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Personally, I prefer John Carpenter's more "apocalyptic" or supernaturally-themed films. In particular, I really love the so-called "trilogy" of The Thing (1982), Prince of Darkness (1987) and In the Mouth of Madness (1994). I also love The Fog (1980), which gets too little love compared to Halloween (1978). Christine (1983) is one of my favorite Stephen King adaptations, and sci-fi social satire They Live (1988) is also great fun!
Now, regarding Halloween... I freely grant that it's an influential, iconic low-budget classic. And to be honest, I do like it a great deal. But it doesn't really resonate with me compared to the aforementioned films. Maybe the whole "masked killer" / slasher sub-genre doesn't really do much for me (even though Halloween is better than most in that sub-genre). I mean, some guy in a mask and a machete stalking around racking up an inevitable body count isn't something I'm all that interested in. Granted, I do love the Nightmare on Elm Street films because of the supernatural elements and the whole dream angle, the way we're plunged into the world of the characters' unconscious. And the Friday the 13th films do have a morbid fascination for me because of the dogged and almost comically relentless way the producers somehow manage to keep milking the franchise and finding ever-more ludicrous ways of bringing Jason Voorhees back from the dead - up to and including sending him into outer space!
Certainly entertaining, if not exactly artful.
Halloween is certainly very simple, direct and effective at doing its job as a "scare machine," one that ticks off all the right boxes of what a scary movie "should" do, but I personally don't find it all that stimulating beyond that. I mean, "maybe it was the Boogeyman!" Not much there for me, I'm afraid. No offense. The Fog, on the other hand, has the whole theme of the ancestral curse on the town of Antonio Bay and the whole theme of sin and expiation, and The Thing has this weird gender subtext, with its group of increasingly paranoid males and a shapeshifting creature capable of opening up and biting off people's limbs in a way that Sigmund Freud would have heartily red-flagged. (Or maybe I just have an overactive intellect! Perhaps I think too much and feel too little...)
I'm actually much less familiar with the two Escape films with Kurt Russell as Snake Plissken. I've seen fragments of Escape from New York (1981) on cable TV many, many years ago. I also did see Escape from L.A. (1996) once in its original theatrical run. But not since then, however. One of these days, though, I'll watch them properly in a Blu-ray or 4K double bill!
Now, regarding Halloween... I freely grant that it's an influential, iconic low-budget classic. And to be honest, I do like it a great deal. But it doesn't really resonate with me compared to the aforementioned films. Maybe the whole "masked killer" / slasher sub-genre doesn't really do much for me (even though Halloween is better than most in that sub-genre). I mean, some guy in a mask and a machete stalking around racking up an inevitable body count isn't something I'm all that interested in. Granted, I do love the Nightmare on Elm Street films because of the supernatural elements and the whole dream angle, the way we're plunged into the world of the characters' unconscious. And the Friday the 13th films do have a morbid fascination for me because of the dogged and almost comically relentless way the producers somehow manage to keep milking the franchise and finding ever-more ludicrous ways of bringing Jason Voorhees back from the dead - up to and including sending him into outer space!
Certainly entertaining, if not exactly artful.Halloween is certainly very simple, direct and effective at doing its job as a "scare machine," one that ticks off all the right boxes of what a scary movie "should" do, but I personally don't find it all that stimulating beyond that. I mean, "maybe it was the Boogeyman!" Not much there for me, I'm afraid. No offense. The Fog, on the other hand, has the whole theme of the ancestral curse on the town of Antonio Bay and the whole theme of sin and expiation, and The Thing has this weird gender subtext, with its group of increasingly paranoid males and a shapeshifting creature capable of opening up and biting off people's limbs in a way that Sigmund Freud would have heartily red-flagged. (Or maybe I just have an overactive intellect! Perhaps I think too much and feel too little...)
I'm actually much less familiar with the two Escape films with Kurt Russell as Snake Plissken. I've seen fragments of Escape from New York (1981) on cable TV many, many years ago. I also did see Escape from L.A. (1996) once in its original theatrical run. But not since then, however. One of these days, though, I'll watch them properly in a Blu-ray or 4K double bill!
I eagerly look forward to serving it... whenever it is I get around to it, that is. 