‘The work of Japanese novelist Kenji Siratori poses the reader with a contentious question: at what point does literary experimentalism transcend the circumference of literacy? Siratori’s work evokes “the coming to consciousness of an artificial intelligence” via “a devastating loop of language” (Blood Electric book jacket). Indeed, his novels are a conflation of computer code with anatomical, medical, and technological language. So, Siratori’s fiction is generically cyberpunk; yet, extreme in both form and content. Siratori’s writing evokes Joyce’s Finnegans Wake and the cut-up experiments of William S. Burroughs thus placing Siratori along an experimental trajectory. However, while the work of Joyce is semantically fecund and Burroughs wishes to reveal the underlying conspiracy of language, Siratori moves away from reconceptualizing meaning towards a disorienting, often violent, affect.

‘The emotional experience of “reading” Siratori demonstrates literary meaninglessness as an analogue to the consumer’s relationship with information technology. His work considers the biases of information technology in an analogous manner that Joyce and Burroughs ask about the biases of language. Here, agency and literacy are conflated in an intense way: if we are unable to acknowledge the biases of information technology, we are incapable of possessing agency in late-capitalism. American media theorist Douglas Rushkoff recently suggested that “Facebook is set up to make us think of ourselves in terms of our ‘likes’ and an iPad is set up to make us start paying for media and stop producing it ourselves.” Amidst all the garbled nonsense of his writing, Siratori’s metaphor is as lucid as it is timely: the anxiety of reading asemic cyberpunk is analogous to the consumer’s illiteracy regarding programming and information technology. As literary experimentation is pushed to absolute limits, new languages of code and programming suggest the dawn of new arts.

‘Siratori’s psychedelic style, mixed with its idiosyncratic (and definedly Japanese!) use of the English language, recommends a reading in which the reader is rendered the real author of the book. The theme of the awaking artificial intelligence demands us to be replaced in the mind of what is awakened, including the noise of growing, learning, forgetting and remembering, in short, acquiring a self-referentially evolving self. In Siratori’s own words: “In my writing, the language cell is distorted by the infinite hyperlink of the synapse -a new language is the conceptual pain– all the data act as the hardweb character as if I dissect subjective writing, I’m striking the nude brain to a screen. This is the practice that hardweb creatures were disclosed”. In order to read it, one furthermore has to do away with everything that qualifies as fiction, science or otherwise. Siratori presents us the art of the 21 st century word, with its typical references to the multimedia embedding of (post?)modern communication.

‘As Siratori himself states, “my writing was born with the horizon of techno — I’m advocating nerve physics here — I process violence and sex as the reality of data — I take a view of my conceptual web with nerve experiences. The writing is linked to how I game this expanded hardweb for me — such a method that touches to my brain more cruelly.” His work is an experiment with noise and complexity, and the necessity of its reduction. The reader should therefore be especially attentive to what he remembers of the text, what he perceives to be the text’s meaningful (although I doubt that word is in place here) qualities. More than anything else, this implies a sensitivity for the transformative aspects of the new media. What is the meaning of this writing, what is its truth? If one asks Siratori: “TRUTH–data trash in the brain universe–nerve violence and nerve sex—we scan reality with the HIV form.” Apparently, he has accepted the epistemological consequences of his writing. This digital narrative is no more than a synapse of an endlessly evolving web of communications, the meaning of which is ever harder to discern… Read if you dare.’ — collaged

 

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Further

Official Kenji Siratori
‘The Etude of Murder’ by Kenji Siratori
‘Brain Meat for Naked Lunch’ by Kenji Siratori
‘hallucination=cell’ by Kenji Siratori
‘TATTOO’ by Kenji Siratori
Kenji Siratori @ Discogs
THE NUDE BRAIN: AN INTERVIEW WITH KENJI SIRATORI
‘Writing machines from remote territories’
KJ’s ‘Blood Electric’ reviewed @ Word Riot
Kenji Siratori @ goodreads
Kenji Siratori @ Facebook
Re: Kenji Siratori @ IMAGE [&] NARRATIVE
‘”Hidden Truth” is a Bootleg, Kenji Siratori his shadow and Nocturne the Killer’
::theQuestionnaire: KENJI SIRATORI
‘Living Through Our Errors’
‘Kenji Siratori: Cybergothic Writing’

 

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Musics & Videos

Colette Phair by Kenji Siratori

‘Monster’s Device’

‘Superbug’

‘Cow: a desperate poem’

‘Zero Person Study’

 

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SANTEMUTERUERU, a graphic novel (excerpt)

 

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Ctrl+Monster
3D printable object by Kenji Siratori

Plastic is a great starter material. Strong, with a fairly good level of detail and slightly flexible, it comes in a wide range of colors. If you’re not sure which material to go with, plastic is a great all rounder. €117.95

 

______
Interview
from Bookmunch

 

Let’s start the only way I know how. Can you talk me through your novel Blood Electric – describe the book to me in your own words.

Kenji Siratori: My writing was born with the horizon of techno — I’m advocating nerve physics here — I process violence and sex as the reality of data – I take a view of my conceptual web with nerve experiences. The writing is linked to how I game this expanded hardweb for me — such a method that touches to my brain more cruelly. In my writing the language cell is able to be distorted by the infinite hyperlink of the synapse — ‘a new language’ is the conceptual pain – all the data act as the hardweb character as if I dissect subjective writing, I’m striking the nude brain to a screen. This is the practice that hardweb creatures were disclosed. Blood Electric is presenting the aspect of a genetic hardweb clearly — the nerve cells that run through our gene dub — is the strategic object that our body codes erodes the world – ‘literature is networking to our gene dub’

You say “Writing born with the horizon of techno” – Are you saying that dance music and dance culture is an influence on your writing?

KS: Yes–my writing is an industrial human body emulator–virus for the Genomics strategy. Rave that was turned hypertext is body-encoded.

Furthermore, would you say your writing was narcotic (in the way that, say, Coleridge or de Quincey or Burroughs or countless others wrote while “under the influence”)?

KS: Vital browser of nerve system is opened–language cell spins to genomewarable–nomads of the spiral form occur from my writing.

You talk about “new writing” – aren’t you just dressing up what the modernists did at the start of the twentieth century, a method Burroughs did something to update but which is in essence “stream of consciousness”, albeit stream of consciousness infiltrated by technology and html code etc?

KS: I advocate a hypermodern literature to pop culture–it means the invasion to the gene code–and to update our abolition world code–because the characteristic of 20th century style ‘hardweb’ is a struggle. However my language cell is streaming the genomewarable struggle as 21st century style ‘hardweb’.

Who are you writing for? Who do you imagine your reader to be? Would you admit there was an element of impenetrability to “Blood Electric”?

KS: I upload the focus of the nerve system–everything is to contact our language cells that were exposed to gene terrorism–I manufacture the literary plug-in of a vital browser.

Like a lot of experimental fiction, you expect your readers to work pretty hard – should reading be this difficult?

KS: I expect my readers to scan the language cell–to cause the cracking of the gene corroded–to stream the change to the human body emulator.

I think we need to define terms more clearly: what do you mean by “industrial human body emulator”? What do you mean by the term “genomewarable”? What do you mean by the phrase “the invasion to the gene code . . .”?

KS: “industrial human body emulator”–it functions as a literary hacker in our genetic network. . . “genomewarable”–the hyperlinking genetic information–the genetic engineering liquidity of hardweb. . . “the invasion to the gene code”–so language cells in gene dub are produced by the genetic ‘struggle=hardweb’.

