"Director: John Carpenter"

• Big Trouble In Little China | DVD | (05/07/2004) from £8.25   |  Saving you £9.74 (118.06%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Trying to explain the cult appeal of John Carpenter's Big Trouble in Little China to the uninitiated is no easy task. The plot in a nutshell follows lorry driver Jack Burton (Kurt Russell) into San Francisco's Chinatown, where he's embroiled in street gang warfare over the mythical/magical intentions of would-be god David Lo Pan. There are wire-fu fight scenes, a floating eyeball and monsters from other dimensions. Quite simply it belongs to a genre of its own. Carpenter was drawing on years of chop-socky Eastern cinema tradition, which, at the time of the film's first release in 1986, was regrettably lost on a general audience. Predictably, it bombed. But now that Jackie Chan and Jet Li have made it big in the West, and Hong Kong cinema has spread its influence across Hollywood, it's much, much easier to enjoy this film's happy-go-lucky cocktail of influences. Russell's cocky anti-hero is easy to cheer on as he "experiences some very unreasonable things" blundering from one fight to another, and lusts after the gorgeously green-eyed Kim Cattrall. The script is peppered with countless memorable lines, too ("It's all in the reflexes"). Originally outlined as a sequel to the equally obscure Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension, Big Trouble is a bona fide cult cinema delight. Jack sums up the day's reactions perfectly, "China is here? I don't even know what the Hell that means!". On the DVD: Big Trouble in Little China is released as a special edition two-disc set in its full unedited form. Some real effort has been put into both discs' animated menus, and the film itself is terrific in 2.35:1 and 5.1 (or DTS). The commentary by Carpenter and Russell may not be as fresh as their chat on The Thing, but clearly they both retain an enormous affection for the film. There are eight deleted scenes (some of which are expansions of existing scenes), plus a separate extended ending which was edited out for the right reasons. You'll also find a seven-minute featurette from the time of release, a 13-minute interview with FX guru Richard Edlund, a gallery of 200 photos, 25 pages of production notes and magazine articles from American Cinematographer and Cinefex. Best of all for real entertainment value is a music video with Carpenter and crew (the Coupe de Villes) coping with video FX and 80s hair-dos.--Paul Tonks

• Vampires (Standard Edition) | Blu Ray | (16/09/2019) from £12.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  James Woods leads a band of ruthless vampire hunters in a blood-soaked battle against the undead. Also starring Sheryl Lee, Daniel Baldwin and Maximillian Schell, Carpenter crafts a tense, brutal and action-packed horror/western crossover. Extras: High Definition remaster 5.1 surround sound track Alternative stereo audio Audio commentary with director John Carpenter The Guardian Interview with John Carpenter - Part One, 1962-1983 (1994, 38 mins): the director discusses his career with Nigel Floyd at the National Film Theatre, London Behind the Scenes (1999, 6 mins): original ˜making of' documentary Cast & Crew Interviews (1999, 9 mins) B-roll Footage (1999, 9 mins) Isolated score: experience John Carpenter's original soundtrack music Original theatrical trailer New and improved English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing

• Halloween 4K | 4K UHD | (01/10/2018) from £34.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  On a black and unholy Halloween night years ago, little Michael Myers brutally slaughtered his sister in cold bold. But for the last fifteen years, town residents have rested easy, knowing that he was safely locked away in a mental hospital until tonight. Tonight, Michael returns to the same quiet neighbourhood to relive his grisly murder again and again and again. For this is a night of evil. Tonight is Halloween! Extras: Commentary track with writer/director John Carpenter and star Jamie Lee Curtis 'The Night She Came Home' new featurette with Jamie Lee Curtis (HD) On Location Trailers TV and Radio Spots Additional Scenes from TV Version

• Christine (Blu-Ray) | Blu Ray | (16/10/2017) from £12.00   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  HOW DO YOU KILL SOMETHING THAT CAN'T POSSIBLY BE ALIVE? She was born bad. Plain and simple. Somewhere deep on a darkened assembly line. Christine. A '58 Plymouth Fury possessed by Hell. She's taken control of her teenage owner, Arnie. Her previous owner is not alive to warn him. And now she's steering straight for the one person in her way. Arnie's girlfriend, Leigh. The other woman. INDICATOR LIMITED EDITION SPECIAL FEATURES: ¢ 2K restoration ¢ Original stereo audio ¢ Alternative 5.1 surround sound track ¢ Audio commentary with director John Carpenter and actor Keith Gordon ¢ Christine: Ignition, Fast and Furious & Finish Line (2003, 48 mins): three-part ˜making of' documentary, featuring interviews with cast and crew, including John Carpenter and Keith Gordon ¢ Deleted scenes (26 mins): twenty-one sequences which never made the final cut ¢ Isolated score: experience John Carpenter's original soundtrack music ¢ Image gallery: on-set and promotional photography ¢ Theatrical trailers ¢ TV spots ¢ New and improved English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing

