John Carpenters Apocalypse Trilogy

The Thing is typically held as the best it seems and the other 2 get less love.

How do you feel about the 3 films? For me the thing is definetly the best, but I'd say prince of Darkness is almost as good and certainly unique.

In the mouth of madness is the weakest as I feel it starts to fall apart after Sam Neil reaches hobbes end.

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  1. 11 months ago
    Anonymous

    It amazes me how poorly filmed it was in the mouth of madness compared to the thing. Haven't seen prince of darkness yet

    • 11 months ago
      Anonymous

      Yeah I'm not sure why that is. In the mouth of madness really disappointed me. Carpenter may have lost his fire by then.

      Prince of Darkness is better shot, and it was a movie carpenter did because he wanted no studio interference. It has a smaller budget but uses it well and has some pretty wild ideas. Definetly give it a watch. Donald Pleasance gives a pretty good performance

      • 11 months ago
        Anonymous

        >In the mouth of madness really disappointed me. Carpenter may have lost his fire by then.
        It felt like he stopped giving a shit about film in general halfway through the movie or something.

    • 11 months ago
      Anonymous

      I remember Carpenter stated at one point that The Thing had an unprecedented production schedule in which him and his crew had a chance to plan things more elaborately; storyboard, script revisions, all that stuff, more than any of his other films. That could explain why it was shot so well, but i wouldn't discount the fact that Carpenter lost it after The Thing flopped, just like what other anon said.

      • 11 months ago
        Anonymous

        Yes, I agree. Carpenter declared that his career would be different if the thing had been successful.I think so too, if the thing had been successful Carpenter would have to deal with the expectations of the critics and the public with each film.

        • 11 months ago
          Anonymous

          It's probably for the best it didn't do well.
          Carpenter would have hated dealing with studios trying to get him to sign on and then mess with his movies, and critics would have annoyed him

          There is an insane level of detail in the thing though. The scene where windows drops the keys when he sees Bennings getting absorbed leads to the later scene where the blood serum is sabotaged

      • 11 months ago
        Anonymous

        he said directing starman was his "penance" for the Thing bombing. seems pretty cynical about it

    • 11 months ago
      Anonymous

      I really like the story of In the Mouth of Madness but the direction doesn't do it justice. It's a good story badly filmed

      I remember Carpenter stated at one point that The Thing had an unprecedented production schedule in which him and his crew had a chance to plan things more elaborately; storyboard, script revisions, all that stuff, more than any of his other films. That could explain why it was shot so well, but i wouldn't discount the fact that Carpenter lost it after The Thing flopped, just like what other anon said.

      They cut the budget on in the mouth of madness, probably made Carpenter angry
      >They had to shrink the budget from $15 million to $10 million, and one of the big cuts was a third-act sequence that saw the entire town be swallowed up into the book. Writer Michael De Luca instead came up with the idea of the "book paper illusion" that sees Sutter Cane (Jurgen Prochnow) rip himself like a page in a book.

  2. 11 months ago
    Anonymous

    >PrepHole hasn't watched the other two
    I see I'll have to start some dubs meme like the thing has

  3. 11 months ago
    Anonymous

    I really like the story of In the Mouth of Madness but the direction doesn't do it justice. It's a good story badly filmed

    • 11 months ago
      Anonymous

      It's a shame. The movie had something and then it's like it loses it half way through.

  4. 11 months ago
    Anonymous

    Prince of Darkness is too low rent.
    It's about the end of the world but its mostly about people hitting each other with blocks of wood.

    • 11 months ago
      Anonymous

      >Prince of Darkness is too low rent.
      Anon, kino punched you in the face and you missed it

      %3D%3D

    • 11 months ago
      Anonymous

      bet you think Roland Emmerich movies are good

    • 11 months ago
      Anonymous

      it's a bottle episode and a very effective psychological horror movie. you just like epic explosions

  5. 11 months ago
    Anonymous

    Thing is GOAT, Prince of Darkness is kinda cool considering everything, and In the Mouth of Madness is an embarrassment

  6. 11 months ago
    Anonymous

    All Carpenter is mid.

    • 11 months ago
      Anonymous

      >All Carpenter is mid
      Some of it, yes. But no, not all

    • 11 months ago
      Anonymous

      >All Carpenter is mid
      Some of it, yes. But no, not all

      The Thing is one of the best movies ever.

      • 11 months ago
        Anonymous

        It’s a fricking slog.

      • 11 months ago
        Anonymous

        its definitely top 3 horrors of all time

    • 11 months ago
      Anonymous

      nah cuh apocalypse trilogy slaps

    • 11 months ago
      Anonymous

      Dark Star is great, frick off

      • 11 months ago
        Anonymous

        It takes a special kind of joyless person to genuinely dislike Dark Star.

