Plan Your John Carpenter Film Festival

Its Halloween season, which means you really shouldnt be doing anything else but watching horror movies. Weve got the blueprints for a flawless day-long marathon of films from master director John Carpenter.

One of the more fun ways to delve into the filmography of a director, actor, or technical worker is the movie marathon. Put together a lineup of films from the same artist (wed suggest five films as the ideal number, but go with your gut) and take a tour through the different shades of their career. Invite some like-minded friends over. Get some snacks. Have a day. But which films get chosen -- and in which order -- will make or break a movie marathon. And its no shame to accept help. Allow us to help curate your filmmaker-specific film fests, and youll be a much happier movie fan. This week: putting together a film fest for the inventor of the slasher genre, John Carpenter.

Opening Salvo

What better way to set the tone for your day-long Carpenter session than by joining Kurt Russells Snake Plissken in his quest to Escape from New York? Carpenters sci-fi vision of Manhattan as a giant, impenetrable prison is probably the most fully realized environment of his career, and the casting cant be beat, with Russell, Donald Pleasance, Adrienne Barbeau, Harry Dean Stanton, and Isaac Hayes.

While Everyones Arriving/Snack-Gathering

Theres so much fun to be had with Big Trouble in Little China that a little shuffling of jackets and snack plates wont harm the viewing experience one bit. Carpenters martial-arts film once again stars Russell (you might as well dress up as Goldie Hawn for Halloween, considering how much time youll be spending with him all day) as a cab driver who has to fight his way through San Franciscos Chinatown.

The Crown Jewel

A controversial choice, perhaps, given the name of the holiday and all, but The Thing is in many ways Carpenters finest hour, a creature feature and a tale of paranoid isolation all in one. The snowy environs are appropriately oppressive, and by the time the alien creature starts claiming its victims, the horror elements are firing on all cyllinders.

Wait For Alcoholic Reinforcements

The most famous element of 1988s They Live is the five-and-a-half-minute fight scene between Rowdy Roddy Piper and Keith David, a brawl thats been referenced and parodied across all popular culture. The film itself, about alien invaders masquerading as humans, is a total blast and best experienced by a crowd as rowdy as Roddy himself.

The Cool-Down Movie

Its late. Its dark. Maybe things are a bit too still. Nows the perfect time to pop in Carpenters genre-defining classic, Halloween. Youve seen it. Your guests have seen it. Anybody who wants to stick around late can experience the creeping dread of Michael Myers together, on one couch. In one giant ball of tension, one assumes.

LINK:	http://tribecafilm.com/features/john-carpenter-film-festival...
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