The Fog (1980)

How many movies begin with a creepy ghost story being told around a campfire on a dark beach? Not enough! But John Carpenter’s “The Fog” is such a movie and I know people who think that this is the best part of the film; I disagree with that but it’s still pretty damn awesome. I love ghost stories and this is one of my favorites. It’s eerie, fog is an awesome weather element in its own right, the story takes place on the West Coast, and the ghosts are barely seen. It’s a wonderful tale of revenge that is justified and the conclusion is pretty powerful. I suggest watching the DVD with John’s commentary because he reveals plenty of interesting tidbits about the film itself.

Simple synopsis

One hundred years ago, the founder of the town of Antonio Bay made a deal to allow a colony of lepers to settle near-by. Six conspirators decided that they didn’t want the lepers there so they purposely sank the ship that the lepers were sailing on. They then took the payment they had received and built the town and a church. Now the ghost of the Captain and his crew has returned to Antonio Bay to extract their revenge on the descendants of the conspirators.

Favorite moment – As I already said, I love the beginning and how it sets the mood!

Christine (1983)

“Christine” is a great movie about an evil car that slowly possesses its owner. Just like in “Halloween”, director John Carpenter doesn’t try to explain why the car is evil, it just is. I have never read the book written by Stephen King but I’m told that this movie is only inspired by it and is not a true adaptation. And that’s ok because the film feels like a Stephen King story and contains many of the stock characters that he tends to use in his books.

In the movie, Christine is bought by a nerdy senior high school student named Arnie. Against the advice of his best friend Dennis to do so and then when his parents disapprove of the purchase, Arnie is forced to keep Christine at a junkyard. These early events, along with his trouble with bullies, help isolate Arnie from everything except his car. Soon his car is in pristine condition, Arnie has a girlfriend and everything is great until Dennis suffers a major injury during a football game. Did the accident happen just because Dennis saw Christine? Soon the bullies from school find where Christine is kept and they have a grand time tearing the car about. But Christine is EVIL, and as Arnie watches, Christine fixes itself and begins a thrilling hunt for revenge. The film’s climax takes place at the junkyard garage where Arnie is fatally wounded and Dennis is able to destroy Christine with a C.A.T.

I also want to say that I adore the Furturama episode that is combines elements from “Christine” and “The Wolf Man”, having Bender turn into a Were-Car after being attacked by one.

Favorite moment – When Christine traps the bully Moochie in a thin, enclosed truck loading dock. With the boy trapped, Christine forces itself into the small space and crushes him to death.

Author's Note - John Carpenter

John Carpenter is another one of my personal favorite directors. Carpenter has only had a few BIG hits (Halloween, Star Man, Escape from New York), but most of his films have become cult classics over the years. Looking at the history of his career, I get the impression that he took on projects that he was passionate for and wasn’t taking a job merely for the money. There are a few distinct aspects in his films that might give you the heads up that it’s a Carpenter movie if you already didn’t know. These include angry mobs, very manly/macho leading characters, and the possibility that he wrote some if not all of the musical score. The only downside I can possibly find in Mr. Carpenter’s work is that he hasn’t made as many movies as I had hoped. He took almost a decade off from directing in between his films “Ghost of Mars” and “The Ward”. Now that he came out with (“The Ward) in 2010, perhaps he has found the creative spark to direct again!

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920)

One of the earliest films about a mad scientist, “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” was a popular choice for Hollywood. Seven different variations were produced between 1908 and 1941 alone. The version I watched was filmed in 1920 and starred John Barrymore. This is a classic silent film where most of the dialogue that the characters say is never revealed; only the “most know” parts are shared with the audience. This means that there is plenty of overacting, intense eye emoting, and overall silliness when compared to acting today. Another aspect of watching a film that is almost 100 years old are the names of various objects or institutions; for example, Dr. Jekyll runs a human repair shop, not a clinic!

“Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” is the classic story of a kindly doctor who is mocked by Sir George Carew, his future father-in-law, who insists that Dr. Jekyll spends too much time helping others and not enough time for himself. After an encounter at a dance hall, Dr. Jekyll comes to believe that Sir Carew was right. He then locks himself in his lab until he develops a potion that will split his good and evil sides in two. The potion works and he turns into Mr. Hyde. When he is Mr. Hyde, he goes to bars and opium dens and does the things that he could not allow Dr. Jekyll to ever try. The problem like any drug is that the side effects kick in and suddenly his evil side becomes more apparent when he turns back in Dr. Jekyll. It becomes an inner battle between Jekyll and Hyde that will ultimately affect his dear fiancée in the end.