  7. 11 months ago
    Anonymous

    >Pray for Death

  8. 11 months ago
    Anonymous

    I really liked the dream sequences of Prince of Darkness

    • 11 months ago
      Anonymous

      I still wonder if the guy opened the mirror at the end

    • 11 months ago
      Anonymous

      Prince of Darkness in general is really good. It's a shame the lead actor is abysmal, even for a horror movie. I think of Prince of Darkness as an example of how to more effectively accomplish what Event Horizon was going for. Like the idea that hell and the devil are real but that they're not paranormal but scientific and we hadn't discovered them yet. I just think that's a really cool, frightening concept and Prince of Darkness conveys that a lot better than Event Horizon.

      • 11 months ago
        Anonymous

        You can't be talking about the main guy right? He was so bad. Rest of the cast was fine, especially the Asian professor.

        The lead was fine. You just can't handle that much stache

      • 11 months ago
        Anonymous

        I found Darkness okay but also found "The devil is real but it's actually a scientific thing, he's from anti matter universe and Jesus is some alien" kinda silly

        • 11 months ago
          Anonymous

          That's fair but it's no sillier than the conventional explanation of Jesus and the Devil lol.

    • 11 months ago
      Anonymous

      >down in the park where the madmen meet the machines play kill by numbers
      >down in the park with a friend called five...

  9. 11 months ago
    Anonymous

    Am I autistic for hating the Thing because of how hopeless it felt. Once it was revealed that the Thing's FRICKING BLOOD was sentient and able to reproduce, all hope is lost and the rest of the movie just feels pointless. What's the point of watching a movie when death is guaranteed. There's no fricking winning when it can just keep reproducing over and over from a single fricking blood cell I guess

    • 11 months ago
      Anonymous

      I get that to some extent. The film is pretty nihilistic. The ending absolutely is since Kurt Russell flat out says it doesn't matter if they live, they've gotta blow up the base and keep the thing from getting found.

      If you want the "happy" version, give the 50s one a watch. The alien is not a shape shifter but the concept of it is still pretty intense while the ending is much less bleak.

      That said, I like Carpenters version, it is a film I come back to time and again because of the level of detail

      • 11 months ago
        Anonymous

        Honestly I'm even okay with bad endings where everyone dies, as long as they have a fricking shot.

        But I didn't even know there was a 50s version, I might watch it for kicks

        • 11 months ago
          Anonymous

          Fwiw Carpenter loved the 50s one
          Just be prepared for the alien to look more like Frankenstein

    • 11 months ago
      Anonymous

      https://i.imgur.com/pjYaLWo.jpg

      I get that to some extent. The film is pretty nihilistic. The ending absolutely is since Kurt Russell flat out says it doesn't matter if they live, they've gotta blow up the base and keep the thing from getting found.

      If you want the "happy" version, give the 50s one a watch. The alien is not a shape shifter but the concept of it is still pretty intense while the ending is much less bleak.

      That said, I like Carpenters version, it is a film I come back to time and again because of the level of detail

      I think carpenter stated in the movie commentary that it can't actually take anything over from a single cell, they just needed some kind of sequence to deminstrate how the thing assimilates.

    • 11 months ago
      Anonymous

      That's what caused Blair to freak out and start break equipment and threatening people. But I like to think that it was just a theory and uncertain at that point and Blair overreacted. That it still needed to rip through your clothing or do something more obvious to assimilate someone and it needed far more mass as well, like at least a dog for a human. Otherwise, there really was no point for it to ever reveal itself by attacking anyone. It didn't need to attack the other dogs when it could have just slipped some cells into their food or licked them.

      • 11 months ago
        Anonymous

        >Otherwise, there really was no point for it to ever reveal itself by attacking anyone. It didn't need to attack the other dogs when it could have just slipped some cells into their food or licked them.
        Didn't think abou that
        But then the fact that the people start eating out of cans means the thing can't infect their food so forced assimilation makes sense

      • 11 months ago
        Anonymous

        >Blair
        When did he become a thing? Was it before or after the scene where he has the rope tied up in a noose?

        • 11 months ago
          Anonymous

          Not sure, but I do think it was Palmer that was assimilated first by the dog

          • 11 months ago
            Anonymous

            I always thought it was Norris
            The shadow on the wall when the dog goes into the room looks like him not palmer. Plus palmer is watching a show that night with childs but doesn't try to turn him

            • 11 months ago
              Anonymous

              The main evidence is that it's Palmer's room/bed from the layout

              • 11 months ago
                Anonymous

                I disagree with your image anon. Doesn't palmer wear the same vest thing from the beginning later? If he were turned first thing those clothes wouldve been shredded.

                Maybe I'm misremembering his outfits but I'm pretty sure it's like a cut off green vest

              • 11 months ago
                Anonymous

                Well, that's definitely his room and his bed, there's many shots you can see that all the details of extinguishers, cans, people coming out of rooms, where the dog looks into and where it goes, etc are correct. You see Palmer in the rec room in his vest, then a few scenes later the dog goes into the room with the shadow, and the next time you see Palmer is much later and he's wearing his jammies watching the show with Childs. Who knows why he didn't assimilate him, maybe they have a cool-down time.

