John Carpenter Horror Collection

[Gilberto]

Just bought the John Carpenter Horror Collection on DVD. Normally I don't like randomly selected movie collections, but this one's pretty awesome. While looking for "They Live" on Amazon I came across this collection for the same price. It has "They Live", "Prince of Darkness", "The Thing", and "Village of the Damned". With the exception of "Village of the Damned", these are some of Carpenter's best movies.

I was already looking to buy "Prince of Darkness" too, and "The Thing" is a classic. "Village of the Damned" isn't one I'd buy under other circumstances, but it's still a good one. And at the cost of this set (which was the same price as 1 movie) I'm getting it for free anyway. They all come in individual cases too, so it's basically 4 movies for the price of 1.

After recently watching "The Ward", which was pretty uninspired (except by the movie Identity, which had the same underlying premise), and in light of 2001's "Ghosts of Mars", which had a neat concept but was mostly stupid, this set kind of reminded me of how awesome John Carpenter is. His movies aren't just horror, they're about something, usually something that helps to define what it is to be a human being in a harsh world. His early movies always searched for interesting new perspectives, and I think all the movies in this collection reflect that.

[Scary Gary]

I say that set, too; but I already had all those movies. I have to say that it one of the best movie compilations I've seen. The Thing may be my favorite horror movie of all time. They Live is awesome. And The Prince of Darkness is pretty damn good, too. It would have been a perfect set of films if they replaced Village with In the Mouth of Madness.

[Gilberto]

I heard someone else say that too. It's good for me that it isn't since I already had In the Mouth of Madness. That's one of my favorite movies.

[lynn]

Just for the "I'm losing me!" line. It's a rare movie that I understand completely but still makes little to no sense to me. What a fun movie.

[Gilberto]

I channeled that while reading "House of Leaves". It had a Sutter Cane sort of feeling like I was getting lost in the book.

Great movie. And I love Sam Neil.

[wilson]

In the Mouth of Madness is one of the greatest horror films ever. Somehow it got completely ignored when it came out.

Prince of Darkness has some really creepy moments, but I can't say that it's one of my favorites. They Live is pure genius.

[Gilberto]

I think the weirdness of Prince of Darkness is what gets me. The story is ultimately people trapped in a place by weirdoes trying to kill them, like a lot of Carpenter films, but the idea of the devil on the other side of the mirror and the dreams from the future, and the whole science of religion angle is pretty cool. That movie has a lot of neat stuff in it, to have also been mostly overlooked in the genre.

And They Live has always been one of my favorites too. This whole business has reminded me how much I love John Carpenter.