70's John Carpenter

DARK STAR

(1974)

Overall: MEH

 

Imagining 2001: A Space Odyssey on a fifty-dollar budget gives one a pretty accurate description of John Carpenter's Dark Star.  Taking place in outer space of course, there are machines turning against their operators and a dude surfing through the cosmos to fill in for the starchild.   Otherwise though, anyone expecting the life-changing, cinematic experience that Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece was will certainly feel a bit under-served.  No point in comparing them further as Dark Star began life as a mere student film and the debut from both Carpenter and Dan O’Bannon, with the former doing his usual writing, directing, and scoring while the latter co-writes, edits, provides most of the "special" effects, and stars as the goofball Sgt. Pinback.  There is an undeniable camp element here, solely from the fact that the budget is so obviously under-equipped for such a project.  The famous “beach ball” alien that Pinback does battle with is laugh-out-loud silly and the script for the most part is intentionally hilarious.  While the razor-thin production values and some incompetent acting are forgivable, the arduous pacing is less so, making the whole thing more interesting in parts than enjoyable as a whole.

 

ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13

(1976)

Overall: MEH

 

Graduating from student film to low-key, exploitation shoot-em-up, John Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13 is the first of the filmmaker's works to adhere to some of his auteur aesthetics.  Given a real, be it quite conservative budget to work with and shot in widescreen Panavision, Carpenter also provided a textbook synth score that is as memorable as any of his future soundtracks.  The plot has often been described as a hybrid of Rio Bravo and Night of the Living Dead and it essentially fits into both horror and western genres by its construction.  A small group of hard-edged, occasionally wise-cracking characters that would otherwise be in direct opposition to each other all hold off against a violent gang that is deliberately unemotional and zombie-like.  Carpenter makes solid use out of the meager production values and the largely unrecognizable cast turn in tight performances, but the pacing is extremely rough.  By Carpenter's own admittance, he extended each scene as long as possible to get the most mileage out of the quick production schedule and it certainly shows.  It needs a little more excitement to crank up the tension effectively, coming off instead as merely a dull B-movie with some cult appeal.

 

SOMEONE'S WATCHING ME!

(1978)

Overall: MEH

Premiering on NBC a mere month after Halloween was theatrically released, John Carpenter's Someone's Watching Me! admittingly served as a learning experience for the filmmaker.  He began working on his game-changing slasher masterpiece very shortly after shooting wrapped here, experimenting with several stylistic techniques and thriller tropes for the first time.  Originally, Carpenter was approached by Warner Bros. to pen a script based on a real life story of a Chicago woman being stalked, which eventually led to him being allowed to direct.  The result has an unnerving enough premise and Carpenter creates a slow building, paranoia-fueld tension which is only hampered by the neutered, network television format.  The pro-feminism angle is unmistakable as Lauren Hutton's protagonist is not only clever and likeable, but more forceful and aggressive than the usual damsel in distress by comparison.  Besides her aforementioned, voyeuristic sociopath, she also fends off chauvinistic advances elsewhere and Adrienne Barbeau plays a sassy lesbian to further make it more progressive.  The pacing drags a bit after awhile and there are some plausibility issues here or there, but it is certainly a meritable watch for Carpenter completists.