There is a sense, I think, that you hide behind coded responses – you don’t clearly articulate answers – do you sublimate the intimacy of your SELF behind cyber doublespeak?

KS: So I cause to escape SELF of the spiral mechanism to positive–it is the language cell sequence that was approximated to nerve transmission.

What is the TRUTH – for you – of what you say – yes, you have to work to uncover the meaning of your book (and the answers to these questions) but, having worked, what is there? Is it worthwhile, this “streaming of the genomewarable struggle . . .”?

KS: TRUTH–data trash in the brain universe–nerve violence and nerve sex—we scan reality with the HIV form.

On the one hand, you’ve got STYLE – your style, this “new” style – but on the other you’ve got storytelling – the importance of telling a story in a way that can be understood (maybe not right away, but eventually) – are you telling a story in Blood Electric, or is telling a story outmoded?

KS: I go across the digital narrative in the human body–Blood Electric is such software that captures “the digital narrative in the human body” and is archive that connects my digital narrative to your digital narrative.

Who is Kenji Siratori – man or machine?!?!

KS: He is one hardweb that hyperlinked to our genetic information . . .

 

___
Book

Kenji Siratori HUMAN_WORMS
iUniverse

‘EXTREME BIO-CYBERPUNK HORROR>>>insanity medium of the human body pill cruel emulator that was sucked to the emotional replicant of super-genomewarable abolition world-codemaniacs that was biocaptured a chemical=anthropoid acid of the soul/gram made of retro-ADAM is accelerated the virus:: clone-dive a trash sensor drug embryo rave on the DNA=channel of the cadaver feti=streaming_body encoder that was send back out to the acidHUMANIX infection archive genomics strategy circuit technojunkies’ era respiration-byte nerve cells of the hyperreal HIV=scanner forms to the brain universe that was processed the data=mutant of her ultra=machinary tragedy-ROM creature system murder-gimmick of the cadaver city Blog…. I compress the insanity medium of the human body pill cruel emulator to the brain universe of the murder-protocol emotional replicant performance technojunkies’ DNA=channel hacking the soul/gram made of retro-ADAM acidHUMANIX infection****the genomics strategy circuit of the abolition world-codemaniacs nerve cells that accelerates the virus of the artificial sun to the hunting for the grotesque WEB=joint end of the cadaver feti=streaming_body encoder that clone-dives a chemical=anthropoid mass of flesh-module vital to the era respiration-byte sending program murder game of her digital=vamp cold-blooded disease animals different of a trash sensor drug embryo-hyperreal HIV=scanners that were controlled plug-in….’ — Kenji Siratori

 

_____
Excerpt

Insanity medium of the human body pill cruel emulator that was sucked to the emotional replicant of super-genomewarable abolition world-codemaniacs that was biocaptured a chemical=anthropoid acid of the soul/gram made of retro-ADAM is accelerated the virus::clone-dive a trash sensor drug embryo rave on the DNA=channel of the cadaver feti=streaming_body encoder that was send back out to the acidHUMANIX infection archive genomics strategy circuit technojunkies’ era respiration-byte nerve cells of the hyperreal HIV=scanner forms to the brain universe that was processed the data=mutant of her ultra=machinary tragedy-ROM creature system murder-gimmick of the cadaver city BLog….acidHUMANIX infection archive of the abolition world-codemaniacs nerve cells to the mass of flesh-module murder-gimmicks of her digital=vamp cold-blooded disease animals DNA=channel of a chemical=anthropoid is send back out the era respiration-byte_covered the reptilian=HUB_modem=heart to the brain universe of the murder-protocol emotional replicant performance that was biocaptured the cadaver city technojunkies’ nightmare-script and crash that genomics strategy circuit****cadaver feti of the artificial sun=hunting for the grotesque WEB=joint end of the neuromatic body encoder that streams to the hyperreal HIV=scanners that BDSM play a trash sensor drug embryo hacking–hunting for the grotesque WEB of the cadaver city=covered the reptilian=HUB_modem=heart that jointed and suck acid to the insanity medium of the human body pill cruel emulator that was send back out the era respiration-byte of the soul/gram made of retro-ADAM mass of flesh-module rave on::the different vital-controllers of the biocapturism nerve cells to non-resettable the murder-gimmick of a chemical=anthropoid–abolition world-codemaniacs to the cadaver feti=streaming circuit of the acidHUMANIX infection archive_brain universe that technojunkies’ BDSM plays the DNA=channel of her ultra=machinary tragedy-ROM creature system gene-dub….I compress the insanity medium of the human body pill cruel emulator to the brain universe of the murder-protocol emotional replicant performance technojunkies’ DNA=channel hacking the soul/gram made of retro-ADAM acidHUMANIX infection****the genomics strategy circuit of the abolition world-codemaniacs nerve cells that accelerates the virus of the artificial sun to the hunting for the grotesque WEB=joint end of the cadaver feti=streaming_body encoder that clone-dives a chemical=anthropoid mass of flesh-module vital to the era respiration-byte sending program murder game of her digital=vamp cold-blooded disease animals different of a trash sensor drug embryo-hyperreal HIV=scanners that were controlled plug-in….”I am disillusioned-covered the reptilian=HUB_modem=heart cadaver city at the murder-protocol that was processed the data=mutant of her abolition world-codemaniacs emotional replicant module and that genomics strategy circuit noise–hunting for the grotesque WEB of a chemical=anthropoid=body encoder of the hyperreal HIV=scanner form to the different vital-controller of the acidHUMANIX infection archive_brain universe that jointed technojunkies’ hacking the nightmare-script….hunting for the grotesque WEB insanity medium of the human body pill cruel emulator to gene-dub of the cadaver feti=streaming_brain universe that compressed the acidHUMANIX infection of a chemical=anthropoid murder-gimmick of the soul/gram made of retro-ADAM=joints::the technojunkies’ DNA=channel era respiration-byte sending programs of the abolition world-codemaniacs