• Dark Star -- 30th Anniversary Special Edition | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Dark Star is absurd, surreal and very funny. John Carpenter once described it as "Waiting for Godot in space." (It's also, surely, one of the primary inspirations for Red Dwarf.) Made at a cost of practically nothing, the film's effects are nevertheless impressive and, along with the number of ideas crammed into its 83 minutes, ought to shame makers of science fiction films costing hundreds of times more. The story concerns the Dark Star's crew who are on a 20-year mission to destroy unstable planets and make way for future colonisation. The smart bombs they use to effect this zoom off cheerfully to do their duty. But unlike Star Trek, in which order prevails, the nerves of this crew are becoming increasingly frayed to the point of psychosis. Their captain has been killed by a radiation leak that also destroyed their toilet paper. "Don't give me any of that 'Intelligent Life' stuff," says Commander Doolittle when presented with the possibility of alien life. "Find me something I can blow up." When an asteroid storm causes a malfunction, Bomb Number 20 (the most cheerful character in the film) has to be repeatedly talked out of exploding prematurely, each time becoming more and more peevish, until they have to teach him phenomenology to make him doubt his existence. And the film's apocalyptic ending, lifted almost wholly from Ray Bradbury's story "Kaleidoscope", has the remaining crew drifting away from each other in space, each to a suitably absurd end. --Jim Gay

• Escape From L.A. | DVD | (04/06/2001) from £6.19   |  Saving you £6.80 (109.86%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Fifteen years after John Carpenter squandered a great idea on a mediocre movie (Escape from New York), he does it again--this time on the Left Coast. Kurt Russell is back as the terminally cynical one-eyed action hero Snake Plissken who, this time, has been coerced into saving the world in Los Angeles. It's 2013 and L.A. is now an island maximum-security prison off the coast of California. Snake has 10 hours to find a doomsday weapon that's fallen into the hands of revolutionaries before he dies of a virus with which he's been injected. But the action is clumsy and unimaginative: lots of shootouts and very little suspense. Even the bad guys aren't particularly inventive; only Pam Grier, as a transsexual gang leader, strikes any sparks. Russell growls his way through the role but can only blame himself: He cowrote the script with Carpenter. --Marshall Fine

• The Fog (4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray) | Blu Ray | (18/03/2019) from £21.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  NOTICE: Polish Release, cover may contain Polish text/markings. The disk DOES NOT have English audio and subtitles.

• The Fog | DVD | (29/10/2018) from £6.87   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Antonio Bay, California has turned a hundred years old. As the residents of this small, quaint harbour town begin to celebrate, an eerie fog envelops the shore and from its midst emerge dripping, demonic spectres, victims of a century old shipwreck...seeking revenge. Starring Jamie Lee Curtis, the FOG is a tense and ghoulish tale that confirms John Carpenter as a master of terror. Extras: Audio Commentary with writer/director John Carpenter and writer/director Debra Hill

• John Carpenter's Village Of The Damned | Blu Ray | (27/04/2015) from £13.59   |  Saving you £1.40 (10.30%)   |  RRP £14.99

  From the master of suspense, John Carpenter, comes a chilling new version of the sci-fi classic. Something is terribly wrong in the tiny village of Midwich. After an unseen force invades a quiet coastal town, ten woman find themselves pregnant. Local physician Dr. Alan Chaffee (Christopher Reeve-Superman) and government scientist Dr. Susan Verner (Kirstie Ally) join forces when the woman simultaneously give birth...and the reign of terror begins. The people of Midwich must try to find a way to stop the children in the Village of the Damned. Also starring, Mark Hamill (Star Wars)

• The Ward | Blu Ray | (17/10/2011) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £22.99

  The Ward tells the tale of Kristen (Amber Heard), a troubled young woman who is institutionalized. Shortly after arriving Kristen awakens with cuts and bruises on her body. When she turns to the other patients for help they have no answers. Soon enough Kristen begins to worry for her sanity as well as her well-being as she begins to hear strange noises and see harrowing visions.One by one the other patients start to go missing and Kristen soon realises she is being haunted by an evil ghost. But what does it want with her? And can she escape before it’s too late?Disturbing horror from iconic director John Carpenter (Halloween, Escape from New York).

