...behind The Thing. Halloween is good but it’s a bit overrated in my opinion. This film is near perfect in the way it’s suspense is directed.
shareThis film achieved so much on a tiny budget... personally I would put Halloween at no. 1 - I'm not a horror fan but that film scared the bejeesus out of me, a model in pure terror - but Precinct 13 is also top-notch.
shareIt always disappointed me that Carpenter didn't use the charismatic Darwin Joston for prominent roles in his subsequent films. I know that Joston had a bit role in The Fog, but I think that was it. I would've liked to have seen him as John Nada in "They Live," for example (even though Piper was very good).
shareI've always thought Darwin Joston, and Laurie Zimmer, should have had significant film careers. But success in acting seems almost a random process - probably so unpredictable you'd have to use chaos theory to model it.
shareIt says a lot about the movie and their performances that I became so invested in them I did want to know what happened to them after that.
shareThere is an interesting note on Laurie Zimmer's Wikipedia entry but I won't paste it in just in case you don't want to read it.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurie_Zimmer
I never would have guessed a documentary was made about her but that might be interesting. Supposed to be available on Paramount+.
shareA first — I agree with almost everything said.
Just watched last night in HD on Kanopy — probably the best it’s looked since the theater in 1976. It is certainly one of Carpenter’s very best if not his top — an astonishingly effective thriller in any decade.
And yes, yes, yes … a thousand times. Why didn’t Darwin Johnston and Laurie Zimmer get more work? In Hollywood back then everyone saw everything released, good or bad — looking for the next. No one wanted Zimmer smoldering presence or Johnston’s goes-his-own-principled-way style?
I chatted with producer Joseph Kauffman (one of the CKK K’s) on Compuserve in the pre-net days about Zimmer. I believe he said she left the industry to start a family. But he agreed she was a find.
Its a good exercise for bigger and better movies that came later on Carpenter's career. A bit silly, though. I can't get around that a guy was shooting with an empty gun all night long and didn't notice it because of silencers. I guess guns don't have a recoil in AoP13-universe.
shareYeah that was pretty stupid.
shareI prefer the Thing, but I have to admit, this is arguably a better movie.
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