Posts Tagged ‘Howard Hawks’

Now then – John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982), itself a remake of the Christian Nyby/Howard Hawks/Orson Welles (?) 1951 classic, The Thing From Another World (both of which are adaptations of John W.Campbell’s original short story, Who Goes There?) is perhaps the finest horror-science fiction film ever made. Carpenter’s movie, although it fared badly with critics and at the box office on its original release, has nevertheless gained an enormous cult following over the years, and is now rightly regarded as the classic that it so clearly is. Guess what? There is a ‘companion piece’ prequel on the way – how scared should we be?

Read the rest of this entry »

A thing of darkness…

Well, this week will provide a rare chance for certain upper-echelon critics to admit they got it wrong at the time, as they tend to do (get it wrong, that is, not own up and retract) with all the very best horror (Peeping Tom (1960), anyone?) – in a master stroke, presumably to celebrate, erm, the 27 years that have passed since its original release, John Carpenter’s masterpiece of paranoia, suspense, still-incredible S/FX and terror, The Thing (1982), is being re-released in the UK on 11 September.

Read the rest of this entry »

Noir nonsense

We’ve been here before – not just because The Black Dahlia is yet another noir set in the sunlight-scorched streets of Los Angeles, but also because it’s another effort from one-time whiz kid Brian De Palma (Carrie (1976), Blow Out (1981), Scarface (1983)) that falls way short of expectation.

Read the rest of this entry »