Sandy King Movies
- 2001
- R
- Add John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars to QueueAdd John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars to top of Queue
Writer and director John Carpenter returns to the mixture of science fiction and horror that made The Thing (1982) a success. Natasha Henstridge stars as Lt. Melanie Ballard of the Martian Police Force, a member of a law enforcement team two centuries in the future, dispatched to the remote colony of Shining Canyon. There, the most notorious criminal on Mars, James "Desolation" Williams (Ice Cube), awaits transport to a more secure jail. Besides Ballard, the other cops include the rookie Bashira (Clea Duvall), hotshot and fast talker Jericho (Jason Statham), tough veteran and squad leader Helena (Pam Grier), and reliable soldier Descanso (Liam Waite). Once Ballard and her companions arrive in Shining Canyon, however, they discover that it's a literal ghost town. It seems that an archaeologist team led by Professor Whitlock (Joanna Cassidy) has uncovered an ancient relic at a nearby dig site, unleashing the vengeful spirits of the planet's long-ago warrior inhabitants, which have now possessed the bodies of the human invaders and set about trying to destroy them. After her team is decimated by the Martian specters, Ballard is forced to turn for help to the one person she can't really trust: Williams. Ghosts of Mars screenwriter Larry Sulkis broke into the film business as producer of the satirical commercials in Carpenter's They Live (1988). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ice Cube, Natasha Henstridge, (more)
John Carpenter directed this horror-western, adapted from the novel Vampire$ by John Steakley, illuminating the pivotal figure of fearless vampire killer Jack Crow (James Woods), who lost his parents to the creatures. In a remote New Mexico location, Crow and his team, protected with chain-mail fang shields on their throats, blast away at a vampire nest, haul them out with the Jeep's winch, and then celebrate by pulling on other wenches at the Sun God Motel. Their revels are soon brought to an end by king vampire Valek (Thomas Ian Griffith), who became invulnerable after a bungled "inverse exorcism" during the 14th Century. Amid the motel mayhem, Jack escapes, along with his buddy Montoya (Daniel Baldwin) and hooker Katrina (Sheryl Lee). Since Katrina was already bitten by Valek, they use her as a decoy to locate Valek. Cardinal Alba (Maximilian Schell) sends padre Guiteau (Tim Guinee) to join Crow, who is unaware that Montoya has been bitten by Katrina. The hunt begins. Director Carpenter composed the film's music. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Woods, Daniel Baldwin, (more)
This film is a remake of the classic 1960 science-fiction thriller, Village of the Damned, which was based on the novel The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham. Veteran horror director John Carpenter is at the helm this time, with Christopher Reeve replacing George Sanders in the starring role. Aliens put the entire village of Midwich to sleep for 24 hours and impregnate many women. Reeve plays Alan Chaffee, the town doctor, whose wife Barbara (Karen Kahn) is one of the women carrying an alien baby. Visiting scientist Dr. Susan Verner (Kristie Alley) is monitoring the situation for the government. She supervises a mass birthing in a barn. The children turn out to be white-haired, glassy-eyed, and telepathic. Their plan is to use their supernatural powers to kill the villagers and help the aliens take over, and only Chaffee and Verner can stop them. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christopher Reeve, Kirstie Alley, (more)
Hired to help locate a missing author, an insurance investigator discovers to his terror that the nightmarish events depicted in the writer's best-selling horror novels are coming true. Wishing to be both a horror film and a parody of the genre, John Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness combines supernatural thrills with winking references. For instance, the vanished author, Sutter Cane (Jürgen Prochnow), is modeled on writers like Stephen King and Howard Phillips Lovecraft, from his great popularity to his obsession with small-town New England. Indeed, it is to one such hamlet that investigator John Trent (Sam Neill) and Cane's female editor (Julie Carmen) travel, discovering a town filled with terrifying scenes right out of Cane's books, from random axe murders to far worse. Have Cane's fans gone psychotic and begun imitating his writings, or are Cane's stories of an otherworldly evil invading the earth actually true? In the Mouth of Madness's mix of self-referential satire and real frights anticipates the later Scream (1996). ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sam Neill, Julie Carmen, (more)
- 1993
Horror virtuoso John Carpenter hosts this goofy horror anthology, originally produced for Showtime as a gory stepchild of HBO's Tales from the Crypt series. Playing an emaciated, eye-rolling "coroner," John introduces the audience to a triptych of creepy vignettes in the EC horror-comics mode while paddling about in the guts of assorted cadavers and cracking jokes more gag-inducing than anything oozing on the slab. Two of the stories are directed by Carpenter himself: "The Gas Station" is a retread (pun intended) of Halloween-style scare tactics as a pretty gas-station attendant watches various oddballs pass by her window after hearing that an escaped killer is on the loose; "Hair" is a morbid, hilarious look at man's obsession with his own virility in which Stacy Keach turns to a bizarre hair-growth clinic (run by David Warner & Debbie Harry) which promises instant results, but at a horrific price. The third segment, directed by Tobe Hooper, involves a baseball player (Mark Hamill) who receives an eye transplant after a car accident and soon begins having optical flashbacks revealing (you guessed it) the identity and tendencies of the eye's former owner -- a serial killer. The second segment is by far the most entertaining, featuring a wonderfully neurotic performance by Keach, but the first and last chapters are too derivative to offer much for the discriminating horror buff, although the same fans will enjoy several cute cameos from other genre directors, including Wes Craven, Sam Raimi and Roger Corman. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
John Carpenter wrote and directed this science fiction thriller about a group of aliens who try to take over the world by disguising themselves as Young Republicans. Wrestler Roddy Piper stars as John Nada, a drifted who makes his way into an immense encampment for the homeless. There he stumbles upon a conspiracy concerning aliens who have hypnotized the populace through subliminal messages transmitted through television, magazines, posters, and movies. When Nada looks through special Ray-Bans developed by the resistance leaders, the aliens lose their clean-cut "Dan Quayle" looks and resemble crusty-looking reptiles. Nada joins the underground, teaming up with rebel-leader Frank (Keith David) to eradicate the lizard-like aliens from the body politic. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Roddy Piper, Keith David, (more)
On the eve of her sister's wedding, suburban teenager Samantha (Molly Ringwald) suffers silently as her family forgets her birthday. Even worse, some total dork (Anthony Michael Hall) keeps propositioning her with sophomoric innuendo when she really craves romantic attention from high-school hunk Jake (Michael Schoeffling). Moving from Samantha's family home as it's invaded by outre relatives to a high-school dance where nothing seems to go her way, this bittersweet teen comedy traces the hopes and disappointments of not only Samantha, but also a host of incidental but memorable characters, from a hapless Japanese exchange student to a prom queen and a posse of barely pubescent nerds. A climactic party scene at which these various strata of young America overcome their rigid hierarchies sets the stage for resolutions both tender and torrid. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall, (more)
