Tag Archives: John Carpenter

Music Box Celebrates Horror in October!

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This year’s Music Box of Horrors, their annual 24-hour horror movie marathon, as we know sold-out in record time this year. Literally within minutes. Just crazy. But honestly, it shouldn’t be a surprise with what the Music Box has been programming, with plenty of stuff to keep us horror fiends excited all year long. They have announced a few more titles for this year’s marathon, which we have everything they have listed on their website below, or you can just click HERE to right to their page.

  • Amityville II: The Possession (1982) with Diane Franklin in person for a post-film Q&A
  • Attack the Block (2011)
  • Black Magic with Buddha (1983)
  • Danse Macabre (2011)
  • The German Chainsaw Massacre (1990)
  • The Haunted House (1921)
  • I Saw the Devil (2010)
  • The Leopard Man (1943) – Val Lewton!!!
  • Suspiria (1977) – Ultra-rare IB Tech 35mm print English-language, original UK release version

But it is the rest of October that is just jar-droppingly stunning with the number of amazing features, Q&As, and everything else they have listed. This isn’t the full list, but just a few titles that I think are pretty special or have a special guest attending! For the entire lineup, just click HERE.

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Dick Warlock: The Shape of My Career

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It’s funny how there are some stuntmen that have done some incredible work over their careers, yet for the most part, they go unnoticed. Unless they portray a famous movie monster, such as Jason Vorhees or Michael Myers, and then their fan base explodes. That’s great and all, but it’s a shame that it takes something like playing Jason to bring attention to their career, that could be amazing in its own right! But again, whatever helps, right? I’ve talked to many stuntmen over the years, and it always amazes me the work they do with little or no credit, so I am always excited when the spotlight gets put on them. That is the one thing that playing famous movie monsters can do, so for that, because when you work in the horror genre, us fans take notice!

To help with that education even more so, Harker Press has announced their latest book, Dick Warlock: The Shame of My Career by Warlock, along with John Copeman and Kevin Dennis. Warlock has over 200 credits in the stunt world, playing in just about every type of genre out there, but also doing plenty of work in the horror genre. From his work with John Carpenter to even before that working with Spielberg and even Alfred Hitchcock, Warlock’s career that has spanned over 40 years is just epic. And now you will get to read all the details about it.

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Super-Horror-Rama Goes Full Throttle!

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They are back!!! Now that Chicago’s Music Box Theatre is finished installing their 3rd theater, John McDevitt and his Super-Horror-Rama screenings are back with another amazing pair of fun fright flicks, both based on the works of Stephen King and both dealing with some psychotic vehicular madness!

On July 24th at 11:30pm, you can see John Carpenter’s Christine (1983), starring Keith Gordon and that beautiful cherry red, but deadly, 1958 Plymouth Fury.

Then the next night, on July 25th, you can see King’s one and only time in the director’s chair, for better or worse, in Maximum Overdrive (1985)! Sure, some might say it is a trainwreck, but damn if it isn’t a fun ride! With an all-star cast including Emilio Estevez, Pat Hingle, Laura Harrington, Lisa Simpson herself, Yeardley Smith, this really is just a lot of fun, with metal carnage, some slight overacting, and a soundtrack by AC/DC!!! What more could you want?

Just click HERE to buy tickets. And if you like what Super-Horror-Rama is doing and want to help them continue to do so, join their Patreon! There are 3 different levels with plenty of cool benefits for you, but it also helps John continue to program these great little features each month. Just click HERE if you’re interested in joining.

Carpenter Fest 2 at the Midway Drive-In

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While last night / this morning is still a bit of a blur, we were at the Midway Drive-In yesterday for their From Dusk to Dawn Carpenter Fest 2, where they screened They Live (1988), The Fog (1980), Escape from New York (1981), and In the Mouth of Madness (1994). And what a night it was.

Setting up there as a vendor is not an easy task, especially for some that don’t particularly like being outside in the sun. The things we do for our passions, huh? The temps were in the mid ‘80s with a lot of sun, and you could feel it. Being there around noon to start getting set up, right in the middle of the heat index, it takes its toll on your body. But for events like this, I will be more than welcome to go out of my comfort zone, and I’ll gladly continue to do it.

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World Tour Commences

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Starting tomorrow, I will be out of touch from most of the world for all of next week. I get to go on a fun adventure for work, one of those team building events. And boy am I excited. Trust me, images from Christopher Smith’s movie Severance have been going through my head for the last couple of weeks. If you email me, I will get back to you as soon as I return.