nerve cells that artificial sun was output to the mass of flesh-module of the murder-protocol emotional replicant performance is installed vital different of a trash sensor drug embryo-hyperreal HIV=scanners that were controlled clone-dives to the genomics strategy circuit that was biocaptured her digital=vamp cold-blooded disease animals….the nightmare-script of the acidHUMANIX infection archive_body encoder that clone-dives the cadaver city to the murder-protocol data=mutant processing organ DNA=channel of a trash sensor drug embryo FUCKNAMLOAD****abolition world-codemaniacs that was send back out the era respiration-byte of her ultra=machinary tragedy-ROM creature system murder-gimmick of the chemical=anthropoid to a hybrid cadaver mechanism SAVE the paradise device of the biocapturism nerve cells_covered the reptilian=HUB_modem=heart that artificial sun was set up and stream to that mass of flesh-module cadaver feti=….the insanity medium of the human body pill cruel emulator that was biocaptured to the hunting for the grotesque WEB=joint end of the cadaver feti=streaming_brain universe that compressed the technojunkies’ acidHUMANIX infection soul/gram made of retro-ADAM murder-gimmick nightmare-script….I rape the reptilian=HUB_modem=heart that crashed a trash sensor drug embryo to the emotional replicant of super-genomewarable abolition world-codemaniacs that was sucked to the different vital-controller nerve cells of the hyperreal HIV=scanner forms that BDSM play@artificial sun DNA=channels of her digital=vamp cold-blooded disease animals acid of a chemical=anthropoid….rave on the modem=heart of the hybrid cadaver mechanism technojunkies’ gene-dub to the nerve cells murder-gimmick of her abolition world-codemaniacs emotional replicant****the surrender-sites of the hyperreal HIV=scanners BLog the artificial sun to the cadaver feti=streaming_brain universe that I compressed the acidHUMANIX infection of a trash sensor drug embryo mass of flesh-module vital to the hunting for the grotesque WEB=joint end of the murder-protocol data=mutant processing organ that crashed a chemical=anthropoid different of the soul/gram made of retro-ADAM-insanity medium of the human body pill cruel emulator that was controlled FUCKNAMLOAD vital different of a trash sensor drug embryo-genomics strategy circuit of the biocapturism nerve cells that compressed the acidHUMANIX infection of a chemical=anthropoid is output to the hyperreal HIV=scanners that were controlled the insanity medium of the human body pill cruel emulator that accelerates the virus of the soul/gram made of retro-ADAM to the mass of flesh-module murder-gimmicks of her digital=vamp cold-blooded disease animals gene-dub::the DNA=channel of the cadaver city hyperlinks to the disillusionment-module of the murder-protocol data=mutant processing organ that was send back out the body encoder of the abolition world-codemaniacs emotional replicant performance technojunkies’ era respiration-byte reptilian=HUB_modem=heart that accelerates the virus of a trash sensor drug embryo to the DNA=channel of the cadaver feti=streaming_brain universe that compressed the technojunkies’ acidHUMANIX infection crashes–the insanity medium of the human body pill cruel emulator that was send back out to the different vital-controller of the murder-protocol emotional replicant that was biocaptured a chemical=anthropoid era respiration-byte of the soul/gram made of retro-ADAM clone-dives abolition world-codemaniacs of the hyperreal HIV=scanner form gene-dub of the cadaver city to the nerve cells nightmare-script of her ultra=machinary tragedy-ROM creature system mass of flesh-module hunting for the grotesque WEB of her abolition world-codemaniacs emotional replicant=being covered the reptilian=HUB_modem=heart that was sucked to the cadaver feti=streaming circuit that jointed technojunkies’ acid mass of flesh-module is output::clone-dive the artificial sun insanity medium of the human body pill cruel emulator that was biocaptured to the disillusionment-module of the acidHUMANIX infection archive_brain universe soul/gram made of retro-ADAM murder-gimmick rave on a chemical=anthropoid gene-dub in the surrender-sites of the hyperreal HIV=scanners nerve cells of the murder-protocol data=mutant processing organs BDSM play the cadaver city….the surrender-sites of the hyperreal HIV=scanners gene-dub of the cadaver city to the brain universe of the murder-protocol emotional replicant performance that was sucked the acid of a chemical=anthropoid FUCKNAMLOAD ****the abolition world-codemaniacs nerve cells rave on the murder-gimmick of the trash sensor drug embryo hunting for the grotesque WEB of her ultra=machinary tragedy-ROM creature system=genomics strategy circuit that jointed to a hybrid cadaver mechanism to the insanity medium of the human body pill cruel emulator that was biocaptured the soul/gram made of retro-ADAM nightmare-script….the data=mutant processing organ of the acidHUMANIX infection archive_vital browser DNA=channel of the artificial sun is ejected being covered to abolition world-codemaniacs of the acidHUMANIX infection archive_body encoder that technojunkies’ BDSM plays hunting for the grotesque WEB of a chemical=anthropoid=reptilian=HUB_ modem=heart that jointed that murder-protocol mass of flesh-module….it hyperlinks the insanity medium of the human body pill cruel emulator murder-gimmick of the soul/gram made of retro-ADAM to the nightmare-scripts of the biocapturism nerve cells that accelerates the virus of the artificial sun plug-in to the hyperreal HIV=scanners that were send back out the cadaver feti=streaming circuit that clone-dives@digital=vamp cold-blooded disease animals era respiration-byte of a trash sensor drug embryo….era respiration-byte is send back out to the DNA=channel of the acidHUMANIX infection archive_brain universe insanity medium of the human body pill cruel emulator that clone-dives the soul/gram made of retro-ADAM BDSM play a chemical=anthropoid ****plug-in to the vital browser that was processed the emotional replicant of super-genomewarable abolition world-codemaniacs technojunkies’ reptilian=HUB data=mutant of her ultra=machinary tragedy-ROM creature system murder game to the mass of flesh-module of the hyperreal HIV=scanner form biocapturism nerve cells hacking a trash sensor drug embryo DNA=channel of the cadaver city–.

