The Ride of John Carpenter: On the road to darkness
The Ride of John Carpenter is a fan tribute to the Horror Master written and edited by Richard Vezina. If you admire the director’s films, you will enjoy this three-part homage.
John Carpenter is one of the most revered icons of the horror genre. Not only has his work impacted many creatives but his influence is incomparable. Case in point, Halloween 2018, was a box office smash.
Audiences were waiting in line for the sequel to the original Michael Myers film that kick started the huge slasher trend of the 1980’s. Although he isn’t behind the camera for the current series which is being directed by David Gordon Green, his presence is definitely felt.
Just like his contemporary, Star Wars guru George Lucas (whose inspiration for his science fiction classic was John Ford’s western, The Searchers), Carpenter is also a fan of stories about frontier America.
Believe it or not, he actually wanted to helm westerns but was typecast as a horror director. If you look closely, you can see a bit of John Wayne’s swagger in Snake Plissken. Assault on Precinct 13 was closely modeled after Howard Hawks’ Rio Bravo.
Even Vampires and Ghosts of Mars have scenes that could be right out of a Sam Peckinpah movie, namely The Wild Bunch. Richard Vezina’s fan tribute, The Ride of John Carpenter capitalizes on the director’s passion for our country’s pioneer days by highlighting particular Americana elements in his films.
Utilizing Ennio Morricone’s score from Sergio Leone’s The Good, The Bad and The Ugly starring Clint Eastwood and Metallica’s Enter Sandman, Vezina captures that Wild West atmosphere that inhabits many of Carpenter’s productions.
Here is a list of some of the director’s works that appear in the video:
- Dark Star
- Assault on Precinct 13
- Halloween
- Someone’s Watching Me!
- Elvis
- The Fog
- Escape from New York
- The Thing
- Christine
- Starman
- Big Trouble in Little China
- Prince of Darkness
- They Live
- Memoirs of an Invisible Man
- Body Bags (The Gas Station & Hair)
- In the Mouth of Madness
- Village of the Damned
- Escape from LA
- Vampires
- Ghosts of Mars
- Masters of Horror (Pro-Life & Cigarette Burns)
- The Ward
The Ride of John Carpenter – A Tribute from Richard Vezina on Vimeo.
Next. HALLOWEEN. dark
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