Friday Favorites: John Carpenter

Since I just started reading Troy Howarth’s latest book, Assault on the System: The Nonconformist Cinema of John Carpenter, I thought it might be an interesting (though probably an easy one to call) question to see what your favorite John Carpenter film is. Now, as I said, I know there is going to be a lot of answers for the obvious choice, which would be Halloween (1978), which is fine because you can’t be wrong in what is your personal favorite. I’m sure The Thing (1982) is going to be up there as well. But I am curious to see if there will be any other titles named, such as The Fog (1980) or maybe even In the Mouth of Madness (1995).

Suzanna Leigh – Rest in Peace

Hammer fans have lost another name from the studio we love so much. Suzanna Leigh, who appeared in The Lost Continent (1968) and Lust for a Vampire (1971), passed away yesterday at the age of 72.

The Lost Continent is a favorite of mine since it is just so damn crazy, but so much fun. We had the wonderful opportunity to meet her at a couple of conventions over the years and she was always such a sweet person to talk to. She had plenty of great stories to tell as well. Other genre titles she appeared in are The Deadly Bees (1966) and the cult film Son of Dracula (1974) with Ringo Starr and Harry Nilsson. But probably even scarier than any of those films was probably working with Klaus Kinski in the 1965 film The Pleasure Girls.

Oh yeah…and she worked with some guy named Elvis.

That is one of the real shames of being a fan of a studio that (realistically) stopped making films almost 30 years ago, that the stars that we loved to watch and follow are sadly slowly leaving us. But as I always say, we will always have their movies to remind us of their talent, and their work will continue to give audiences both old and new, entertainment for years to come.  Gone, but never forgotten.

Our thoughts go out to her friends and family during this difficult time.