 

 

*

p.s. Hey. ** Dominik, Hi!!! Yes, I’ll be in LA for the last three weeks of October. Plans are mostly visiting as many haunted attractions as possible and showing the film to the cast, crew, and supporters. And seeing my many pals there. And eating lots of actual Mexican food. Thanks, the approach is still in motion, and let’s ‘pray’ it doesn’t collapse. The ceiling of our toilet room leaks off and on, and it’s never been properly fixed. There’s a broken, not-to-be-used toilet on the floor above it, and sometimes people use it anyway, and … ugh. That giggling burst does sound like trouble, well depending on who’s dead, I guess. Kenji Siratori hacking ChatGBP, G. ** jay, Peach-fuzz: I’ll look him up. I read ‘The Monk’ ages and ages ago, I don’t remember it all. And I didn’t know about that hospitalisation, so thanks for the news bit. I didn’t see ‘Revenge’. Okay, I’m more interested in the ‘The Substance’ now, and that’s good. Thanks! ** _Black_Acrylic, Yep, about his music, and agreed about ‘Halloween 3’ being his creme de la creme. ** kier, Hey, k! ‘Ghosts of Mars’ isn’t very good at all, in my memory. Awesome. ‘Phantasmagoria’, wow, how does it hold up? Copenhagen sounds like a lustrous rush. I don’t know Tal R, but I’ll search for him. Did the studio visit happen? How did it go? I can’t believe you never gotten that ‘work stipend’?! It must be rigged or something. That’s a travesty. Surely it’s your long awaited turn for that. Hierarchies suck always, and art world hierarchies are way, way up there. Film world ones too, if I even need to say. Tuesday was okay. Hung out with Zac, saw some art (Andrea Fraser, a ceramics show, Tony Cragg), none of it amazing at all, although the Craggs were very elegant. Otherwise just emails and film stuff with no breakthroughs. I hope your Wednesday involved getting big praise from your studio visitor at the very least. xo, me. ** Charalampos, Hey. James Tate! Weird you said that because I just put together a spotlight post about my favorite (by far) Purdy book ‘Eustace Chisholm and the Works’. It’ll come soon after the October blog vacation. I want to read ‘Face Eraser’, but it’s not so suited to my speaking voice, so I’m trying to figure out if I can make the two work together or not. Congrats on the new, promising movement. ** Misanthrope, There you go. You solved it. Readings are always very stressful for me, at least before they happen. Once I’m up there, I just do it kamikaze style. ** nat, Hi. I like that term ‘thirst shot’. And the shot itself is nice and thirty. Thank you. Fuck, I hope someone does a Halloween party or something in your vicinity. Wait, make a haunted house! Charge the cruise ship people to go through it. Solve any immediate financial problems. Just a thought. ** Uday, And now you’re back properly! Enjoy Charli XCX. I’d like to see her show. And whatever luck you might need your article -> that book. ‘Summer in Baden-Baden’ … no, I haven’t. I’ll look for it. I am a sentence fetishist. Very, very happy to have you back! ** Steve, Hey. Everyone, Here are a couple of new Steve Erickson pieces for you to indulge in and learn from. Here is his review of Alan Sparhawk’s WHITE ROSES, MY GOD, and here is his overview of LGBTQ films at the New York Film Festival. **  HaRpEr, Hi. Hooray about the touchdown on the Kristof. Obviously I hope the move today is as easy was such things can allow. No, I’m not especially a Carpenter fan. I just thought it would be interesting to collate his stuff and see what happened. I do really like ‘Halloween 3’. I used to really like ‘In the Mouth of Madness’ for the meta aspect, but I watched it again last year and thought he didn’t commit nearly enough to the meta possibilities. It’s no ‘Providence’. Haha, re: the Salome incident. Thoughts on a possible costume this year? ** Bill, Yeah, me too. I’m doing Air France, and they’re pretty reliable on the in-flight movie front. I haven’t seen ‘Cigarette Burns’. I’ll try it. Right, ‘They Live’, that’s a good one. Roddy ‘Rowdy’ Piper! ** Justin D, Hey. As I was saying up above, I want to read ‘Face Eraser’, but I need to make it work in my speaking voice, and it isn’t quite working as of yet. I don’t think I’ll read anything else from ‘Flunker’. I’m thinking two parts of ‘I Wished’ and a few things from ‘Ugly Man’ maybe. ‘Memoirs of an Invisible Man’ is truly awful. I recommend ‘Halloween 3’. Wow, I don’t know if I have a favorite horror movie. Hm. I’ll have to think about that. The horror movie that scared me the most at the time was ‘Blair Witch Project’, but I wouldn’t pick that as my favorite for sure. What’s yours? ** Malik, Hi! Right, ‘Christine’, that’s a good one. The people who made those CD-rom games were actually experimenting with the form, and even wildly in some cases, and you only really see that now in kind of obscure online games made by individuals and small collectives in their bedrooms, which is fine, but it’s sad that the medium has gone the way of movies. Have fun at the reading. I’m reading on the 2nd, so good luck to us both. I’ve only heard of Harpers Ferry, and I guess I’ve seen some photos, but that name always institutes this kind of dreamy ‘American’ imagery and tone. Nice! ** Lucas, Hi. I’m pretty sure I’m not a representative American. That’s interesting: yeah, I did detect a kind LA roll to the way you speak, now that you mention it. Thanks for thinking especially about ‘Period’. It’s a fave of my own. You can watch ‘The Holy Mountain’ here at home if you want. I only like the first 2/3 of it, and then it kind of runs out of gas or something for me. My day was okay, how was Wednesday? Yours, I mean. ** Tyler Ookami, Hi, T. ‘An IT worker’s idea of what hippies were’ nails what I imagine Meow Wolf is. I’ll look for pics of Water World. Weirdly, I have never been to a waterpark. I’ve stared at them through fences, but I’ve never entered with my swimming trunks in tow. Odd that. I love them by sight and in theory. Benjamin Weissman is great. His two books ‘Dear Dead Person’ and ‘Headless’ are great. And Amy Gerstler’s great. Casey McKinney used to run this really good lit/culture site called Fanzine, but it died mysteriously, and I don’t know what he’s doing now. Thanks for the Wolf Children link. I’ll hit it in just a few moments from now. ** Right. Today’s post isn’t an official Halloween post, but it seems like it’s in the spirit in some way. Correct me if I’m wrong. See you tomorrow.

* (Halloween countdown post #5)

 

‘In the beginning, I was willing to accept the conventional wisdom about John Carpenter being a master of horror. That began to change several years ago when I picked up a copy of Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West on DVD and was surprised to find that Carpenter had recorded an audio commentary for the disc. It was strange that an American director known for his gory, critically-panned slasher films was providing a commentary for an Italian-made Western that many critics consider one of the best films ever made, right? A few months later, I got another surprise when I found another John Carpenter audio commentary, this time on Rio Bravo, a 1959 John Wayne Western directed by Howard Hawks. It was then that I began to look at Carpenter’s overall body of work in a different light.

‘In film, much like music, great artists are often put into a box or category. While this has no ill effect on those artists who are happy to stick with one genre throughout their whole career, for others it becomes little more than an artistic prison sentence, especially for those whose most famous work had little to do with their overall career arc. Any serious horror fan knows the name John Carpenter. He’s often mentioned on the short list of the best directors in the history of that genre. In some respects, it makes perfect sense. He did, after all, write and direct Halloween, one of the most influential films in the genre’s history, and several other classic horror films. On that hand, it makes perfect since to list Mr. Carpenter alongside folks like Roger Corman, George A. Romero, Tobe Hooper, Wes Craven and others who have taken the genre to new heights both artistically and commercially. On the other hand, though, he simply doesn’t fit in with those guys, as his overall body of work clearly shows.

‘With the downfall of the Hollywood code in the late ’60s, directors were free to let realism run rampant. Thus Westerns, and later action films, were allowed to show as much violence and sexuality as the subject matter called for. It was in this universe of gritty realism that John Carpenter began working on Assault on Precinct 13. Like many other low-budget action movies of that era, it’s good name has been tarnished by a big-budget remake, but the original stands as one of the best films that ’70s action had to offer. While it fits perfectly alongside the films mentioned in the previous paragraph, it also serves as something of a forerunner to The Warriors and others that would take the action genre in a new direction in the ’80s.

‘The movie should have established Carpenter as a promising action director in the tradition of Siegel and Peckinpah, but it didn’t. Critics ignored it for the most part and audiences stayed away. But that didn’t stop Carpenter from starting work on his next film, which would become his most famous and most influential. Halloween spawned an army of imitators and became one of the most commercially successful independent films of all time, but the big question is this: is it really a horror film? I would argue that it is closer to J. Lee Thompson’s Cape Fear, Clint Eastwood’s Play Misty for Me, and any number of Hitchcock thrillers than it is to anything Wes Craven or George Romero ever directed.

‘So is John Carpenter really a horror director? Halloween was certainly influential on the genre and there’s no denying that The Fog, The Thing, and They Live are horror classics. But if you look at the big picture, you will find that Carpenter has undoubtedly been at his worst when trying to make a conventional scary movie. Take Vampires and Village of the Damned for instance, or, more importantly, Christine, which was based on a Stephen King novel and may be the single worst book-to-screen translation I have ever seen. Horror is where John Carpenter made his name, it’s the category he’s been placed in, and it’s what the fans expect from him. But I believe that his heart truly lies not in the traditional horror genre, but in the gritty action films of four decades ago. When you get to the heart of them, that is what all of his best movies have been. Regardless of their horror undertones or overtones, the execution has always been more Don Siegel than it has George Romero.

