"Director: John Carpenter"

• Starman | DVD | (08/04/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Starman is easily director John Carpenter's warmest and most beguiling film, and the only one that ever earned him an Oscar nomination. While most movie buffs are likely to call Halloween the best movie from Carpenter, die-hard romantics and anyone who cried while watching E.T. will vote in favour of the director's 1984 hit. Jeff Bridges is the alien visitor to Earth who is knocked off course and must take an interstate road trip to rendezvous with a mothership from his home planet. To complete this journey he assumes the physical form of the dead husband of a Wisconsin widow (Karen Allen) who responds first with fear, then sympathy, and finally love. Carpenter's graceful strategy is to switch the focus of this E.T.-like film from science fiction to a gentle road-movie love story, made believable by the memorable performances of Bridges and Allen. It's a bit heavy-handed with tenacious government agents who view the Starman as an alien threat (don't they always?), but Carpenter handles the action with intelligent flair, sensitivity and lighthearted humour. If you're not choked up during the final scene, well, you just might not be human. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com On the DVD: Starman on disc is presented in anamorphic widescreen transferred from NTSC and letterboxed at 2.35.1. The picture is clear and sharp with very little grain. The soundtrack is crisp, perfectly complementing the romantic nature of this film. The overriding reason to shell out on this special edition is the commentary from John Carpenter and Jeff Bridges, in which director and actor show a genuine affection for the film. Other extras are a featurette filmed around the original release in 1884, a music video starring Bridges and costar Karen Allen covering The Everly Brothers classic "All I Have to Do is Dream", and a trailer for Close Encounters of the Third Kind. --Kristen Bowditch

• Big Trouble In Little China Steelbook | Blu Ray | (16/12/2013) from £22.05   |  Saving you £2.94 (13.33%)   |  RRP £24.99

  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

• Masters Of Horror - Cigarette Burns / Dreams In The Witch House | DVD | (13/03/2006) from £14.95   |  Saving you £5.04 (33.71%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Anchor Bay presents two of the films from Showtime's much-anticipated Masters of Horror series; John Carpenter's Cigarette Burns and Stuart Gordon's Dreams In The Witch House. Cigarette Burns: Kirby Sweetman knows how to find rare film prints. However nothing could prepare him for the daunting search for 'Le Fin Absolue du Monde' a film allegedly shown only once and rumoured to have driven its audience into a muderous frenzy before the cinema mysteriously erupted in flames. Working for a shadowy patron Jimmy's increasingly obsessive investigation becomes nightmarish and deadly. Finally he discovers 'Le Fin Absolue du Monde' is well deserved. This supernatural 'Chinatown' is a chilling look at the power of cinema and the lengths to which we will got to satiate our own private demons. Dreams In The Witch House: This is Stuart Gordon's fifth adaptation of a H.P. Lovecraft story and mighty frightening it is too! Walter Gilman (Ezra Godden) a college student studying interdimensional string theory rents a garret in a run-down building in the old New England town of Arkham. He is haunted by terrifying nightmares in which he is visited by a 17th-century witch and her familiar a rat with a human face. He begins to realize that these are not dreams at all and that diabolical forces are gathering to sacrifice his neighbour's infant. As Walter struggles to prevent this it becomes less clear if he will save the child or become its unwitting murderer himself.

• Assault On Precinct 13 | DVD | (06/10/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Isolated cut off inside an abandoned police station a handful of cops and some convicts on their way to Death Row must join forces and defend themselves against the gang called Street Thunder who have taken a blood oath to destroy. From the director of Halloween and The Thing Assault On Precinct 13 combines elements of the classic western and modern thriller to create a cult favorite.

• Halloween | DVD | (10/10/2005) from £14.70   |  Saving you £-8.71 (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...

