Post Mortem: John Carpenter (2011)
*** 1/2 (out of 4)
Filmmaker Mick Garris sits down with horror master John Carpenter for a 30-minute interview. If you're a fan of Carpenter then you already know that there's really not too many people that are better to just sit down and listen to. He has made some of the greatest audio commentaries out there and no matter what the subject is about he always manages to be a good interview. That trend continues here as Garris starts at Carpenter's early days at USC and goes through his current "Masters of Horror" episodes. Some of the most interesting moments happen when Carpenter talks about the trouble making ELVIS and he makes it rather clear that he hated writing the screenplay for HALLOWEEN II. Other subjects include independent filmmaking versus the studio scene and a nice sequence on his dream project. It's interesting to hear Carpenter talk about his dream project because it seems as if he's given up on filmmaking. I really wish Garris would have questioned the filmmaker on why he pretty much walked away from directing only to return on the made-for-TV projects and currently stuff like THE WARD. As you'd expect, Carpenter is full of good stories and he manages to keep everything very entertaining. There's talk about Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing turning down HALLOWEEN, which is a lot of fun as is the brief stuff about THE FOG. There are quite a few films left out (THE THING, ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, most of the 90s stuff) but this is still a pleasant interview for fans.
*** 1/2 (out of 4)
Filmmaker Mick Garris sits down with horror master John Carpenter for a 30-minute interview. If you're a fan of Carpenter then you already know that there's really not too many people that are better to just sit down and listen to. He has made some of the greatest audio commentaries out there and no matter what the subject is about he always manages to be a good interview. That trend continues here as Garris starts at Carpenter's early days at USC and goes through his current "Masters of Horror" episodes. Some of the most interesting moments happen when Carpenter talks about the trouble making ELVIS and he makes it rather clear that he hated writing the screenplay for HALLOWEEN II. Other subjects include independent filmmaking versus the studio scene and a nice sequence on his dream project. It's interesting to hear Carpenter talk about his dream project because it seems as if he's given up on filmmaking. I really wish Garris would have questioned the filmmaker on why he pretty much walked away from directing only to return on the made-for-TV projects and currently stuff like THE WARD. As you'd expect, Carpenter is full of good stories and he manages to keep everything very entertaining. There's talk about Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing turning down HALLOWEEN, which is a lot of fun as is the brief stuff about THE FOG. There are quite a few films left out (THE THING, ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, most of the 90s stuff) but this is still a pleasant interview for fans.