‘I’ve often heard horror fans (a group I proudly claim membership in) lament that John Carpenter simply doesn’t have it anymore. If that is indeed the case, we are the ones to blame because, as a community, we have never truly understood his work. Personally, I think that Carpenter still has a lot of gas left in the tank if he’d only use it. Or if the studios and fans would let him. He could undoubtedly show Hollywood how to make a great action film without the use of computers. He could probably make one hell of a Western and possibly revive that genre. Maybe he would even make a good old-fashioned scary movie. But if the latter is the only option that the fans and the studios give him, then we are not only limiting him but also depriving ourselves of seeing the full potential of a true American genius.’ — Adam Sheets

 

____
Stills

 

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Media

Master of Cinema – John Carpenter

Sound of Fear: John Carpenter talks with Simon Reynolds

The Director’s Chair – Episode 01 – John Carpenter

 

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Further

The Official John Carpenter SiteJohn Carpenter @ Twitter
John Carpenter @ IMDbJohn Carpenter @ Senses of Cinema
John Carpenter @ mubi
‘Master Carpenter’
John Carpenter’s John Carpenter
The John Carpenter Appreciation Society
‘He Said, She Said: John Carpenter’ @ Exploring Feminisisms
Fuck Year John CarpenterJohn Carpenter Mixtape
’36 Things We Learned from John Carpenter’s ‘The Thing’
Book ‘The Cinema of John Carpenter’
‘Photographing John Carpenter Campaign @ Kickstarter
John Carpenter @ The A.V. Club

 

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Composer

‘If John Carpenter’s legendary status as a film director is indisputable, he has in recent years become cited as a major inspiration as a composer, with the current synth and noise underground, from Wolf Eyes alumni Nate Young (notably in Demons) and Mike Connelly to the likes of Hive Mind, Sun Araw and Oneohtrix Point Never, often referring to his scores in their own sonic explorations. Dark atmospheres, haunted effects and subtle drone textures have long been a staple of Carpenter’s musical oeuvre, and the magpie-like tendency of many modern synth wielders, in particular, was always bound to turn to him as they looked to create their own sonic landscapes.’ — The Quietus

 

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Interview
from LARB

 

PAUL THOMPSON: I’ve read that you said, in the past, that if you’d been given a bigger budget for your early films, you would have hired someone to compose their music. By 1982, you have Ennio Morricone composing for The Thing. What’d you learn from him?

JOHN CARPENTER: Well, he’s such a different composer from what I am: he does orchestral stuff, and I don’t know anything about that. But [approaching scenes] is the same. It’s all instinct — that’s what the movie business is — from actors to cameramen, composers, directors, it’s instinct. It’s your training: we need to do this, here. It’s how you feel about it. It’s a very interesting art form; it’s really fascinating.

The creative aspects are based on instinct, but the business apparatus around it is …

[Laughs.] The business around it is all about pirates. The movie business is filled with pirates. You have to watch yourself when you get in it.

The perception, from the outside, is that you’ve been able to maintain an artistic vision through that industrial bullshit, that you’ve been able to fend off notes from producers and studios.

Mostly, you know. I really dedicated myself to it; it’s the way I was trained to try to make my movies, my vision, not somebody else’s. Everybody wants to change what you’ve done; I don’t care who it is. [Executives] think they could do better. Everybody wants to please an audience. It’s all the same — the fights are almost all the same. I got too tired to do it anymore; unless you have something in your contract, you’ve got to fight for it. That’s not my personality. I’d much rather play video games and watch basketball. I don’t want to fight. I hate it.

You hear stories — sometimes you have to fight for things even if they are in your contract.

That’s true — they’ll try. But then you just smile and say, “Sorry!” People don’t want to give you that, though. They take the final cut — who are they? I’m sorry, excuse me.

You’ve created some — what people now refer to as intellectual property — that executives want to mine, and mine again. Do you get agitated, or protective, or frustrated at the idea that other people can make things based on what you made?

What do you mean: making Halloween movies? I don’t care anymore, I stopped caring years ago. You could make one!

That’s next on my calendar. Are there filmmakers today who really excite you?

Any David Fincher movie I’m there for, I think he’s really talented. There’s a lot of really good work being done. The — what’s the name of the UFO movie?

Nope? I imagine you heard Jordan Peele’s recent comments about you. [Editor’s note: Peele recently responded on Twitter to a fan who called him “the best horror director of all time,” saying he “will just not tolerate any John Carpenter slander!!!”]

Yeah, I heard about them. He’s very kind to old-timers like me.

I think horror movies occupy a somewhat central place in the movie landscape today, but so much of the discussion around them is about corporate interest: their low cost, their profitability.

I hate to break this to you, but it’s always been that way. From way back when. You know when Dracula came out, back in the thirties? Everyone looked around and said, “Hey … this didn’t cost that much.” It’s always been that way. That’s one thing about horror: it never dies. Horror was born with cinema, born at the same time the techniques of cinema were developed, and audiences love it — they eat it up when it’s good. They eat it up. They love to go with an audience and be scared. It’s the best way to cuddle a date. Come on now. What’s better?

For those of us who actually love what we’re doing in terms of story, it’s great. Every generation reinvents horror. They reinvent it in their own time and from their own point of view. The things that are floating in the culture, that scare us — those are always changing. The basic fears stay the same. You’re born afraid: you get whacked on the ass when you’re born. They cut the cord! Come on! That’s terrible! Why do you think we all cry when we come out? “I want to go back in!” Horror movies are always about that: I want to go back in.

Were you thinking about that when you made the original Halloween — reinventing horror for your generation?

I was thinking, “Well, this is a low-budget horror film. It’s an exploitation film about babysitters.” And I wouldn’t choose that topic — the distributor chose that. I was like, “Okay, I’ll do that.” I was looking to make a name for myself as a director. So I made a deal: final cut and my name above the title. Within those restraints, I pulled out all the stylistic flourishes I’d been thinking about for horror films and put them in.

Well, it captures a lot of those suburban fears, fears of isolation. What scares you in the culture now?

It’s so weird now. It’s just crazy. A bunch of people believe in crazy things: this QAnon shit? My god! Are you kidding? And there are so many of them. How can this be? How can people be like this? There are wars … it’s tough. But it was tough then — what am I talking about, whining about stuff? The world is crazy, and it always has been. So you go to the sanity of a nice, cool theater, and you watch a horror movie. See? I’ve got it all solved for you.

You started making movies more than 50 years ago. Over the course of your career, how did your actors’ approaches change?

Boy … I boiled it down for myself, as a director, to What does the actor need to be comfortable to do the performance that I need? Sometimes they need confrontational shit; sometimes they need emotional support. Sometimes they bring it all together, and I don’t have to do anything. Acting’s a really special thing; it’s a gift. I can’t do it — I’ve never been very good. But I so love actors.

There’s something about a person that’s either captivating on camera or isn’t. How do you suss that out in casting, especially for smaller roles, when you’re working on a budget?

You develop a camera eye. The camera loves certain people — Howard Hawks said that. A lot of people have said that. You use your instincts, but then you put them in front of a camera: see what their best side is, see how they react to lights.

You talked about how much work directing is, on the creative and managerial sides. You’re on a deadline, on a budget. If things aren’t going well — a lead performance isn’t working, script problems reveal themselves once you’re already shooting — how would you manage that?

The worst thing is not finishing the movie. That’s the worst thing — that’s unbelievably bad. I try to finish the movie first and foremost, and then diminish the bad things while [I] bring out the good. I’ve been in a lot of different situations, but there’s always something. Not finishing it is the disaster.

What’s the closest you came to not finishing one?

It never occurred to me. People on the outside, who don’t direct, have this image of what it’s like in Hollywood, and what directors are like. We’re portrayed in movies as being really horrifying people — and some of us are really bad people. [Laughs.] But it really is a fucking job. It’s like your job: you have deadlines, you have things you have to do but don’t like doing. Just multiply the pressures by 100. Because when I fuck up, I can cost a hundred thousand dollars. It’s not like I’m a doctor, it’s not surgery — believe me, it’s better than that.

