I had never even HEARD of “Deadly Friend”, but upon reading the description I had to look it up. The basketball head explosion scene mentioned in the article really has to be seen to be believed. Now I really want to see this movie! Bonus points that it features Kristy Swanson as the killer robot girl.
Carpenter also stole the stories and even scenes down to the camera angles in all his early films and ever credits the people he stole from. This fact is never discussed and it really pisses me off, this is even worse now when you consider what a giant prick he is in interviews now.
Assault on Precinct 13 is basically Night of the Living Dead transposed into a police station.
Large portions of Halloween were lifted right out of Black Christmas. Even the name came from Bob Clark and Carpenter never mentions this, he will go on endlessly about Halloween, he will go on TCM and host an entire night of films that inspired him, talking endlessly about It The Terror From Beyond Space. He never ever mentions Black Christmas and how the majority of iconic shots in that film were taken directly from it, or how supposedly Bob Clark told him if he was going to make a sequel it would be called Halloween and suddenly Carpenters Babysitter Murders was retitled.
Craven has so many things working against him. I doubt in most people’s minds, Carpenter or Cronenberg would be considered horror directors (although they directed horror movies.) And he was very successful at it.
Horror is just one of those genre that I think is one step above porn in the American psyche. And when (a few) people talk about how great 80’s slasher films like Friday the 13th was, it doesn’t help to separate the wheat from the chaff.
He deserves the same status as Cronenberg and Carpenter? For what? Nightmare was iconic, unforgettable, memorable, important, sure, but it turned into a series of utter dreck until the pretty creative but not hugely great New Nightmare. Scream, too, fun, creative…
But where’s the history? Where are the other movies? Where’s the career of mind-bending creativity and utterly unique visions of Cronenberg?
Craven’s good. But to put him on the same level as Cronenberg and Carpenter seems really overstated to me.
That’s a whole thesis right there!
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