House on Haunted Hill (1999)

Do you know who makes a great mad scientist? Jeffrey Combs! He was great on the "Re-animator" series and he's now/was freaky as Dr. Richard Benjamin Vannacuttin the remake of "House on Haunted Hill". Granted, this is more of ghost story than one about a mad scientist but I think it counts because while he was alive, Dr. Vannacutt performed hideous experiments and torture upon the mental patients in his care. And after their uprising, Dr. Vannacutt became one badass ghost straight from a Tool music video.

Simple synopsis 

Stephen Price is throwing a party for his wife Evelyn. They thoroughly hate each other and would love to find a way to kill the other, so Stephen holds the party at a condemned insane asylum and invites his choice of guests and not hers. But a group of unassociated individuals are arrive, a group that neither Stephen or Evelyn even know. Stephen continues with his party plan and explains that whoever stays the night wins $1,000,000 dollars. Once inside, the party is trapped and the spirit if Dr. Vannacutt begins to play with the guests. Or is it just an elaborate scheme of Stephen's to scare his wife to death?

Favorite part - I love the whole movie! But the opening scene with Stephen is a great way to start a movie!

Beyond Re-Animator (2003)

Jeffrey Combs is back as my personal favorite mad scientist of all time, Dr. Herbert West! “Beyond Re-Animator” is the third movie involving this arrogant but brilliant “Frankenstein” style scientist, this time serving time in prison for his crimes against humanity, but dead and alive. Directed by Brian Yuzna, it comes at no surprise that the movie was filmed and produced in Spain, including a cast of supporting local actors. I was lucky enough to first see this movie at the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival in 2003, and I was one of many who loved how Dr. Herbert’s new assistant was lovingly named Dr. Howard Phillips. Like “Dagon”, this was the perfect place to see this movie, surrounded by fans who loved every Lovecraft reference and forgave every cheesy moment.

Young Howie watches his sister get killed by a runaway corpse that wandered away from a local cemetery after being reanimated by Dr. Herbert West. Finding a single syringe of Dr. West’s reanimation solution, Howie internally decides to dedicate his life into becoming Dr. Herbert’s assistant. Thirteen years later Howie is now a young physician and is now called Dr. Phillips. He becomes the resident physician at the prison that Dr. West is serving time in. Howie meets Dr. West when one of the inmates has a heart attack; Howie gives West his old syringe and they try the 13 year old solution on the dead inmate. It works and he comes back but not before wounding a guard and attracting the attention of the Warden. Howie also attracts the attention of a visiting reporter, Laura Olney.

During his time in prison, Dr. West has continued his research and has developed a way to extract “NPE” (Nano-Plasmic-Energy) from the living. With this energy and the solution, the dead that are brought back appear normal and retain their memories and regular motor functions. This of course only causes more problems when chaos breaks out in the prison, including the death of the Warden who has the “NPE” of a rat infused into him. The colorful cast of inmates take full advantage of the chaos and reanimation solution, and the ending is a fun chaotic mess. During the buildup to the big climax, Laura is killed (for a second time), Howie goes insane, and Dr. West escapes into the world to continue his research (aka cause trouble) once again.

Favorite moment – One of the inmates reminds me of Tom Savini and after he dies and is brought back, he runs around the prison missing his lower half. He hates Dr. West for killing his pet rat and tries to get his revenge. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=un02Tpqwy5U

Human Centipede (2010)

There was a lot of excitement and curiosity leading up the original “Human Centipede”, a movie about a mad German scientist who kidnaps two lost Americans seeking help on his doorstep. They become a part of his experiment that ultimately fails…just like the movie itself. This is a perfect example of a novel new idea that wasn’t thought through and was poorly executed. There is nothing frightening or gruesome to see nor is there anything of the sort that occurs off camera. You leave the film thinking “I’m glad that didn’t happen to me” but you don’t know enough about the victims to feel sorry that it happened to them. The mad scientist isn’t horribly terrifying either. All this movie accomplishes is furthering the recent stereotype that Europe is filled with crazy, sadistic individuals that like to torment tourists.

Watch the preview, it's all you need!

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IX8fKLjC__c