• Bram Stoker's Dracula / John Carpenter's Vampires / Fright Night | DVD | (17/05/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Bram Stoker's Dracula: Francis Ford Coppola returns to the original source of the Dracula to create a modern masterpiece following 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)... John Carpenter's Vampires: Forget everything you've ever heard about vampires warns Jack Crow (James Woods) the leader of Team Crow a relentless group of mercenary vampire slayers. When master Vampire Valek (Thomas Ian Griffith) decimates Jack's entire team Crow and the sole team survivor Montoya (Daniel Baldwin) set out in pursuit. Breaking all the rules Crow and Montoya take one of Valek's victims hostage. The beautiful prostitute (Sheryl Lee) is their sole psychic link to Valek and through her senses they will track down the leader of the undead. As Valek nears the climax of his 600 year search for the Berziers cross Jack and the new Team Crow do everything humanly possible to prevent him from possessing the only thing that can grant him and all vampires the omnipotent power to walk in the daylight... Fright Night: Meet Jerry Dandridge. He's sweet sexy and he likes to sleep in late. You might think he's the perfect neighbor. But before inviting Jerry in for a nightcap there's just one thing you should know: Jerry prefers his drinks warm red - and straight from the jugular! It's 'Fright Night' a horrific howl starring Chris Sarandon as the seductive vampire and William Ragsdale as the frantic teenager struggling to keep Jerry's deadly fangs out of his neck...

• Elvis | Blu Ray | (16/08/2010) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Just two years after Elvis Presley passed away Kurt Russell brought him back to life in the original biopic about the King of Rock n Roll. Released through ABC in 1979 Elvis marked the first time director John Carpenter and actor Kurt Russell would work together in what would become a legendary pairing in film history (Escape From New York Big Trouble In Little China The Thing and Escape From L.A.). Tracing Presleys life from his impoverished childhood to his meteoric rise to stardom to his triumphant return to Las Vegas Elvis features Shelley Winters (Gladys Presley) Season Hubley (Priscilla Presley) Bing Russell (Kurts real-life father as Vernon Presley) Pat Hingle (Colonel Tom Parker) Joe Mantegna (Memphis Mafia member Joe Esposito) and Ed Begley Jr. (drummer D.J. Fontana) in an all-star supporting cast for an effort that garnered numerous Emmy nominations including Outstanding Lead Actor for Russell. Restored From The Original Film Elements.

• Halloween: The Complete Collection (Eight Disc Box Set) | DVD | (11/10/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £59.99

  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.

• Memoirs Of An Invisible Man | DVD | (19/01/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Nick Halloway (Chase) is a sophisticated stock analyst until a freak accident at an industrial plant renders him invisible! Yet being invisible is not as easy as it sounds as he finds himself the object of a frenzied manhunt by a corrupt government official (Neill) who wants him to become an assassin...

• Assault On Precinct 13 (1976) | DVD | (06/10/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Isolated cut off inside an abandoned police station a handful of cops and some convicts on their way to Death Row must join forces and defend themselves against the gang called Street Thunder who have taken a blood oath to destroy. From the director of Halloween and The Thing Assault On Precinct 13 combines elements of the classic western and modern thriller to create a cult favorite.

• Big Trouble In Little China Play Exclusive | DVD | (23/03/2010) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Directed by master film-maker John Carpenter, this edge-of-your seat adventure stars Kurt Russell as Jack Burton, a tough talking, wisecracking truck driver whose hum-drum life on the road takes a sudden supernatural tailspin when his best friend's fiance is kidnapped. Speeding to the rescue, Jack finds himself deep beneath San Francisco's Chinatown. It's a murky, creature-filled world ruled by Lo Pan, a 2000-year-old magician who mercilessly presides over an empire of sprits. Dodging demons and facing baffling terrors, Jack battles his way through Lo Pan's dark domain in a full-throttle, action-riddled ride to rescue the girl. Co-starring Kim Cattrall, this effects-filled sci-fi spectacle speeds to an incredible, twist-taking finish.