Do you ever watch your own movies?

Never. I might look for a minute — “How’s the transfer here?” — but when I see my own movies, I see all the mistakes, all the things I didn’t do. Then I turn them off.

In those 10-minute snippets, do you notice the mistakes you make changing over the course of your career — basically, do you see yourself correcting yourself?

[Laughs.] Every day I make mistakes. There’s a giant list — in film school they gave us a giant list of things directors do to fuck up, and I’ve probably done them all. I do them every day. It’s too hard; it’s an impossible art form. It’s great when it works, but you tend to forget about the pain. If you’re like me, where my entire life has been centered around directing movies, it’s cruel, because you forget the pain. It’s like being an addict: I want to get high again.

Do ideas for new movies pop into your head, then get tossed aside when you remember the pain?

I remember the pain first — I don’t even have to go to the idea.

So is there a circumstance in which you would come back to direct another film?

I’ll tell you the truth: I could be seduced back into doing it again. Give me a script I’m in love with and have to do, and I’ll do it. But if you give me a good script then say you’re going to do it for 10 dollars, well, then, no. All I’m doing is ranting. Can we talk about something nice?

Sure. How good have you gotten at video games?

I’ve gotten a lot better than I was, I can tell you that. [It used to be that] my son would just beat the hell out of me — I couldn’t do simple things. But over the years my hand-eye coordination has really improved.

What’re you playing today?

All sorts of games. I’m playing Fallout, ducking over to play a little Crash Bandicoot. I love the Borderlands games.

I can’t think of a great video game movie.

They’re not good, none of them.

Is it that the mediums ask for fundamentally different things?

Well, I don’t know. I’d love to try [to adapt] Dead Space; I think I could make a scary movie out of that. But I’m not gonna. [Laughs.]

I watch Assault on Precinct 13, and I see some of the logic, the architecture that you now get in video games.

There was nothing like that back [when I made it]. It was Sonic the Hedgehog.

You’re hosting this Godzilla marathon. What’s your favorite Godzilla movie?

The first, [1954’s] Gojira. But there are others that I like for different reasons.

Do you have half a Godzilla script in a drawer somewhere?

No, no, no, they know what they’re doing. But I met the head of Toho: he came to visit me. He wanted me to do [a remake of] Matango, but I wasn’t ready to do it.

I imagine you’ve turned down a number of projects offered to you over the years. Are there any of those decisions that you regret?

No.

You’re happy with every “no” you said.

Oh, hell yes. I don’t worry about my oeuvre. [Laughs.] I love the movies I made; I’m very proud of them. I’m proud of my career. But come on. I’m a horror director. How serious is that? It’s not serious.

I do think the perception of that is changing a bit.

Really? That’s too bad.

 

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17 of John Carpenter’s 33 films

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Revenge of the Colossal Beasts (1962)
‘John Carpenter’s first short film, clearly inspired by Bert I. Gordon’s “War of the Colossal Beast’. — Slash Films

Trailer

 

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Captain Voyeur (1969)
‘John Carpenter made this short while a student at University of Southern California. It’s a fairly straightforward story about a peeping tom who puts on a balaclava and watches women through their windows. Shot in black and white, with minimal audio, the tone is suitably creepy. There’s not much story, character or insight to this, possibly it would have been considered risque at the time, but it’s otherwise quite conventional. That said, Carpenter’s talent for visuals is evident, with the use of low-key lighting and dynamic composition making for a striking look to the film. Probably only of interest to hardcore Carpenters fans, who’ll be duly entertained, otherwise just another promising student film.’ — pauluswiggus

the entire film

 

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Dark Star (1974)
‘Dark Star launched Carpenter’s career and became a touchstone for those who like their science fiction dystopian, subversive and funny. But it left behind it some broken hearts and broken friendships. It caused a fatal breach in the great friendship of Carpenter and Dan O’Bannon, the movie’s co-author, designer, producer, fixer and actor — he played Sgt Pinback. Dark Star was the funky, satirical twist on epic, visionary sci-fi, a film which absorbed Kubrick’s Strangelove as much as 2001. Carpenter and O’Bannon wanted the future to look scuzzy, boring and shitty. Their spacemen had the low-morale job of journeying through the cosmos, blowing up “unstable planets”. They were truck drivers in space. It chimed perfectly with the alienated mood of Nixon’s America in the early 70s, and the superb sequence in which the talking bombs have to be persuaded not to cause Armageddon was a brilliant satirical commentary on the proliferation of weaponry, supposedly under political and democratic control, but building its own unstoppable momentum, making ultimate use harder and harder to stop.’ — The Guardian

Trailer

Excerpt

 

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Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)
‘John Carpenter’s neo-Western Assault on Precinct 13 (loosely based on Howard Hawks’ Rio Bravo) is as formally compact and rigorously efficient as anything the genre filmmaker ever made. The story of a police station that, the night before its closing, is besieged by a mysterious gang known as Street Thunder, Carpenter’s early career triumph – his second film, following 1974’s Dark Star – is at once a grittily exhilarating action film and an intelligent, thinly coded allegory for 1970s racial tensions. From a discussion about coffee between just-transferred black cop Bishop (Austin Stoker) and ballsy white officer Julie (Nancy Keyes), to Bishop’s uneasy partnership with sardonic Caucasian criminal Napoleon Wilson (Darwin Joston), Carpenter posits a station under attack from both heavily armed assailants and shifting racial and gender attitudes. Not that such heady stuff interferes with the director’s combat-heavy set pieces, which feature their share of illogicalities – such as the gang members’ mindless attempts to infiltrate the station via broken windows, making them easy targets for Bishop and company’s bullets – but nonetheless exhibit an economical toughness epitomized by the infamous, delirious early scene involving gun-toting Street Thunder members, a little girl, and an ice cream truck.’ — Lessons of Darkness

Trailer

Excerpt

 

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Halloween (1978)
‘For how all other horror movies would be made, Halloween was a masterpiece of American cinema that was copied over and over again. Little did John Carpenter and Debra Hill know back in 1977 while making this movie, they were making the benchmark for all horror movies to come. Director’s like Wes Craven and Tobe Hooper would go on record as saying that Halloween was the standard that they tried to live up to. Even if your not a fan of horror movies, you will be mesmerized by young Carpenters cinematic genius. Carpenter made a true horror movie out of Halloween with virtually no blood and guts in these movies. Carpenter gave us a feel of the horror movies of the 50’s and 60’s where you got a good scare without a monster pulling off someone’s face in plain view. Among the best in horror!’ — thefleshfarm

Trailer

The ‘Halloween’ locations

 

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The Fog (1980)
‘The Fog was my fourth feature film (sixth if you count Someone’s Watching Me and Elvis, two made-for television movies) and was meant to be an homage of sorts to H.P. Lovecraft, M.R. James and other writers of great ghost tales and the supernatural. I shot The Fog in April and May and then took a ten day vacation to Tahiti. When I returned, I rushed into the editing rooms at Samuel Goldwyn Studios to consult with Tommy Lee Wallace as to how the picture was cutting together. It was a disaster. Quite simply, the picture didn’t work. Numb with a horrifying loss of objectivity, I finished the editing and went to work on a musical score that I hoped would somehow save the picture. We dubbed The Fog in September, and finally watched the finished product. The movie I had made was clunky, clumsy and awful. The music was heavy-handed and obvious. I wanted to pack up and leave town. This was the lowest point I had come to in my professional career. With a mighty Herculean effort, Debra Hill, Tommy lee Wallace and myself re-wrote, re-cut, re-shot and re-scored the picture. In one month.’ — John Carpenter