• American Werewolf In London / Mary Shelleys Frankenstein / Dracula / The Thing | DVD | (13/09/2010) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  American Werewolf In London: One of the most gripping horror films of all time is now available in a new 2 disc DVD Special Edition! When two American students touring the English countryside are attacked by a vicious wolf during a full moon, their lives are suddenly transformed forever. Featuring ground-breaking Academy Award-winning make-up by Rick Baker, this cult favourite is directed by John Landis (National Lampoon's Animal House) and perfectly blends the macabre with a touch of humour. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein: It is the late 18th Century. After the death of his beloved mother, young Victor Frankenstein leaves his father and Elizabeth, the adopted sister he passionately loves, to attend university. Here he becomes obsessed with the teachings of Professor Walman who believes that living creatures can actually be created from dead matter. One electrifying night, Frankenstein's efforts are rewarded as his Creature struggles to life. Alone, despised and driven by a rage of emotional agony, it sets off to find its maker. And so begins the nightmare that will engulf Victor Frankenstein... Dracula: Francis Ford Coppola returns to the original source of the Dracula to create a modern masterpiece. It follows the tortured journey of the devastatingly seductive Transylvanian Prince (Gary Oldman) as he moves from Eastern Europe to 19th century London in search of his long lost Elisabeta, who is reincarnated as the beautiful Mina (Winona Ryder)... The Thing: Horror-meister John Carpenter teams Kurt Russell's outstanding performance with incredible visuals to build this chilling version of the classic The Thing. In the winter of 1982, a twelve-man research team at a remote Antarctic research station discovers an alien buried in the snow for over 100,000 years. Soon unfrozen, the shape-shifting alien wreaks havoc, creates terror and becomes one of them...

• Monkey Dust - Series 1 | DVD | (08/11/2004) from £18.64   |  Saving you £1.35 (7.24%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Cutting edge comedy animation set in a permanent urban nightmare - not for the faint hearted! Fans of Brass Eye and Jam need look no further... Monkey Dust is a cutting-edge comedy animation created by an award-winning team of writers and visualised by some of London's finest young animators. Set in a permanent urban nightmare Monkey Dust is a nocturnal world and its satirical targets range across the whole spectrum of British society. Monkey Dust also features occasional cele

• The Fog | DVD | (18/10/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A thick fog rolls into the sleepy town of Antonio Bay concealing the ghosts of murdered sailors desperate to seek revenge on the descendants of their killers. In one night the inhabitants of this town will pay the ultimate price for their forefathers' murderous greed...

• Halloween | DVD | (25/09/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  It was a cold Halloween night in 1963 when six year old Michael Myers brutally murdered his 17-year-old sister. Fifteen years later he escapes from prison and returns home...

• Assault on Precinct 13: 40th Anniversary Edition | DVD | (28/11/2016) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  John Carpenter's Assault On Precinct 13 is a riveting low-budget thriller from 1976, in which a nearly abandoned police station is held under siege by a heavily armed gang called Street Thunder. Inside the station, cut off from contact and isolated, convicts heading for death row and the cops must now join forces or die. That's the basic plot, but what Carpenter does with it is remarkable. Drawing specific inspiration from the classic Howard Hawks Western Rio Bravo (which included a similar siege on disadvantaged heroes), Carpenter used his simple setting for a tense, tightly constructed series of action sequences, emphasising low-key character development and escalating tension. Few who've seen the film can forget the "ice cream cone" scene in which a young girl is caught up in the action by patronising a seemingly harmless ice cream van. It's here, and in other equally memorable scenes, that Carpenter demonstrates his knack for injecting terror into the mundane details of daily life, propelling this potent thriller to cult favourite status and long-standing critical acclaim. From this Carpenter went on to make the original Halloween, one of the most profitable independent films of all time. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

• The Thing Limited Edition | Blu Ray | (23/10/2017) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Director John Carpenter and special makeup effects master Rob Bottin teamed up for this 1982 remake of the 1951 science fiction classic The Thing from Another World, and the result is a mixed blessing. It's got moments of highly effective terror and spine-tingling suspense, but it's mostly a showcase for some of the goriest and most horrifically grotesque makeup effects ever created for a movie. With such highlights as a dog that splits open and blossoms into something indescribably gruesome, this is the kind of movie for die-hard horror fans and anyone who slows down to stare at fatal traffic accidents. On those terms, however, it's hard not to be impressed by the movie's wild and wacky freak show. It all begins when scientists at an arctic research station discover an alien spacecraft under the thick ice, and thaw out the alien body found aboard. What they don't know is that the alien can assume any human form, and before long the scientists can't tell who's real and who's a deadly alien threat. Kurt Russell leads the battle against the terrifying intruder, and the supporting cast includes Richard Masur, Richard Dysart, Donald Moffat, and Wilford Brimley. They're all playing standard characters who are neglected by the mechanistic screenplay (based on the classic sci-fi story "Who Goes There?" by John W. Campbell), but Carpenter's emphasis is clearly on the gross-out effects and escalating tension. If you've got the stomach for it (and let's face it, there's a big audience for eerie gore), this is a thrill ride you won't want to miss. --Jeff Shannon

