For some reason, whenever I think of They Live (Carpenter, 1988), I remember it as a rip-roaring, good-time kind of movie. Something perfect for summer, perfect for a late night. I probably have that idea because when I first saw it in my teens, I was enthralled by the famous…
“You have to embrace the darkness,” film editor Todd Ramsay told director John Carpenter. “That’s where this movie is. In the darkness.” The Thing (Carpenter, 1982) is bathed in darkness, even though it happens to be set in a landscape of blinding whiteness. Whether it’s the black and blue palate,…
I was eight years old when I saw the first television commercial for John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978) and it was galvanizing. At that age, my horror cinema experience centered mainly around the cadre of Universal monsters, and I loved them, but this was a shot across my bow that I…