I don’t think it’s a controversial statement to say the 1990s proved to be a challenging decade for John Carpenter. As I highlighted at the end of part 2 Carpenter had two movies back to back that were great and made money so Twentieth Century Fox came knocking and got him to make…
Memoirs of an Invisible Man (1992)
Directed by John Carpenter, Written by Robert Collector, Dana Olson & William Goldman, Based on the novel of the same name by H.F Saint, Produced by Bruce Bodner & Dan Kolsrud, Music by Shirley Walker and Cinematography by William A. Fraker.
Nick Halloway is an average businessman who undergoes an extraordinary change when an experiment goes wrong and turns him invisible. A government agent discovers Nick is now transparent at the scene of the accident and tries to take him into custody but he fails. Nick is on the run and desperate to find out what exactly happened to him, avoid capture and try and fix his situation.
This film has a bad reputation and low critic scores but in all honesty, I have seen this film twice, once back in 1994/95 I rented this on VHS and once on TV in the early 2000’s so I’m not going to pass judgement personally but I am going to point out the obvious.
John Carpenter did his best work working outside the studio system.
The secret sauce that on average gave us the best Carpenter movies is John working with a script he either wrote or co-wrote and what elevates his films is when he composes the film’s musical score. But Warner Brothers employed him to direct a film written by three people none of whom were Carpenter, Producers he never worked with before, A cinematographer he had never worked with before and got someone in to do the score. What did they think was going to happen?
What did happen was the studio spent $35m on the project and it took $14m gross at the US box office.
John’s next film was made with “New Line Cinema”. New Line is a film studio that was built up from nothing by a guy called Robert Shaye who started driving around to universities and showing films that were in the public domain like “Reefer Madness” eventually New Line made the “Nightmare on Elm Street” movies and became known as “The house the Freddy built” in the early 1990s they made the first live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie highest-grossing independent film of all-time with a gross of $135 million in the United States alone.
In 1994 New Line Cinema was bought by Warner Brothers… but while negotiations must have been underway and the contracts were being drawn up someone at New Line was smart enough to invest $8m so John Carpenter could make a kick-ass movie.
In the Mouth of Madness (1994)
Directed by John Carpenter, Written by Michael De Luca, produced by Sandy King, Music by John Carpenter & Jim Lang and cinematography by Gary B. Kibbe.
John Trent is an insurance investigator who is drafted in by a publishing company who are desperate to track down their missing star horror author Sutter Cane. More importantly, they need to recover the missing manuscript to his new novel. Trent’s Investigation brings him to an obscure small rural town. He begins to question his sanity as the lines between reality and fiction seem to blur.
I adore this film! “In the Mouth of Madness” like “Prince of Darkness” is tragically overlooked and underappreciated by movie fans. Although not a direct adaptation of any of his stories this is one of the rare films ever made that gets close to capturing an authentic H.P. Lovecraft cosmic horror vibe. If you haven't seen this seek it out and watch it.
Money-wise… ok it lost approximately $7m with its US theatrical run but as always I don't have the international box office and VHS rental figures. I feel at worse it broke even but ultimately New Line didn't care.
I don’t want to look like a cop-out but this is where my knowledge of the films of John Carpenter runs out.
He went on to direct, “Village of the Damned” (1995), “Escape from L.A." (1996) both of which I have not seen he then made “Vampires” (1998) which I watched not long ago and it is definitely not as bad as its reputation indicates. Loads of good ideas. The worse thing about it now is it’s got James Woods in it.
I have not seen “Ghosts of Mars” (2001) or “The Ward” (2010)
After the financial failure of Ghosts of Mars Carpenter stepped away from film making and came back to direct The Ward... then he announced his retirement from film making.
John had been releasing his film scores/soundtracks as albums since 1979 when he released The Halloween soundtrack but following his retirement from directing in 2010 John seems to have found a renewed passion for making music.
I’m going to guess it’s a case of every true creative needs a creative outlet and it was something he could work on with his son Cody Carpenter who is also a gifted musician.
In 2015 He released “Lost Themes” a collection of amazing John Carpenter compositions that in a fair and just world would be gracing the films he would still be making but we still get to enjoy the music. He followed it up in 2016 with “Lost Themes 2” then in 2021 he released “Lost Themes 3: Alive After Death”.
All three of the albums are great and have been playing in heavy rotation while I wrote this three part mega blog.
John and his band tour the world performing his classic movie themes and new work live with massive rear projection in multi-media live shows.
At this point, I need to mention that in 2016 I managed to see him play live in the Usher Hall in Edinburgh. via a good friend who knew the promoter I got to sit in the very front row with Mr Carpenter 3 meters in front of me and about a meter to the right at his keyboard.
I did not get to meet him and in all honesty, I would be too freaked out if I did but I did get a signed poster, which is framed and on my living room wall. (see pic) A truly amazing and unforgettable evening!
I love the fact John seems to be living his best life, he is happily married, makes music with his son, he lives in L.A where weed is legal, he co-owns a comic book company “Storm King Comics” along with his wife, he gets executive producer credits on these new Halloween movies so he gets a percentage of their profits and they pay him to do the scores
AND the box office performance is none of his concern.
Thank you John for the great cinema and all the music.
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