As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in a few weekly live tweets on Twitter and Mastodon. I host #FridayNightFlix every Friday, I co-host #ScarySocial on Saturday, and I am one of the five hosts of #MondayActionMovie! Every week, we get together. We watch a movie. We tweet our way through it.
Tonight, at 10 pm et, #FridayNightFlix presents the original 1976 Assault on Precinct 13, from director John Carpenter!
If you want to join us this Friday, just hop onto twitter, start the movie at 10 pm et, and use the #FridayNightFlix hashtag! It’s a friendly group and welcoming of newcomers so don’t be shy.
Assault on Precinct 13 is available on Prime and Tubi! See you there!
4 Or More Shots From 4 Or More Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking!
Today, the Shattered Lens wishes a happy 76th birthday to one of this site’s favorite filmmakers and a patron saint of the independent spirit, the great John Carpenter!
In honor of the man and his legacy, here are….
6 Shots From 6 John Carpenter Films
Assault on Precinct 13 (1976, dir by John Carpenter. DP: Douglas Knapp)
Halloween (1977, dir by John Carpenter, DP: Dean Cundey)
Escape From New York (1981, dir by John Carpenter, DP: Dean Cundey)
The Thing (1982, dir by John Carpenter, DP: Dean Cundey)
Big Trouble in Little China (1986, dir by John Carpenter, DP: Dean Cundey)
They Live (1988, dir by John Carpenter, DP: Gary B. Kibbe)
Obviously, I was going to have to share the trailer for the original Halloween eventually. This is still the best of the franchise. In fact, all of the attempts by other directors to “improve” on it just serves to remind us of the fact that John Carpenter said everything that needed to be said in the first film.
2. Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)
How did Carpenter get the chance to direct Halloween? Well, the producers were impressed with his previous film, Assault on Precinct 13. Also impressed by this film was Angela Pleasence, who subsequently convinced her father, Donald, to read Carpenter’s script for Halloween.
3. The Fog (1980)
Carpenter followed up Halloween with The Fog, which featured several cast members of both Halloween and Carpenter’s next film, Escape From New York.
4. The Thing (1982)
Incredibly underappreciated when it was first released, Carpenter’s remake of The Thing has gone on to become one of his most popular and influential films.
5. Prince of Darkness (1987)
Speaking of underappreciated, it would also be several years before Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness started to receive the attention that it really deserved.
6. John Carpenter’s Vampires (1998)
Finally, with Vampires, Carpenter mixed the horror genre with the western genre and came up with a hybrid that continues to be influential to this day.
4 Or More Shots From 4 Or More Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking!
Today, the Shattered Lens wishes a happy 75th birthday to one of this site’s favorite filmmakers and a patron saint of the independent spirit, the great John Carpenter!
In honor of the man and his legacy, here are….
6 Shots From 6 John Carpenter Films
Assault on Precinct 13 (1976, dir by John Carpenter. DP: Douglas Knapp)
Halloween (1978, dir by John Carpenter. DP: Dean Cundey)
Escape From New York (1981, dir by John Carpenter, DP: Dean Cundey)
Big Trouble In Little China (1986, dir by John Carpenter, DP: Dean Cudney)
Prince of Darkness (1987, dir by John Carpenter, DP: Gary B. Kibbe)
They Live (1988, dir by John Carpenter, DP: Gary B. Kibbe)
Since today is the birthday of John Carpenter, can you guess what the theme of the latest edition of Lisa Mare’s Favorite Grindhouse Trailers is going to be?
Enjoy!
Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)
Let’s get things started with the wonderfully grainy trailer for 1976’s Assault on Precinct 13! Though the film may have been intended as an homage to Howard Hawks’s Rio Bravo, everything about the trailer screams grindhouse.
2. Halloween (1978)
Assault on Precinct 13 may not have set the box office on fire but it did help build Carpenter’s critical reputation. One fan of the film was the actress Angela Pleasence, who suggested to her father, Donald, that he accept Carpenter’s offer to play the role of Dr. Loomis in Carpenter’s next film. And that film, of course, was Halloween!
3. Escape From New York (1981)
Donald Pleasence returned to play the President in Escape from New York and, of course, Kurt Russell appeared in his first Carpenter feature film. (Russell had previously played Elvis in a Carpenter-directed television film.) Though the film may not have been an immediate hit in the United States, it was embraced in Europe and it led to an entire series of Italian films about people trying to escape New York.
4. The Thing (1982)
Carpenter and Russell reunited for The Thing, another film that underappreciated when first released but which has since become a classic.
5. They Live (1988)
They Live is one of Carpenter’s best films and certainly his most subversive. What may have seemed paranoid in 1988 feels prophetic today.
6. In The Mouth of Madness (1995)
Finally, in 1995, Carpenter proved himself to be one of the few directors to be able to capture the feel of H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu stories on film. In The Mouth of Madness, like other Carpenter films, has been rewatched and reappraised over the years and is now widely recognized as a classic.
4 Or More Shots From 4 Or More Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking!
Today, the Shattered Lens wishes a happy 74th birthday to one of this site’s patron saints, the great John Carpenter!
In honor of the man and his legacy, here are….
6 Shots From 6 John Carpenter Films
Assault on Precinct 13 (1976, dir by John Carpenter. DP: Douglas Knapp)
Halloween (1978, dir by John Carpenter, DP: Dean Cudney)
The Fog (1980, dir by John Carpenter, DP: Dean Cudney)
The Thing (1982, dir by John Carpenter, DP: Dean Cudney)
They Live (1988, dir by John Carpenter, DP: Gary B. Kibbe)
Escape From L.A. (1996, dir by John Carpenter, DP: Gary B. Kibbe)
I think by now both fellow writers for the site and those who frequent said site know of my love for all and everything John Carpenter. I consider him one of the most underappreciated American filmmakers. All his films contribute something even those where one wonders if he has lost his mojo (I’m looking at you Ghosts of Mars). One of his very first films and one that still resonate with many of his fans is the low-budget and modern remake of Howard Hawk’s Rio Bravo. The latest “Scenes I Love” come from this remake which was called Assault on Precinct 13.
This was a film made for just $100,000 and while the low-budget shows it doesn’t stop Carpenter from creating a grindhouse classic. One of my favorite scenes in this film is the scene chosen. It’s very close to the beginning of the film as a violent street gang called the Street Thunder has vowed a blood vendetta against the LAPD and the citizens of LA. The scene in question show just how far these gangbangers were willing to go with their vendetta.
There’s always been several cardinal rules of grindhouse filmmaker and this scene definitely stays true to the notion that nothing is off-llimits. Carpenter shows just how much he understands this rule. In mainstream films children are oft put in danger but never to the point that they actually die on-screen. There’s always some adult to save them in the end and give the film a happy Hollywood ending. Carpenter doesn’t care for that and this scene proves just how much he doesn’t.
The first time I saw this scene I was surprised, shocked and left speechless. Carpenter had the stones to kill that young girl (and a blond in pigtails at that) with her ice cream cone right on the screen. From that moment on I knew I was in for a ride and I wouldn’t know whether Carpenter would take it easy on his audience or just continue to mess with them. This scene begins a chain reaction of why I love Carpenter films and will continue to love his past, present and future work.
Through the Shattered Lens 