Assault on the System: The Nonconformist Cinema of John Carpenter

Author Troy Howarth, in his free time between all the amazing and informative audio commentaries he’s been cranking out, has finished his newest book, this time focusing on the one and only John Carpenter. Few directors these days can have more than a few titles in their filmography that are considered classics, not to mention damn good films, but Carpenter is definitely one of them.

This book “charts Carpenter’s trajectory from screenwriter-for-hire to director of low-budget oddities like Dark Star (1974) to his meteoric rise and fall within the very system he came to distrust. All of Carpenter’s films are analyzed in detail, including his forays into made-for-TV fare, and his various sideline projects as a writer, a composer, and a producer are also examined.”

It also contains brand new interview’s with actor/director Keith Gordon, Carpenter’s wife Sandy King-Carpenter, as well and Carpenter himself. It also features guess essays by Matty Budrewicz & Dave Wain, Lee Gambin, John Harrison, Randall D. Larson, Robert Russell LaVigne, Francesco Massaccesi, Paul Poet, and Nick Smith.

The book is now available on Amazon in the color edition, but soon will be available in a black and white version as well. I can’t really see how this could not be a welcome edition to any film fan’s library. I know it will soon be in mine!

 

Book News!

Oargentone more thing we can look forward to in 2019 is the continuing proof that print is definitely not dead. Sorry folks, but not even close. Granted, my bank account very well could be, but there are more than a few books coming out this year that I know will be must additions to my library. Not sure where I’m going to be putting them when they do arrive, or when I’ll get around to reading them…

FAB Press announced that they will be publishing the English language edition of Dario Argento’s autobiography, simply called Fear. That is the only details FAB released but since I hadn’t even heard that he was even writing an autobiography (that was actually published in 2014…thanks Troy!), I am more than a little excited about hearing his stories, right from him. I can only imagine the insights and stories we’re going to hear right from the man responsible for so many incredible pieces of cinema.

Add this to the fact that Troy Howarth’s new book, Murder By Design: The Unsane Cinema of Dario Argento, will be out in 2020, that means we’ll have a few more Argento books for the library shelves. Maybe we’ll even get to see Volume 3 in Howarth’s So Deadly, So Perverse giallo series. Positive thoughts, my fellow book fiends.

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Need Some Holiday Horror?

Yuletide Terror

When thinking about the upcoming holiday, most people don’t think about horror films. In fact, it is supposed to be a joyous time, with gifts, food, family, commercialism…oops…skip that last one. But as I said, “most” people don’t think about horror films….but we do! So one way for us to stay with the “holiday spirit”, we can now read some essays on the Christmas by some of the genre’s talented writers!

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New Making of Cujo Book!

Cujo BookNothing pleases me more than when I hear of a new book coming on a horror movie. Not only does it make me happy that here are still books being published, but also that it is about the genre I love so much. Definitely a win-win! Now it has been years since I’ve seen the film version of Cujo, and even longer since I’d read the book. But I do remember enjoying both for different reasons. I know it’s been a film that I’ve been meaning to re-visit for a while. I’m sure after reading this book, that desire will be even greater.

Lee Gambin, author of Massacred by Mother Nature, has a new book out called Nope, Nothing Wrong Here: The Making of Cujo, that focuses just one of those killer animal movies, the 1983 film based on the King book which was published in two years earlier. A simple story about a battle between a mother and her young child against a massive and rabid Saint Bernard. I know of a couple people that this movie simply terrified them and made them always a bit twitchy around dogs, of any size. Gambin’s book tackles the whole movie from beginning to end, and all aspects of the production. It covers the early days when the production was running into problems, the original director Peter Medak getting canned, and so much more. With more than thirty different interviews with the people involved, Gambin gives us a ton of information about this famous furry terror. We’ll get to hear from actors Dee Wallace, Daniel Hugh Kelly, Danny Pintauro, director Lewis Teague, composer Charles Bernstein, stuntman Gary Morgan, and plenty of more.

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