Trailer

Excerpt

The Fog – Making Of

 

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Escape from New York (1981)
‘Cyberpunk pioneer William Gibson credits the film as an influence on his novel Neuromancer. “I was intrigued by the exchange in one of the opening scenes where the Warden says to Snake ‘You flew the Gullfire over Leningrad, didn’t you?’ It turns out to be just a throwaway line, but for a moment it worked like the best SF where a casual reference can imply a lot.” Popular videogame director Hideo Kojima has referred to the movie frequently as an influence on his work, in particular the Metal Gear series. The character Solid Snake is strongly based on Snake Plissken. In Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty Snake actually uses the alias “Pliskin” to hide his real identity during the game. J.J. Abrams, producer of the 2008 film Cloverfield, mentioned that a scene in his film, which shows the head of the Statue of Liberty crashing into a New York street, was inspired by the poster for Escape from New York. Empire magazine ranked Snake Plissken #71 in their “The 100 Greatest Movie Characters” poll.’ — collaged

Trailer

Deleted scene

Watch the film here

 

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The Thing (1982)
‘The Thing belongs to an unofficial trilogy in Carpenter’s head known as “The Apocalypse Trilogy.” (The other two films being Prince of Darkness and In the Mouth of Madness.) They all bare the markings of one of his biggest influences: author H.P. Lovecraft. “The Thing” especially plays with many of the same themes of the influential writer. The horror is cosmic in nature and unexplainable to human biology. And it’s not just the group of characters in the movie that are victims; all of humanity is at risk, and not for any overtly sinister motivations. Humanity is at risk simply because it’s weak enough to get in the way of a cold and uncaring universe. The Thing is not a villain; it is simply a predator of horrific, unimaginable proportions, and we are it’s prey. Removing all emotional understandings of “good” and “evil” from the threat, and raising it to the more abstract “survive or die” philosophy is not a comfortable talking point for popcorn audiences (which is probably why producers prefer to keep us distracted with campy trash about naked babysitters).’ — collaged

Trailer

Excerpt

The Making Of The Thing

 

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Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)
‘”I made everybody who put up money for [Halloween III] unhappy and that’s, of course, never very pleasant. I have no idea, my friend, I have no idea. I couldn’t figure it out when it happened to me on THE THING. I was befuddled. “Why do they hate this movie (Halloween 3) so much? Why do the fans hate it?” Fans. I could understand some of the critics. I got that, but why do the fans think I just raped Madonna; the Madonna off the cross. Why do they think I just defiled a classic? I didn’t get it and I still don’t understand it. Maybe it was because, very simply, I had had a success with HALLOWEEN, I was a young whippersnapper, and I had a success with THE FOG and ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK and it was my time to be brought back down to earth. “Who do you think you are?” That’s my thought. That’s the only thing I can figure out.”‘ — John Carpenter

Trailer

Excerpt

 

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Christine (1983)
‘In its opening weekend Christine brought in $3,408,904 landing at #4. The film dropped 39.6% in its second weekend, grossing $2,058,517 slipping from fourth to eighth place. In its third weekend, it grossed $1,851,909 dropping to #9. The film remained at #9 its fourth weekend, grossing $2,736,782. In its fifth weekend, it returned to #8, grossing $2,015,922. Bringing in $1,316,835 it its sixth weekend, the film dropped out of the box office top ten to twelfth place. In its seventh and final weekend, the film brought in $819,972 landing at #14, bringing the total gross for Christine to $21,017,849.’ — Box Office Mojo

Trailer

Excerpt

Excerpt

 

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They Live (1988)
‘In many circles, They Live is perhaps best known as the crowning achievement in the acting career of professional wrestling legend “Rowdy” Roddy Piper. Frankly, this nugget of trivia doesn’t do the film justice. This isn’t the kind of dunderheaded fluff that has distinguished the careers of Hulk Hogan and The Rock (I’ve much love for Rocky III and Welcome To The Jungle, though). In Carpenter’s assured hands the story of Nada (Piper) and Frank’s (Keith David) fight against a hidden alien race becomes an allegorical tale that reflects the director’s opinion on the state of America in 1988. A declining economy, Reagan-era greed and the “keeping up with the Joneses” consumerist mentality are all targeted as Nada (through a snazzy pair of special sunglasses) discovers that the upper classes are actually aliens disguised as humans who are controlling society through subliminal messaging on their controlled TV network. Even at 22 years old, the message is still prescient. The aliens disguise their true identities and the meaning of billboard ads using TV signals. Seen through the aforementioned sunglasses, Nada can see their real grotesque visage and the billboards’ actual message: “Obey, Consume”.’ — denofgeek.com

Trailer

Excerpt

 

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Memoirs of an Invisible Man (1992)
‘God, I don’t want to talk about why, but let’s just say there were personalities on that film. He shall not be named who needs to be killed. No, no, no, that’s terrible. He needs to be set on fire. No, no, no. Anyway, it’s all fine. It wasn’t pleasant at all. I’m lying to you. It was a horror show. I really wanted to quit the business after that movie. I survived it.’ — John Carpenter

Trailer

Memoirs of an Invisible Man – Behind the Scenes

 

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In the Mouth of Madness (1994)
‘In the Mouth of Madness is the last great John Carpenter film and the final installment in his unofficial ‘Apocalypse Trilogy’ (beginning with The Thing and followed by Prince of Darkness). It’s a thinking person’s horror picture that dares to be as cerebral as it is visceral. Madness’ portrait of art’s ability to manifest itself in the hearts and minds of its consumers is never quite lucid or well-paced enough to truly chill. That task, however, is ably taken up by Carpenter’s imagery of the impossible, from a nocturnal run-in with a boy (or is it an elderly man?) on a bicycle that’s defined by its ill-fitting elements, to a hotel lobby painting that mutates in dreadful ways. Even as his story devolves into a muddle, his acutely unsettling widescreen compositions thrillingly pinpoint the terror of the bizarrely incongruous.’ — collaged

Trailer

Excerpt

John Carpenter discusses ‘ItMoM’

 

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Village of the Damned (1995)
‘There are many aspects of this particular Carpenter film that just don’t seem to work as well as they should; and these problems all stem from one particular creative decision: the apparent necessity of transplanting the events of the drama from an isolated, homogeneous English village in the 1960s to modern, diverse America in the 1990s. In other words, many of the problems exist at a script level; or at the level of intention. Village of the Damned fails because of the relentless accumulation of little things. By itself, not one of these issues is enough to scuttle the film. But taken in combination, the film seems slap-dash; careless. Writing in Magill’s Cinema Annual of 1996, Kirby Tepper noted that while Village of the Damned was well-intentioned, something was missing. He called the film “a bit shallow,” and noted that the “lack of depth in the film can be seen in its campy dialogue and its discrepancies.”‘ — John Kenneth Muir

Trailer

Excerpt

Watch the film here

 

