Click HERE to see this thread with all of the graphics, features, and links.

what do people think of this oldie?
it's one of my favourite horror movies of all time.

great pacing which leads to some excellent suspense

It's an oldtime favorite, the movie has a dark feel to it and even gets a little claustrophobic. But what's even better is the score, terrifying as hell!

The start of JC's uninterupted decline into the toilet bowl.

Awful film that replaces scares and horror for crappy Alice Cooper and a few shuffling bums, a prick in a cupboard spouting jokes at a woman with strawberry jam on her face, the devil reduced to a blob in a jar and an apocalypse held in a disused warehouse.
Good score though. But flush the rest.

Originally posted by 42ndStreetFreak
The start of JC's uninterupted decline into the toilet bowl.

Awful film that replaces scares and horror for crappy Alice Cooper and a few shuffling bums,


I can understand your disdain for this movie. One has to have a certain appreciation and patience for horror movies to like prince of darkness. I was quite happy with psychological suspense replacing cheap scares, even though cheap scares is not apart of carpenters recipe for a horror flick. Prince of darkness was cheap, but had a great story and pacing.

Your remark that this was the start of Carpenters journey into the toilet bowel is just silly and bewildering. they live and Vampires are great little movies, and in the mouth of madness is a superb horror movie. I thought ghosts of mars was a great purposely made B movie. Although vilage of the damned and body bags werent to great, they certainly werent as bad as wes craven's movies
Memoirs of an invisible man wasnt great, but took an interesting angle on the invisible man story, even though chevy chase ruined all potential the movie had for me.
I would say the only real failure carpenter had since prince of darkness was escape from LA, but even some of the cheese in that movie was enjoyable

"They Live" was good until the stupidly downbeat finale that in no way went with the rest of the film. I saw it when it opened in the cinema and you could feel the audience go 'wtf'.

"Vampires" is dross. Laughable Goth wank vampire, a wasted Woods and bad action.

"L.A." was a hideous abomination. Overly knowing cameos that did not feel like actual characters, AWFUL AWFUL AWFUL CGI/matte fx, a tired plot, a tired Russell and a tired Carpenter.
The only good thing was the end twist...if the rest of the film had been half as ballsy as that we may have had something.
A big fall after the original classic.

Not a HP Lovecaft fan, so "Mouth" was just pretentious twaddle to me. I understand HP fans like it though.

"Village" was a dull TV movie.

"Invisible Man" was a dull TV comedy with nothing to entertain.

"Ghosts of Mars" had some great decap FX, but was otherwise a tedious, cheap re-hash of the far superior "Assualt on P 13" with bad acting and tired direction.

An uninterupted fall into the toilet bowl.

From being one of the finest and most consistant directors in the horror/sci-fi genres he became a total failure. No idea why. perhaps it was just burn-out.

And we had no subtle scares in "Prince". It was played for smart-ass laughs! The dreaded 90's were creeping in and JC decided that no one takes horror films seriously anymore so he had some annoying prick stand in a cupboard and spout inane comedy one-liners at a woman wih jam on her face. Tragic.
And a tragic attitude to take to the audience, as we are not all mall rats.
The 90's was a dark and dire time for horror films with smart one-liners and 'knowing' humour replacing everything worth a damn.

I'm going to Disagree with your Stance on "Vampires."

There was a Lesser Baldwin in that film, No good can come from a lesser Baldwin Acting.


Maybe he had just lost that "Holy Grail" of Writing inspiration, and had to settle for the "#1 dad, Dirty old coffee mug with the handle broken" Yes hes now a burn out, but didn't he put out some damn good films?

same thing goes for Mel Gibson, You'd have to pay me to go and see anything with gibson in it now.

But as for the topic of the thread, I've Never seen it, but i wanted to.

And yes i am a John Carpenter Fan, Escape from L.A. is one of my more loved movies, and Before I'm asked "who hit you with a truck" or "i wonder how much it took to make you that stupid"

Its a movie, a movie, its to "Entertain" people, nothing more.
i like Kurt Russel, i like John Carpenter - i like Escape from NY and LA, "bad-ass goes into mega prison and kill some ****ers, Only to be screwed." - Plot, yeah ok, not much, but still worth a watch.

Interesting film. Dissapointed in the effects. Donald Pleasance wasted his acting talents.

I thought it was okay. The girlfriend liked it a lot, mind.