John Carpenter is a seminal figure in the history of horror and science fiction filmmaking. His work in these genres has been highly influential in their ongoing development. This book gives Carpenter's output the sustained critical treatment it deserves. It comprises essays that address the whole of Carpenter's work, as well as others which focus on a smaller number of key films. Some essays take on wide-ranging issues such as Carpenter's approach to remakes and the question of genre, while others are organized around a specific theme or technical aspect of Carpenter's film-making. The text's key strength is that it draws upon an international group of scholars offering a variety of expertise. Films discussed include Assault on Precinct 13 (1976), Halloween (1978) and its subsequent sequels, Escape from New York (1981), Escape from L.A.(1996), The Fog (1980), The Thing (1982), Village of the Damned (1995) and Ghosts of Mars(2001). The book also features an exclusive interview with John Carpenter.
By:
Ian Conrich,
David Woods
Imprint: Wallflower
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 234mm,
Width: 156mm,
Spine: 13mm
Weight: 354g
ISBN: 9781904764144
ISBN 10: 1904764142
Publication Date: 11 May 2005
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Acknowledgements Notes on Contributors Introduction, by Ian Conrich and David Woods 1 Disorder in the Universe: John Carpenter and the Question of Genre, by Barry Keith Grant 2 Us and Them: Authority and Identity in Carpenter's Films, by David Woods 3 A Siege Mentality? Form and Ideology in Carpenter's Early Siege Films, by Steve Smith 4 Fast and Cheap? The Film Music of John Carpenter, by David Burnand and Miguel Mera 5 Carpenter's Widescreen Style, by Sheldon Hall 6 'A Spook Ride on Film': Carpenter and the Gothic, by Marie Mulvey-Roberts 7 Killing Time ... and Time Again: The Popular Appeal of Carpenter's Horrors and the Impact of The Thing and Halloween, by Ian Conrich 8 Masculinity, Kurt Russell and the Escape Films, by Robert Shail 9 From Elvis to L.A.: Reflections on the Carpenter-Russell Films, by Tony Williams 10 Restorative and Destructive: Carpenter and Maternal Authority, by Suzie Young 11 'Something Came Leaking Out': Carpenter's Unholy Abominations, by Anna Powell 12 Revisionings: Repetition as Creative Nostalgia in the Films of John Carpenter, byRaiford Guins and Omayra Zaragoza Cruz 13 An Interview with John Carpenter, conducted by Ronald V. Borst , compiled by Ian Conrich and David Woods Filmography Bibliography Index
Ian Conrich is Senior Lecturer in Film Studies at University of Surrey Roehampton and is co-editor of seven books, including the forthcoming Horror Zone: The Cultural Experience of Contemporary Horror Cinema. He has written extensively on the horror genre, with his work appearing in A Handbook to Gothic Literature (1998), The Modern Fantastic: The Films of David Cronenberg (2000), The Horror Film Reader (2001), and British Horror Cinema (2001). David Woods is Senior Lecturer in Media and Cultural Studies at Nottingham Trent University. He is the co-editor of New Zealand - A Pastoral Paradise? (2000) and he has contributed to Translation, Theory and Latin America: Dimensions of the Third Term (1995) and The Background to Critical Theory: From Kant to Levi-Strauss (2002).
Reviews for The Cinema of John Carpenter
<p> These authors...provide much meaningful commentary about a worthwhile group of films truly deserving of this rigorous examination. -- Fangoria