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Vampires (1998)
‘”I’ve always wanted to do a vampire movie,” states John Carpenter, director of John Carpenter’s Vampires. “This book, Vampire$, came along and it really did some things I’d never seen before. It’s set in the American Southwest and has certain western elements to it. I decided this would be the perfect chance to do something different.” Part of the theme is the dualistic irony of the good guys and the bad guys. It has all the classic ideas that you’ve seen in a vampire movie — the humans versus the vampires, the hidden sexuality, the idea of drinking blood. All that’s at work in this film, but in essence, I’ve always loved westerns and one of the reasons I’m doing this movie is that this is the closest I’ve come to being able to do a western.”‘ — Official John Carpenter Site

Trailer

Excerpt

Excerpt

 

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Ghosts of Mars (2001)
‘John Carpenter’s “Ghosts of Mars” is a brawny space opera, transplanting the conventions of Western, cop and martial arts films to the Red Planet. As waves of zombified killers attack the heroes, actions scenes become shooting galleries, and darned if in the year 2176 they aren’t still hurling sticks of dynamite from moving trains. All basic stuff, and yet Carpenter brings pacing and style to it, and Natasha Henstridge provides a cool-headed center.’ — Roger Ebert

Excerpt

Excerpt

 

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The Ward (2010)
‘John Carpenter’s current reputation as a spent force is undeserved, even if he’s not made much recently that knocked anyone’s socks off. This one is more a step in the right direction than a fully fledged return to form. Amber Heard plays a young amnesiac in a psychiatric institution trying to figure out why a ghostly apparition/zombie thing is brutally killing her fellow patients. Unfortunately, the audience is way ahead of her – we’ve seen this many times before. The denouement is visible from a distance; a shame if you recall how expertly Carpenter unleashed the powerful climaxes of The Thing et al. Still, it’s a well-made film, with some finely crafted shocks and a steady pace that almost seems stately in these days of fast-cut horror.’ — The Guardian

Trailer

Excerpt

the entire film

 

 

*

p.s. Hey. Again, several people have now successfully broken through the Cloudflare bug and commented by setting their IP to Romania, so you might try that curious approach if you’re willing to. ** Dominik, Hi Dominik!!!!! Welcome back! My week was alright, not momentous. We’re trying to inch forward on the film problems, which may or may not be working, hard to tell, and working on getting the film itself born in the best way possible. I’m glad you had lots of pleasure back in the old country. Erk, about the water damage, hopefully in reparation mode now. It’s been raining like crazy here. Yes, the new SCAB is super great. I always say this, but it seems like maybe the best issue ever! Everyone, If you missed the notice last week, here’s a reminder that the new issue Dominik’s utterly crucial zine SCAB is now online and yours with a click. It’s full of amazing things including a story by our very own Lucas. Get it, if you haven’t. Love maintaining his belief that Bob Dylan’s last great album was ‘Blonde on Blonde’ (1966), G. ** Misanthrope, So weird that Romania’s IP is the semi-answer to the problem. I’m too tech-dumb to understand. Germany, nice. Oh, cool if you (and Alex) can make Derek’s and my thing. I’ll be nervous as fuck, but that’s the way my wind blows. Awww, Uncle George. Suits you. ** Uday, Romania worked, dude! Wow! Welcome back! ** jay, Howdy. Do show me the Halloween murder scene decoration. You know I lurve that stuff. What are you and the dad wearing that will cause you to be twinsies? I’ve heard a lot about ‘Hitman’ but have never played it. Noted. Fascinating, yes, your think-piece about death in games. I’m largely a Nintendo guy, so most of the deaths in games I play just involve silly constructions vanishing without effect. I did write a novel called ‘God Jr.’ that tried to contextualise loss and death into that kind of context. Anyway, great thought. I’m going to think about that. Could be fruitful. Oh, and thank you for passing along Horatio’s eloquence re: my stuff. He has an eloquent name. ** Tyler Ookami, Hi. Gelnwood Caverns has actual caves, it seems, and that’s a big plus as well as a possible one of a kind thing? Yeah, Meow Wolf has this, to me, really very off-putting Burning Man kind of vibe and aesthetic. That whole scene is a nose crinkler to me. Mythym, wow, I forgot all about that. Huh. I think my friend the writer Trinie Dalton was behind that, or partly? I’m gonna hunt my copies down when I’m in LA. How was it? ‘Violet Memoir’: I’m on it. Strangely appealing name. Thanks a lot! ** Lucas, Hi. There were so many ugh things about ‘Crazy for Vincent’ for me. It seemed really dilettante-y, all his objectifying of guys from the ‘lower class’ and the narcissism and … ugh. I still think highly of his novels ‘To the Friend …’ and ‘The Passion Protocal’, but I haven’t reread them in a while, so who knows. ‘Tomb for 500,000 Soldiers’ is great! ‘EEE’ is more experimental but so amazing. I’m your only American friend or personal encounter? Wow! Dude, Americans can be a little, um, dumb. But also charmingly over-enthusiastic. Hopefully your Americans are from the enlightened contingent. Let me know how that encounter goes. ** HaRpEr, Great luck moving in tomorrow, if that’s what you meant. Hopefully one last shlep by bus today. I don’t think there are any shoulds or shouldn’ts, certainly not about books. Never heard of Pietro Aretino. Renaissance pornography … I mean, that could be interesting, right? ‘CfV’ is full of fetishising not only of youth but of ‘downtrodden’, ‘poorly educated’, ‘hot’ youth in particular and from a very self-indulgent, ‘privileged’ POV. It kind of infuriated me. I used to hang out a lot in hustler bars in LA in the late 70s and early 80s, and John Rechy was often there in his leathers trying so hard not to look like a guy in his late 50s. ** Justin D, Hi. Glad you liked some of the stuff yesterday. Yeah, haha, I’m the exact opposite of an Abramovic fan, and that game hits the spot. ‘Orpheus’ is beautiful, yeah, one of his very best, I think. Yesterday … mostly film stuff, trying to find a venue for the cast&crew LA screening, looking for interesting film festivals and possible distributors. Grunt work. I was supposed to have a b’day lunch with a bday boy friend of mine, but he got food poisoning the night before, so that got delayed. I started trying to figure out what I’m going to read at my reading next week. I watched a video of Slayer’s reunion concert of a few nights ago and was gloriously adrenalised. How did Tuesday sit with you? ** Steve, Hey. Second time was the charm at least. Thanks about ‘The Substance’. I’m usually wary of films where critics mostly talk about the main actor’s performance. Acting isn’t much of a lure for me. Want to hear that Sophie LP obviously. ** Malik, Hey, Malik! How great to see you! LA is a vibe, for sure. I grew up there and its sprawl is curiously comfy for me. I’m so happy that you especially found interest in the post’s work. Huh, I was sure I had done a favorite video games post, but I just checked, and I haven’t. Weird. I will, obviously. The only thing like that I did was Dead Games: My 10 favorite 1990s CD-rom games from memory and in no order. Maybe there’s something useful there? How are you? What are you working on? What’s new? xo. ** Bill, It worked this time. Have you tried the ‘setting your IP to Romania’ trick? The Egolf novel I spotlit is by far his best, I think. I’m hoping to catch up on all the recent blockbusters on my Paris -> NYC flight next week. Thanks about Gisele’s film. ARTE talks the talk about daring TV but they don’t walk the walk. Renee Gladman, enjoy! I see she has a new novel. She’s so great. It does sound like it’s hopping there. There = SF. Happy Tuesday. ** Okay. I decided to let the blog’s Halloween thematic veer into the mainstream today. See you tomorrow.