• Greatest Ever Classic Horror Collection | DVD | (13/10/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £34.99

  This Box Set contains the following films: An American Werewolf In London Dracula Mary Shelley's Frankenstein The Thing The Relic

• The Thing / Vampires / Village Of The Damned | DVD | (03/10/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The Thing (1982): 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... John Carpenter's Vampires (1998): In the blood-chilling tradition of Halloween and Village Of The Damned comes John Carpenter's unique vision of the ultimate killing machines vampires. Forget everything you've ever heard about vampires warns Jack Crow (James Woods) the leader of Team Crow a relentless group of mercenary vampire slayers. When master Vampire Valek (Thomas Ian Griffith) decimates Jack's entire team Crow and the sole team survivor Montoya (Daniel Baldwin) set out in pursuit. Breaking all the rules Crow and Montoya take one of Valek's victims hostage. The beautiful prostitute (Sheryl Lee) is their sole psychic link to Valek and through her senses they will track down the leader of the undead. As Valek nears the climax of his 600 year search for the Berziers cross Jack and the new Team Crow do everything humanly possible to prevent him from possessing the only thing that can grant him and all vampires the omnipotent power to walk in the daylight... Village Of The Damned (1995): 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 10 women mysteriously find themselves pregnant. Local physician Dr. Alan Chaffee (Reeve) and government scientist Dr. Susan Verner (Alley) join forces when the women simultaneously give birth...and the reign of terror begins. In what the New York Times calls one scarifying trip the people of Midwich must try to find a way to stop the children in the Village Of The Damned.

• Thing From Another World/The Thing | DVD | (07/05/2007) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-7.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The Thing (Dir. John Carpenter 1982): 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... The Thinf From Another World (Dir. Christian Nyby 1951): Arctic researchers discover a huge frozen spaceling inside a crash-landed UFO then fight for their lives after the murderous being (a pre-Gunsmoke James Arness) emerges from icy captivity. Will other creatures soon follow? The famed final words of this film are both warning and answer: ""Keep watching the skies!""

• Escape From L.A. | Blu Ray | (23/05/2011) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The man with the patch is back. Call him Snake. Kurt Russell rejoins filmmakers John Carpenter and Debra Hill to do to the Big Orange what they did to the Big Apple in Escape From New York - with even more futuristic thrills and slam-bang action! Into the 9.6-quaked Los Angeles of 2013 comes Snake Plissken (Russell). His job: wade through L.A.'s ruined landmarks to retrieve a doomsday device. Don't miss the excitement as Snake surfs Wilshire Blvd. shoots hoops at the Coliseum dive bombs the Happy Kingdom theme park and mixes it up with a wild assortment of friends fiends and foes (Stacy Keach Steve Buscemi Peter Fonda George Corraface Cliff Robertson Pam Grier and more).

• Ghosts Of Mars/Vampires | DVD | (30/04/2007) from £13.48   |  Saving you £-3.49 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  John Carpenter's Vampires (1998): In the blood-chilling tradition of Halloween and Village Of The Damned comes John Carpenter's unique vision of the ultimate killing machines vampires. ""Forget everything you've ever heard about vampires"" warns Jack Crow (James Woods) the leader of Team Crow a relentless group of mercenary vampire slayers. When master Vampire Valek (Thomas Ian Griffith) decimates Jack's entire team Crow and the sole team survivor Montoya (Daniel Baldwin) set out in pursuit. Breaking all the rules Crow and Montoya take one of Valek's victims hostage. The beautiful prostitute (Sheryl Lee) is their sole psychic link to Valek and through her senses they will track down the leader of the undead. As Valek nears the climax of his 600 year search for the Berziers cross Jack and the new Team Crow do everything humanly possible to prevent him from possessing the only thing that can grant him and all vampires the omnipotent power to walk in the daylight... John Carpenter's Ghosts Of Mars(2001): 200 years in the future a Martian police unit is dispatched to transport a dangerous prisoner from a mining outpost back to justice. But when the team arrives they find the town deserted and some of the inhabitants possessed by the former inhabitants of the planet.

