Carpenter Corner

 

So after watching "Creepshow" (1982), Hal Holbrook being in it and all, I just had to revisit "The Fog" (1980) and while preparing for it, I couldn't help but decide for a fun Saturday night and early Sunday Carpenter marathon. I have been wanting to revisit "Someone's Watching Me" (1978) anyway. I knew I wouldn't be able to get it in October this year due to other plans, so why not tonight?

There are little things about "The Fog" I'll mention but I see no other reason to go into the meat and potatoes anymore. I've done that.

I think one of the reasons this is such pleasure for me beyond its cast and the fog and lighthouse as characters themselves is the various California locations. This reminds me of just why many who lived there being taxed to death are so reluctant to leave. Carpenter can just point out into the ocean, so blue and comforting, with the wide scope of the aspect ratio capturing a great length of beach when Stevie Wayne's son finds the wood emerging from a doubloon remains so enchanting. 

When Antonio Bay has that surreal night foreshadowing the terror to come, in the service station, I always wish I had that pirate ceramic mug and some of the souvenirs.

Elizabeth hitchhiking and sleeping with her ride, fisherman Nick, always amuses me. This sort of fits the ladies man Tom Atkins rep in Carpenter productions. Sadly I recently read Curtis wasn't too fond of "The Fog", but that poster is probably my all time favorite movie poster. I just ordered it this evening. I can't wait to have it on my wall.

The scene where Stevie looks out from her lighthouse window into the ocean, how incredible that would be to me. She seemed overworked and tired. To think Dan, the weatherman, chose to work on a night off and got his fool self killed.

I did always wonder how Nick and Liz turn out. I assume she heads to Vancouver, but it was a harrowing experience, nearly victim of Blake's brood within the fog.

I was always curious about all the glass breaking, wet and dry left behind as evidence of the ghastly ghouls from 100 years before 1980. Despite being most active between 12 - 1 in the morning, during the day Blake and his lot still had supernatural antics and shenanigans afoot.

I might have already shared this, I'm not sure, but my aunt was driving us to see a movie and told us about this film. She described the mythos about the fog and its ghouls' visitation to a coastal town. My young mind wowed by how compelling she made the film sound. With the iconic score and look, and editing (the study in the church scene early on where the diary hideaway is visible due to a brick falling free, with the glass drop to the floor and radio clicking on, seamless, well crafted edit), her glowing description of the film continues to ring true with me even if the plot machinations reveal plot logic issues.

As I probably mentioned before, "Someone's Watching Me" was a pleasant surprise when I rented this during the early 2000s DVD Netflix era before they became a streaming giant. Seeing Barbeau in the lead of "The Fog", getting her moment to be the main star among such an ensemble, but I was especially jazzed (pun intended) to see her in "Someone's Watching Me" in a scene stealing supporting role as a fellow employee where Lauren Hutton works.

Hutton as this independent, confident, self assured woman seemingly on the verge of success in LA is another example of how women in Carpenter films often are presented well rounded and not just victims or lambs to the slaughter. She talks to herself and often use sly Jones with others assuring us she has a strong sense if humor and wit. We see her preparing for an interview, working through a conversation, psyching herself up. It's fun to watch her. So when this creep with a long lense telescope spies on her from another building and calls her to torment her, we care and hope she endures. Plenty of the city, how busy life and career can be, trying to navigate through it all, while also hoping for a relationship. Working at a television station, she is dropped into a producer position and learns fast, as if dumped into a big drink and left to swim. This is Carpenter's Hitchcock film, with some Rear Window obviously on display. And this definitely falls in the "creepy caller" subgenre the 70s is known for. The high rise Carpenter never fails to emphasize in its stretch, height, and reach certainly plays into how suspense is developed and leads to a conclusion not for those with a fear of heights. 

This seals Barbeau's date when she tells Hutton she plans to take a job in Fort Worth. In thrillers this is a recipe for disaster.