Today Monday January 16 would comply 75 years the revered American filmmaker John Carpenter, always true to himself and willing to throw his career away over and over again in order to film what he wants. Of course, he has left us unforgettable gems and box office flops that are cult classics today, as he laid the foundations for ‘slasher’ and modernized horror classics.
In this sense, Carpenter was born in 1948 in Carthage, New Yorkbut at the age of five he moved with his family to Kentucky, where his fascination for movies began, especially westerns, horror movies and science fiction. Here we present five of his masterpieces, to understand the uniqueness of his talent.
‘They live’ (1988)
An unfortunate and pedestrian nobody (played by the wrestler Roddy Piper), he roams the streets of The Angels and finds a pair of sunglasses that show him the world as it is. Everything around him is plagued with subliminal messages that force society to obey a alien race that lives among us and has us subjected. So, with the help of an unconvinced friend, he embarks on a crusade to liberate humanity by kicking alien butt. A true video store classic that now finds a home in streaming.
Escape from New York (1981)
In 1997, NY it was turned into a mega-prison for the United States. Criminals live there fenced off, under their codes. One day the president’s plane crashes, he is kidnapped and the government, in spite of himself, must call the veteran Snake Plissken (who immortalized Kurt Russell) to deal with the crisis. This is a (now outdated) weird dystopia that was a sleeper hit in its day, but has gained as we distance ourselves from that impossible future it envisioned. Carpenter. In 1996 they tried the sequel, but it didn’t work.
‘Big Trouble in Little China’ (1986)
Jack Burton (again Kurt Russell) is a tough trucker who doesn’t care much about luck, even if it goes bad. Thus, when he intervenes during the kidnapping of the fiancée of a friend of his, he does not hesitate to participate in the fight against a thousand-year-old secret society from ancient China, led by lo breada villain with two thousand years old. It is an action film with an air of absurd comedy that failed at the box office but is legendary among the director’s fans.
‘Halloween’ (1978)
The story begins with the young Michael Myers who, at the age of six, stabs his family. Fifteen years later, the care of psychiatric confinement does not seem to help and he escapes willing to kill the survivor. Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) and everyone who crosses his path. A saga of films began that is supposed to have come to an end this 2022. Its soundtrack is unmistakable and although the original tape is not remembered, it is recognized.
‘The Thing’ (1982)
in a station scientist in Antarctica, a group of Americans discover that the Norwegian team has been assassinated and, upon investigating, discover too late that there is an entity among them capable of assuming any form, a monstrous visitor from space that kills them one by one. Based on the story of John W. Campbell, ‘The riddle from another world’ (also filmed by Howard Hawks in 1951), the film is today considered a masterpiece, but it was the director’s first box office flop.
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