John Carpenter

Devotees of John Carpenter's wry brand B-movie acumen should enjoy the minutia provided in this hour-long documentary tracing the director's cinematic roots back to his childhood of EC horror comics and 8mm movie cameras. Granted, this is not a particularly imaginative affair--consisting mostly of talking heads (fellow schlock king George Romero, producer/former girlfriend Debra Hill, favorite actors Kurt Russell, Jamie Lee Curtis, former wife Adrienne Barbeau, etc.) and selected scenes from Carpenter's entire filmography of genre-defining drive-in flicks--but it does provide good face-time with the man himself (who talks about his inspirations, as well as his memorable, self-composed musical scores) and a thorough history that suggests Carpenter doesn't get enough respect. His USC film school project "The Resurrection of Broncho Billy" won an Oscar and became the first student film to receive a nationwide theatrical release. Unlike its countless imitators, his slasher archetype Halloween (once the most successful independent film of all time) traded in unadulterated fear, not Karo-syrup gore. And the monster design for his remake of The Thing broke new ground in special effects. But while this doc would make a good addition to a Carpenter box set or an interesting between-films feature on HBO, as a standalone DVD it's shrug-worthy. Optional. Aud: C, P. (R. Blackwelder)