (GHOSTS OF MARS, 2001) and while ‘Masters of Horror’ gave us glimpses of what he can do in 2005 and 2006, there’s no bigger return to horror than JC. Not Jason, not Freddy, not even Ashley J. Williams can get me as pumped as this 62-year-old man among men. North American horror needs him more than you can imagine.
His lengthy absence might be blurred a bit since his named continuously popped up over the last few years with, basically, his whole body of work being remade. There’s already new versions of ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13, HALLOWEEN, and THE FOG with talks heating up for plans of remakes for ESCAPE FOR NEW YORK and THEY LIVE. Not to mention the prequel of THE THING. All of these films (will and do) pale in comparison to the originals. Perhaps enough was enough for the man behind so many iconic moments. Perhaps this Fall will be the start of another fantastic run. Perhaps we’ll see all his new films remade in twenty years. Perhaps is a good word, I like it.
The comeback is scheduled for this 24th of September, when we will get to check out THE WARD (READ OUR SCRIPT REVIEW HERE) starring Amber Heard. It’s short synopsis goes like this: A thriller centered on an institutionalized young woman who becomes terrorized by a ghost. While it’s not a terribly original concept, I’d take re-imagined plot outlines from Scooby-Doo at this point. As long as Carpenter is behind a camera again. Earlier this week Jared told you about his return to the vampire genre with FANGLAND, an adaptation of the novel from former ’60 Minutes’ producer, John Marks. This one’s about: …a New York-based producer who travels to Romania for an interview with a notorious European arms dealer, who turns out to be a modern-day Dracula. This sounds a little more promising and a chance for John to revisit the undead after his often overlooked classic, VAMPIRES in 1998. Was he inspired by the state of the vamps due to TWILIGHT? We can only hope he’s a very angry old man at this point.
Maybe it’s the booze talking but I’m expecting greatness here. I have no idea why he sidelined himself for so long but I’m going to pretend it was to let the North American horror community dig itself an embarrassing hole and fill it with mediocrity. Then at the last second, John Carpenter comes along to throw them a rope. No pressure, John, but could you save us all? Please?