My Top Five John Carpenter Horror Films Part 1

So, They Live, Assault on Precinct 13 and Big Trouble in Little China are ruled out by genre.

5. In the Mouth of Madness:  Sam Neil is John Trent, insurance investigator.  He is hired by the publisher of one of the most prolific horror writers Sutter Cane (Jurgen Prochnow) to locate the writer and his latest manuscript.  Cane’s books are said to alter the reader’s perceptions, and this next book is a big deal to his fans.

Contact has been lost with Cane, and John is teamed up with Linda (Julie Carmen) to locate Cane and get the manuscript.  Cane is apparently holes up in Hobbes End-a fictional town in his books.  Trent suspects the town is real, just not on maps.  He discovers he is right-in a fashion.  The film plays with reality and indicates, reality is being undone and re-ordered through Sutter Cane’s writings.  It is very H.P. Lovecraft in the content.  It works very well, and is part of Carpenter’s Apocalypse Trilogy (Which included The Thing, Prince of Darkness and Madness).  Worth watching, and the last really good Carpenter film.

4.Christine:  One of the better Stephen King adaptions to film.  Part of that is it is really hard to screw up the story.  Haunted car and it’s impact on those who own it…  Keith Gordon plays Arnie, a bullied high school student.  He’s sympathetic and has pretty much one friend and his new girlfriend.  But when he discovers Christine rusting in someone’s yard, Arnie becomes obsessed.  After purchasing and restoring the car, he starts to change and become a less pleasant guy to be around.  He becomes focused on his beautiful cherry red Christine.

Christine is a jealous lover, and she tries to take out those close to Arnie…but she really excels at harming Arnie’s enemies.  They use pretty simple effects (lots of playing scenes in reverse to show Christine fixing herself)  that a practical and work well within the film.  It is a solid little horror film.