• The Thing | Blu Ray | (20/09/2021) from £34.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Exclusive Art by Matt Ferguson Horror-meister John Carpenter (Halloween, Escape from New York) teams Kurt Russell's outstanding performance with incredible visuals to build this chilling version of the classic The Thing. In the winter of 1982, a twelve-man research team at a remote Antarctic research station discovers an alien buried in the snow for over 100,000 years. Once unfrozen, the form-changing alien wreaks havoc, creates terror and becomes one of them. Collectors Edition Includes 1 x 4K UHD Disc of The Thing (1982) 1 x Blu-Ray Disc of The Thing (2011); 1 x Official Motion Picture Soundtrack Disc by Ennio Morricone 1x Matt Ferguson's The Thing Poster 1x Art Booklet (includes production notes, excerpt of the script, behind the scenes photos, early concepts) Bonus Content Feature Commentary with Director John Carpenter and Kurt Russell John Carpenter's The Thing: Terror Takes Shape Outtakes Theatrical Trailer

• Halloween: 35th Anniversary Edition | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Halloween: 35th Anniversary Edition. For this very special release Anchor Bay went back to the vaults to present this legendary terror classic as never before including creating an all-new HD transfer personally supervised by the film's original cinematographer Academy-Award nominee Dean Cundey (Who Framed Roger Rabbit Apollo 13 the Back to the Future trilogy) a new 7.1 audio mix (as well as the original mono audio). Fifteen years ago Michael Myers brutally massacred his sister. Now after escaping from a mental hospital he's back to relive his grisly crime again and again... and again.

• Halloween | DVD | (30/09/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £49.99

  A group of teens win a contest to spend a night in Michael Myers' childhood home to be broadcast live on the internet. But things go frightfully wrong and the game turns into a struggle to make it out of the house alive.

• Prince of Darkness 4K Collector's Edition | 4K UHD | (19/09/2021) from £29.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  This 4 disc limited Collector's Edition of John Carpenter's 1987 cult classic Prince of Darkness has been stunningly restored in 4K. Deep in the basement of an abandoned church, once run by a sinister religious sect, lies a strange bottle of green liquid being investigated by a group of local theoretic physics students. But as the night draws in the students soon realise that the relic holds a dark and powerful force beyond their control. A force that could well be the essence of pure evil: the remains of Satan himself. This release is beautifully packaged with a stylish, newly commissioned illustration by Matt Ferguson on the cover. It contains a UHD of the feature as well as a Blu-ray feature disc, bonus disc and the original soundtrack on CD. It also contains 5 art cards, a newly illustrated theatrical poster and booklet containing original articles, photography from the set, production notes and an essay from celebrated film journalist Kim Newman. The 2018 restoration of Prince of Darkness was made from the original camera negative. A full 4k 16bit Dolby Vision workflow was applied to create a 4K DCP, UHD version and a new HD version which were produced with the same high technological standards as today's biggest international film releases. The restoration and new UHD version was colour graded and approved in Los Angeles by the Cinematographer, Gary B. Kibbe (ASC). Bonus material includes: Malevolent: Unearthing John Carpenter's PRINCE OF DARKNESS: A brand new retrospective documentary produced by Ballyhoo Motion Pictures and featuring interviews with Cinematographer Gary Kibbe, actor Peter Jason, actor Alice Cooper, composer Alan Howarth, script supervisor Sandy King, visual effects supervisor Robert Grasmere, stunt coordinator Jeff Imada, Carpenter biographer John Muir, film historian C. Courtney Joyner, music historian Daniel Schweiger and Producer Larry Carpenters. Intro by John Carpenter an interview with director John Carpenter originally recorded for a French DVD release in 2003 Scene Analysis by John Carpenter - Director John Carpenter analyses key scenes from Prince of Darkness, in an interview from 2003 Audio commentary with John Carpenter and Peter Jason Sympathy for the Devil: Interview with John Carpenter - from 2013 Horror's Halloween Hallowed Grounds with Sean Clark - a fun tour of the film's locations hosted by Sean Clark Trailer Photo gallery incl. Behind the Scenes Includes: Disc 1: UHD Feature Disc 2: Blu-ray Feature Disc 3: Blu-ray Bonus disc Disc 4: Original soundtrack 5 x Art cards Theatrical poster Booklet