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Carpenter Fest 2 at the Midway Drive-In

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That’s right folks, the Midway Drive-In is doing it again, holding a Dusk-to-Dawn event screening 4 different films from John Carpenter!!! And unless you’re wearing your special sunglasses, you’re going to need to come to this event, buy some popcorn, corn dogs, and cheeseburgers, and spend money on the vendors. OBEY! CONSUME! All of this takes place on Saturday, May 16th. The doors open at 5pm with the pre-show starting at 8pm, so make sure you get there early to not only get a good spot, but also to enjoy a wonderful night at the drive-in!

For those that get there early, we’ll be handing out free sunglasses to the first 100 people in line to get in! Now, we’re not saying that you need to wear these glasses to see what is really going on, but one never knows…. Right before the gates open, we will be out there passing the sunglasses and maybe even some eye patches (in case you’re more Snake Plissken fan than Roddy Piper!) to those in line until supplies last. In other words, make sure you get there early!

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The Thing Expanded

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I know with the amount of attention this has been getting, from all over social media to just the fans aching to see and hear more about not only one of their favorite films, but let’s face it… it’s simply one of the greatest horror films ever made. Am I right? But why this post when everyone in the horror genre already knows about it, possibly even supported the online support process to get your name in the credits as well as some cool additional stuff besides the documentary. Simple. Because we need to remember the fact that upon its initial release, it was hated by most critics and the general public. But us fans… we knew then how fantastic and incredible this film was. And we supported it then and continued to support it until those lame critics faded away, along with those words they wrote some 40+ years ago. Unlike those words, this movie has lasted.

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National Film Registry Adds The Thing

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When you think about a film that has initial reviews that said it was “foolish, depressing” and its actors are “used merely as props to be hacked, slashed, disemboweled and decapitated, finally to be eaten and then regurgitated” and the film overall, “is too phony to be disgusting. It qualifies only as instant junk,” which was from the New York Times Vincent Canby. Or when Roger Ebert called it, “a great barf-bag movie.” But it wasn’t just these types of film critics that hated John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982), his adaptation of John W. Campbell’s novella entitled Who Goes There, first published in 1938. Even Alan Spencer, writing for Starlog magazine wrote that the film, “smells, and smells pretty bad. It has no pace, sloppy continuity, zero humor, bland characters on top of being totally devoid of either warmth or humanity.” He went on to write that Carpenter should not be directing films, but instead, would be “suited to direct: traffic accidents, train wrecks and public floggings.”

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Movie Review: In the Mouth of Madness

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Directed by John Carpenter
Starring Sam Neill, Jürgen Prochnow, Julie Carmen, David Warner, John Glover, Charleton Heston, Peter Jason, Frances Bey, Bernie Casey, Wilhelm von Homburg

There have been many, many film adaptations of the works of H.P. Lovecraft, in both short films and feature-length ones. The first one was from Roger Corman, with his 1964 feature The Haunted Palace. It was titled after a poem from Edgar Allan Poe, to keep in line with the rest of the Corman/Poe cycle, but the story itself is entirely based on Lovecraft’s The Strange Case of Charles Dexter Ward, which didn’t get published until after the author’s death. While some films have come sort of close to the original tales, I would say that very few have really captured the essence of Lovecraft’s work. Describing things so terrifying, so strange and weird, that if one was to actually see it, you’d simply go mad. He wrote about things beyond our human comprehension.

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Music Box of Horrors – October Lineup!

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Not to be satisfied with just having their annual 24-hour marathon, for the last few years, Chicago’s own Music Box Theatre has lined the entire month of October with a wide variety of horror offerings, some with special guests, others with just some rare opportunities to see some very unique films. And this October is no different.

If you are in the area of the Music Box, I can’t recommend enough coming out and supporting the theater during this month of programming, for a few reasons. First and foremost, it shows the theater that these kind of events are worth it, meaning they will continue to program events like this in the future. For a guy that used to drive out the this theater in the 90s for a midnight screening of some cult title, only to have 5 other people in the theater, its a wonder they continued at all! So when you can, make sure you show your support by attending one or more of these incredible screenings.

Second of all, you are getting the chance to see some truly great and interesting titles in this lineup. For us classic horror fans, getting to see Charles Laughton as the mad Dr. Moreau in Island of Lost Souls, a film that has themes of bestiality in 1932, not to mention some incredible makeup effects. And then there is having the chance to see Lon Chaney Sr. in The Phantom of the Opera (1925), the original love obsessed stalker! Even though its a silent film, you will be amazed at Chaney’s performance. And that is just the start!

And there so many more listed here. Mark your calendar and make those plans! Just click HERE to go to the Music Box event page.

Oct. 1st – 9:15pm
In My Skin (2002)
Theatre 2 DCP

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