the thing

Mayhem Film Festival 2019: Days One & Two

The Mayhem Film Festival returned in outstanding fashion for its 15th incarnation. The 2019 festival, which screens at Nottingham’s Broadway Cinema offered a great selection of genre films over its first two days – most of which were [...]

October 12, 2019

Review: THE STANDOFF AT SPARROW CREEK Is Tense Tough Hombre Chamber Piece

Writer-director Henry Dunham makes a gutsy directorial debut with The Standoff At Sparrow Creek. The thriller is a confined and claustrophobic character piece that unfolds at its own pace, drawing its audience into its slow-release plot. This is [...]

January 24, 2019

Movies In Focus’ Top 20 Horror Films

It’s very difficult to distill something into a list of ‘bests’. However, sometimes it’s good to take stock of something and evaluate the quality, trying to understand what it should or shouldn’t be. I’ve been writing about films for a [...]

October 30, 2016

DVD Review: John Carpenter Inspired French Sci-Fi DEAD SHADOWS

Dead Shadows is a French production is a solid sci-fi/horror B-movie that attempts to recreate the stylistic works of John Carpenter (particularly Prince Of Darkness, They Live and The Thing), whilst giving it a modern sheen. It’s pretty [...]

July 16, 2015

Dwayne Johnson To Produce And Star In A Remake Of John Carpenter’s BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA

Movies In Focus can smell what The Rock is cooking – and it’s Chinese food. Dwayne Johnson is set to produce and star in a remake John Carpenter’s Big Trouble In Little China. The 1986 cult classic starred Kurt Russell as witless trucker Jack [...]

June 2, 2015

Interview: John Carpenter Talks Music, Movies And Hollywood

Photo by Kyle Cassidy © Storm King Productions John Carpenter is one of the most influential filmmakers of the last 50 years. He began his career with Dark Star before making the cult classic Assault In Precinct 13. He then hit career pay dirt [...]

May 11, 2015

John Carpenter To Produce ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK Remake For 20th Century Fox

I was interviewing John Carpenter the other evening (more on that soon) and I asked him if he was developing any potential projects. He was rather coy in his response and I got the feeling that he was working on something new. A few hours later news [...]

January 16, 2015

DVD Review: BLOOD GLACIER Mimics THE THING – Only It’s Not As Good (Obviously)

Alpine-set chiller, Blood Glacier (also known as The Station) was always going to be compared to John Carpenter’s The Thing. It’s a paranoia-filled horror about a group of scientists in a remote, snowy outpost who stumble upon a creature that [...]

February 2, 2014

Interview: Shawn Rasmussen Talks DARK FEED, John Carpenter And Horror Movies

Shawn and Michael Rasmussen made a splash on the horror scene in 2010 when John Carpenter chose their script for The Ward as his first directing project in almost a decade. The brothers have moved things up a gear by writing and directing Dark Feed, [...]

December 15, 2013

Blu-ray Review: Paranoid Sci-Fi With INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS

Movie remakes have a bad name, but Philip Kaufman’s Invasion Of The Body Snatchers doesn’t try to replicate Don Siegel’s 1950s classic – this film is its own thing. Kaufman uses Jack Finney’s novel in the same way that John Carpenter [...]

December 8, 2013

Profile: Kurt Russell

Kurt Russell‘s first screen appearance was opposite Elvis Presley in 1962’s It Happened At The World’s Fair (he plays a kid who kicks Elvis in the shin). He went on to have a long career as a child star for Disney, before teaming [...]

March 17, 2013

DVD Review: British Sci-Fi STORAGE 24

Take a measure of John Carpenter mixed spice (The Thing, Assault On Precinct 13), add a touch of Alien, a pinch of Shaun of the Dead and a smidgen of Die Hard, bring to the boil and rest. Now, get ready to serve-up some Storage 24. Director Johannes [...]

October 18, 2012

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