CREEPSHOW (1982) UHD Blu-ray Review

Creepshow (1982) d. George A. Romero (USA) (120 min)

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“It’s the most fun you’ll have being scared!” So trumpeted the ads for George A. Romero’s CREEPSHOW, a live-action anthology film that echoed the pleasures found within the pages of such E.C. Comics titles as Tales from the Crypt, The Vault of Horror, and The Haunt of Fear, which pre-dated HBO’s series Tales from the Crypt and Romero’s own Tales from the Darkside, which premiered the following year.

ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK (1981) Blu-ray Review

Escape from New York (1981) d. John Carpenter (USA)

As the second of their two-picture deal with Avco-Embassy (following The Fog), producer Debra Hill and writer/director Carpenter set their eye on realizing a sci-fi/action script he had written in the mid-’70s, with the entire island of Manhattan having been turned into a maximum security prison with a 50-foot detainment wall built around its perimeter. Into this scenario Carpenter and co-screenwriter Nick Castle (who had played “The Shape” in 1978’s breakout Halloween) dropped ruthless and charismatic mercenary Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell) and a wild, do-or-die plot about rescuing the President of the United States (Donald Pleasence) after Air Force One is hijacked and crash-landed in the Big Apple. On a budget of $6 million (substantial, but still smallish for the project’s ambitious scale), the creative team – with special nods to production designer Joe Alves, cinematographer Dean Cundey, and one of the coolest ensemble casts EVER – emerged with a critical and box office hit . . . and an all-time iconic character in “Call me Snake” Plissken.

SOMEONE’S WATCHING ME! (1978) movie review

Someone's Watching Me! (1978) d. Carpenter, John (USA)

First shown a month after Halloween hit theatres and made available on DVD in 2007, John Carpenter’s TV-movie about a psychopathic peeping tom preying upon female high-rise victims shows the writer/director near the top of his game. Lauren Hutton plays a sexy, funny offbeat TV director who moves to Los Angeles with her new station job, and soon is receiving strange packages and phone calls from a mystery stalker who seems to know her every move.