JOHN CARPENTER’S SECOND ACT
JOHN
CARPENTER’S SECOND ACT
Written
by Eric Plaut
One of the main panels
at the 2010 Texas Frightmare Festival featured some of the cast of the 1983 film Christine, which is based from Stephen
King’s novel. Its director John Carpenter was there along with four of the
actors: Keith Gordon (Arnie Cunningham, the misfit and car buff); John
Stockwell (Dennis Guilder, the jock and best friend); Alexandra Paul (Leigh
Cabot, the girlfriend); and William Ostrander (Buddy Repperton, the bully). Conventioneers
could ask the cast questions as well as hear about their experiences on making
the movie. Carpenter—who also composed scores for his films such as Halloween, Christine and The Thing—was
asked by the Emcee (and birthday boy) if he’d ever consider releasing an album
of his spontaneous themes. The director deadpanned “No!” to a room full of
laughter.
Now let’s fast-forward
to six years later.
John Carpenter has now released
four studio albums of his music, not
counting the soundtracks to the films that he directed. He has begun touring throughout the United
States and Europe this year. Taking center stage on synthesizer, Carpenter
relishes playing the themes he composed himself for his films—both the classics
and the cult favorites. His literal right-hand man is his son Cody, also on
synthesizer. (Cody’s mother Adrienne
Barbeau appeared in a few of her ex-husband’s movies including The Fog and Escape From New York.) John’s godson Daniel Davies—son of the
Kinks’ Dave Davies—performed on guitar. The band was also backed up with a
bassist, a drummer and an additional guitarist.
 |
| Cody
Carpenter on the synthesizer while the fiery 1958 Plymouth Fury from "Christine" is in the background. |
I saw the tour on July
18th in Milwaukee. It was on the final leg of its tour of the United
States. With the T-shirts, posters and albums they were selling at the Pabst
Theatre, it really felt like a rock show. (The albums that John Carpenter
signed sold out very quickly at the Pabst!)
His fans were decked out in T-shirts from Halloween and other Carpenter classics.
The audience enjoyed
seeing the live performance. John Carpenter seemed to be rocking out during the
75-minute performance. It felt like he could’ve been performing in rock shows dating
back to the late 1960’s. Carpenter would tend to spout out one-liners relating
to his films every now and then. Behind the performers, a large screen depicted
the film scenes from its certain soundtrack. These videos helped enhance the
music and the show itself.
Music and scenes from Escape From New York and Assault on Precinct 13 started off the
program. Some of the music was difficult to figure out at first unless they
showed scenes from its film on the screen. They
Live showed the late Roddy Piper sporting shades (similar to what John
Carpenter sported during this movie’s music and film scenes) and battling
villains, while The Thing (which
Carpenter once dubbed as “El Tanko” due to the low earnings at the box office) had
some of the most graphic images of the night depicted on the big screen. Carpenter’s
top star Kurt Russell appeared in five of his movies including Big Trouble in Little China and Escape From New York.
Halloween’s
theme music and film scenes were what most of the audience was waiting for that
night. They wanted to see Michael Myers, the man in the white William Shatner
mask, and all of the scenes. Co-written with the late Debra Hill, this film is
considered John Carpenter’s magnum opus.
It opened the door to the teen-aged slasher films. Halloween spawned seven sequels as well as two remakes directed by
Rob Zombie. “Just send me a check,” Carpenter quipped at the 2010 Texas
Frightmare Fest in referring to being paid for remaking his films such as Escape From New York and Halloween. Again his fans responded with
laughter.
John Carpenter played
some music that wasn’t based from his films. Distant Dream was one of his songs. His music on the synthesizer
could be compared to composers including Bach, Mozart and Beethoven. It’s so
memorable that Carpenter’s tunes can turn into earworms and get stuck in your
head! How’s that for a director known for his horror films? And Carpenter stated
in an interview with the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
that he never minded being stereo-typed as a horror-film director because “they’ll
always be a need for them.”
 |
| and
John Carpenter on the synthesizers with a film scene in the background. |
Music from his other
films included In the Mouth of Madness
and The Fog. “Watch yourself going
home, Christine is out there,” John Carpenter joked at
the final of the 75-minute performance. Carpenter concluded the show with
scenes and music from his 1983 film Christine,
in which its title character, a red-and-white 1958 Plymouth Fury, was the
actual star. By the way, Stephen King’s novel and the film came out when I was
in junior high school. Christine was
considered to be for the boys in my class a “rite of passage” to read, and
seeing the film afterwards was considered cool. Christine is in my Top Ten films of All-Time and the only horror
one on my list.
Carpenter’s crew will
finish off the year with some shows overseas starting later this month in
Helsinki, Finland. And where will the tour be on October 31st
(Halloween)? His crew will be performing
the first of two shows at the Troxy in London, England. The first show is
obviously sold out, but if you’re in London the next night—go see this show! If
Warren Zevon were still alive, maybe he and Carpenter could’ve performed a duet
on Zevon’s classic hit Werewolves of
London. The audience in London would’ve had a great memory from this coming
Halloween. (By the way, Stephen King dedicated Doctor Sleep—the sequel to his best-selling novel The Shining—in memory of Warren Zevon.)
What I felt was missing
from the show I’d gone to were a question-and-answer (Q&A) session and having
John Carpenter tell his audience how some of the scenes depicted on screen were
made. Yet overall, this show was something new for film buffs to take part in.
John Carpenter’s show was phenomenal, and I’d recommend it to any film buff out
there. However, due to excessive scenes of graphic violence shown and
profanities spoken in several of his films (most of them being rated R), I
wouldn’t recommend this program to the faint-hearted and those prone to
seizures and to children under 14. Otherwise, this show provides a major bang
for your buck!
John Carpenter’s Web
site is http://www.theofficialjohncarpenter.com/.
Here you can check out information on his music, films and tour dates.
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