• Films That Define A Decade: '80s | DVD | (22/08/2016) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £10.00

  The excessive ˜80s... where everyone had huge hairdos and massive shoulder pads, mobile phones were the size of bricks and the movies were larger than life. We had John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd starring as The Blues Brothers; An American Werewolf in London took horror to new heights; a young Al Pacino thrilled as the iconic Scarface; and Kurt Russell challenged shape-shifting aliens in The Thing.

• The Thing - Steelbook - Universal 100th Anniversary Edition | Blu Ray | (18/02/2013) from £26.98   |  Saving you £-5.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  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...

• The John Carpenter Collection | DVD | (06/10/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £54.99

  Titles Comprise: The Fog (1980): 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... Assault On Precinct 13 (1976): Isolated cut off inside an abandoned police station a handful of cops and some convicts on their way to Death Row must join forces and defend themselves against the gang called Street Thunder who have taken a blood oath to destroy. They Live (1988): John Nada (Piper) is a struggling labourer who drifts into town and luckily scores a job at a construction site. Discovering a box of sunglasses Nada swipes a pair and is shocked to find what he can see through them; billboards demand citizens 'Eat' or 'Sleep' TV shows spout orders at him and some people look rather less than human... Escape From New York (1981): 1997. New York City is now a maximum security prison. Breaking out is impossible. Breaking in is insane. Manhattan Island has become a maximum-security prison for three million criminals. When the American President's plane is hijacked and crashed on the island the President is taken hostage by gangland warlord 'The Duke'. Sent to the rescue is Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell) a former war hero now a convicted criminal. To ensure safe return of the President the police commissioner (Lee Van Cleef) has had tiny time bombs implanted in Plissken's neck: if he gets the President out within twenty four hours he gets a pardon; if not he gets blown to pieces... Prince Of Darkness (1987): Deep in the crypt of an old church absolute evil has been lurking in the form of the Sleeper a sinister green liquid that contains the essence of the Devil himself. Discovered by a priest this liquid is investigated by physics experts in the hope that science will help fight the battle against evil but their experiments unwittingly set Satan free... Halloween (1978): 'Halloween' takes us into the world of a mad killer Michael Myers who at a very young age stabbed his older sister to death. Locked away for many years in a mental hospital Michael escapes one night and returns to his home to continue his killing spree. Jamie Lee Curtis in her first role plays the resourceful babysitter who is chased by the killer on Halloween night. The Thing (1982): 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...

• Halloween | UMD | (17/10/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Halloween is as pure and undiluted as its title. In the small town of Haddonfield, Illinois, a teenage baby sitter tries to survive a Halloween night of relentless terror, during which a knife-wielding maniac goes after the town's hormonally charged youths. Director John Carpenter takes this simple situation and orchestrates a superbly mounted symphony of horrors. It's a movie much scarier for its dark spaces and ominous camera movements than for its explicit bloodletting (which is actually minimal). Composed by Carpenter himself, the movie's freaky music sets the tone; and his script (cowritten with Debra Hill) is laced with references to other horror pictures, especially Psycho. The baby sitter is played by Jamie Lee Curtis, the real-life daughter of Psycho victim Janet Leigh; and the obsessed policeman played by Donald Pleasence is named Sam Loomis, after John Gavin's character in Psycho. In the end, though, Halloween stands on its own as an uncannily frightening experience--it's one of those movies that had audiences literally jumping out of their seats and shouting at the screen. ("No! Don't drop that knife!") Produced on a low budget, the picture turned a monster profit, and spawned many sequels, none of which approached the 1978 original. Curtis returned for two more instalments: 1981's dismal Halloween II, which picked up the story the day after the unfortunate events, and 1998's occasionally gripping Halloween H20, which proved the former baby sitter was still haunted after 20 years. --Robert Horton