The Carpenter Collection (The Thing/They Live/Prince Of Darkness/Village Of The Damned)

Rating:
Summary: Good movies, no booklets
Review: For this to be the ultimate JOHN CARPENTER HORROR COLLECTION, you'd have to replace the insipid VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED with the underrated IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS. The other three flicks in this worthy set are sterling examples of CARPENTER's work.
THE THING rocks. A great, slimy alien infestation nightmare of truly eerie proportions with CARPENTER fav KURT RUSSELL taking a flamethrower to his infected bunkmates with gusto. An excellent movie and an even better horror movie.
The ten minute wrestling brawl between KEITH DAVID and RODDY PIPER is just the cherry on top of the THEY LIVE sundae. A superb paranoia sci-fi action flick that has earned its cult status and then some. Not really a horror movie, but great none the less.
PRINCE OF DARKNESS birngs some interesting ideas to the mix; Jesus was an alien, the devil's kid is living in a massive jar of green Gatorade in the basement of an old church, and ALICE COOPER's possesed bum feasting on maggots, to name a few. A creepy movie with lots of chills and some good laughs.
The selections are all from the UNIVERSAL vault so no wonder VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED made the cut (MOUTH OF MADNESS is WARNER BROS.). Not bad for a collector's set, but CARPENTER really deserves a set of all his films on DVD like the KUBRICK one. That would make a prime collective of great DVD's.

Rating:
Summary: A fantastic collection....almost.
Review: For this to be the ultimate JOHN CARPENTER HORROR COLLECTION, you'd have to replace the insipid VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED with the underrated IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS. The other three flicks in this worthy set are sterling examples of CARPENTER's work.
THE THING rocks. A great, slimy alien infestation nightmare of truly eerie proportions with CARPENTER fav KURT RUSSELL taking a flamethrower to his infected bunkmates with gusto. An excellent movie and an even better horror movie.
The ten minute wrestling brawl between KEITH DAVID and RODDY PIPER is just the cherry on top of the THEY LIVE sundae. A superb paranoia sci-fi action flick that has earned its cult status and then some. Not really a horror movie, but great none the less.
PRINCE OF DARKNESS birngs some interesting ideas to the mix; Jesus was an alien, the devil's kid is living in a massive jar of green Gatorade in the basement of an old church, and ALICE COOPER's possesed bum feasting on maggots, to name a few. A creepy movie with lots of chills and some good laughs.
The selections are all from the UNIVERSAL vault so no wonder VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED made the cut (MOUTH OF MADNESS is WARNER BROS.). Not bad for a collector's set, but CARPENTER really deserves a set of all his films on DVD like the KUBRICK one. That would make a prime collective of great DVD's.

Rating:
Summary: Good movies, no booklets
Review: I just recently bought this collection from a store in Montreal, Canada. On one hand, I'm very pleased to have finally gotten my hands on the out-of-print They Live and Prince Of Darkness. I don't care much for Village Of the Damned, and I already had The Thing. One important side-note: none of the films have booklets! My separate copy of The Thing had a booklet, so this is probably not because the films don't have booklets - simply a cheap way to cut corners on price. So, be advised: no booklets. There. That was the main thing I had to say. Said It. Done. Still, an overall great deal, even though it's missing HALLOWEEN!

Rating:
Summary: Some weak Carpenter and some Great Carpenter- It's all fun!
Review: More than likely it'll be fans of John Carpenter taking a look at this set to begin with. The main hook for the fans is that "Prince of Darkness" and "They Live" have been out of
print for a long time. What better way to re-release them than alongside "The Thing" - arguably Carpenter's masterpiece?
I'm also aware that "Village of the Damned" is considered one of the weaker Carpenter movies, but it has its moments and overall, it's fun. The set is also a great price! I look at it this way: Even if you don't like one of the titles as well as the other three (whatever your Carpenter preferences may be), you're basically getting three good to great movies at a low price and a fourth one for free! You can't really go wrong. If you don't like John Carpenter, stay away. If you've seen very little to none of his movies, this is an OK way to get started.

Rating:
Summary: Some weak Carpenter and some Great Carpenter- It's all fun!
Review: More than likely it'll be fans of John Carpenter taking a look at this set to begin with. The main hook for the fans is that "Prince of Darkness" and "They Live" have been out of
print for a long time. What better way to re-release them than alongside "The Thing" - arguably Carpenter's masterpiece?
I'm also aware that "Village of the Damned" is considered one of the weaker Carpenter movies, but it has its moments and overall, it's fun. The set is also a great price! I look at it this way: Even if you don't like one of the titles as well as the other three (whatever your Carpenter preferences may be), you're basically getting three good to great movies at a low price and a fourth one for free! You can't really go wrong. If you don't like John Carpenter, stay away. If you've seen very little to none of his movies, this is an OK way to get started.

Rating:
Summary: Mixed bag
Review: The Thing

Yep we are confronted by a dog-splitting being from the great beyond. Being isolated we must evaluate track and kill this most obviously menacing "Thing". But what, who, and where is it?
In an attempt at graphic surprises we have sacrificed character and mood of the book ("Who Goes There" by John W. Campbell Jr.), and the original movie ("The Thing From Another World.}". Ah you say what if you do not compare? Still it is a sticky blob story that has no personality of its own.
This movie is fun to watch and say "don't look there" but it is far from extraordinary.

They Live

Turns out that some economic entrepreneurs are in the process of exploiting people. (All people. O.K. the world.) They seem to have a different physical appearance than you or I and for the sake of keeping the exploration covert, have electronically masked themselves to appear normal.
All is going well until the presents of this drifter come to LA looking for work. He finds himself in an unbelievable situation. Evidently malcontents have devised a way to spot these interlopers and are threatening exposure. He is skeptical at first then after a bout of fisticuffs will be forced to see the truth. Subsequently he becomes the most radical in a plot to blowup the masking devise and expose this cabal to the world. Will he succeed or are they clever enough to catch him at the last moment? A more sinister thought is will anyone care?
In a world where you can not tell the good buys from the bad without your glasses there is also a quasi love interest between the vigilante and a worker (Meg Foster) at a local TV studio.

Village Of The Damned

This movie which holds it own is a remake of the 1960 film classic which in turn was based on the book "The Midwich Cuckoos" ISBN: 0899683878.
The small town of Midwich one-day falls inexplicably asleep. Many accidents occur due to the sudden narcolepsy, which is exaggerated in John carpenter style. The result is that several of the village females including a virgin is in a motherly way. They all have their bouncing white hair babies the same day and as with the cuckoo eggs, they are too in love to notice the little quirks about having to control or punish everyone. Compound this by other villages that fall to the same fate and you have an epidemic that threatens to wipe out the human race.
What action can be taken? Is it too late? If he/she were your child what would you do?