ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK: SLITHERING THROUGH THE DECAYED VEINS OF A DYSTOPIAN LABYRINTH
The Creeping Dread of a Dystopian Labyrinth Imagine a world where Manhattan Island has been transformed into a maximum-security prison, and the president of the United States crash-lands into this concrete jungle of convicts. This is the backbone of John Carpenter’s 1981 dystopian thriller, Escape from New York. From the onset, the film hooks viewers…
THE WARD: DESCENDING INTO CARPENTER’S PSYCHIATRIC MAZE OF MADNESS
Whispers in the Ward: The Forgotten Screams of John Carpenter’s “The Ward” “In here, everything gets better,” begins the eerie promise of North Bend Psychiatric Hospital, where John Carpenter’s “The Ward” sets its stage for horror. Premiering in 2010, this film marked the celebrated director’s return to the genre after a decade-long hiatus. Through the…
The Thing: Chilling Mastery of an Antarctic Nightmare
Chilling to the Core: Unearthing “The Thing” “You gotta be f****ing kidding.” Perhaps no other line from John Carpenter’s “The Thing,” released in 1982, encapsulates the viewer’s reaction to the creeping terror that unfolds within the isolated Antarctic research station where the film is set. Based on John W. Campbell Jr.’s novella “Who Goes There?”,…