              • 11 months ago
                Anonymous

                >he's wearing his jammies
                Yeah but then later during the scene where he outs himself as a thing isn't he wearing the vest again?

              • 11 months ago
                Anonymous

                Here is the scene where the dog-thing is attacking the other dogs in the Kennel. Mac pulls the alarm and everyone comes out of their rooms, you can see Palmer came out of that room and Childs is in there too.

              • 11 months ago
                Anonymous

                I'm not talking rooms now I'm talking clothes. Here's palmer before the dog shadow scene note the denim vest with the patch

              • 11 months ago
                Anonymous

                Dog went into the room with someone alone in there, it was Palmer's room and his bed is on that side where the shadow was. Clothes are inconsequential compared to that. He could have been wearing literally anything while in his room.

              • 11 months ago
                Anonymous

                Yeah but why would he go to his room to change his clothes during the day?
                And clothes do matter anon. Kurt Russell explicitly mentions a shredded pair of long John's

                That doesn't make sense
                And again the shadow looks more like Norris than palmer

              • 11 months ago
                Anonymous

                It's Norris, same exact sillouhette.

              • 11 months ago
                Anonymous

                Yeah but why would he go to his room to change his clothes during the day?
                And clothes do matter anon. Kurt Russell explicitly mentions a shredded pair of long John's

                That doesn't make sense
                And again the shadow looks more like Norris than palmer

                It's literally not Norris nor Palmer since it was stuntman Dick Warlock sitting there during the scene specifically so you couldn't base it on the silhouette. However, for the third time, it is Palmer's room and bed. Therefore, it is Palmer. And no, the clothes don't matter since you have no clue what he was wearing in there and he can change his clothes whenever he wants, that's not evidence. You have no evidence it was Norris, and Norris was also still wearing his same grey sweater with dark undershirt before and after.

              • 11 months ago
                Anonymous

                https://i.imgur.com/T9QCZtO.jpg

                I'm not talking rooms now I'm talking clothes. Here's palmer before the dog shadow scene note the denim vest with the patch

                Here's where he's outed.
                Same denim vest. Not the best pic but you can see the patch

                So palmer was taken later based on that as the thing still had the vest to wear.
                I think palmer got changed later. When I don't know but it seems it was someone else that got taken

      • 11 months ago
        Anonymous

        I like how The Thing managed to be a Lovecraftian story in Hollywood movie framework. Blair, like some of Lovecraft's characters went berserk by the hopelessness of it, while MacReady is the classic Hollywood protagonist who do whatever it takes to defeat it.

  10. 11 months ago
    Anonymous

    IM WATCHING THE THING ON TUBI RIGHT NOW

    • 11 months ago
      Anonymous

      Years ago PrepHole used to stream The Thing whenever a thread about it is made. It's always nice seeing anons who never watched the film before ended up liking it when they tuned in.

      • 11 months ago
        Anonymous

        I showed it to my film crazy gf and she thought it was boring. She loved Alien though and rightly declared it the best after watching all four films so she has SOME taste.

    • 11 months ago
      Anonymous

      I did that earlier tonight. It's still good.

      I'm starting to think tubing is better than every other app

  11. 11 months ago
    Anonymous

    In the Mouth of Madness is great. Don't understand people suddenly shitting on it ITT.

    • 11 months ago
      Anonymous

      Tell me why you like it? I really liked it until they went to go find Kane. Then it went down hill

      • 11 months ago
        Anonymous

        I feel the same way. When he arrives at the town of Kane, everything there feels wasted and something silly

      • 11 months ago
        Anonymous

        The entire "things aren't going right in the world but we won't say/show exactly what, why or how" feeling is great. After going to the town has great stuff too. The initial car trip, the old lady monster. What's her name after being corrupted and contorting around. All the stuff trying to get back to civilisation. The reveal of the "In the Mouth of Madness" poster having Sam Neill's face on it which means in the earlier "alleyway" scenes where he peeks behind the torn poster he was looking directly at his own face is cool and adds to the weird uncertainty over the nature of reality in the movie.

    • 11 months ago
      Anonymous

      Prince of Darkness has a novel premise and atmosphere carried hard by the soundtrack.
      In The Mouth of Madness is one of the best Lovecraftian movies there is despite not being an adaptation.

      Yeah I've never seen these perspectives on it before.

      https://i.imgur.com/bu0mxSP.jpg

      The Thing speaks for itself.
      Prince of Darkness I found a bit of slog. Need a rewatch.
      In the Mouth of Madness is great, don't get the hate at all, one of his best.
      The Thing > Madness > Darkness

      This is my ranking as well.

  12. 11 months ago
    Anonymous

    I really liked Prince of darkness, one of his best scores if you're into that, and overall very atmospheric. Decent performances and characters too.

    • 11 months ago
      Anonymous

      You can't be talking about the main guy right? He was so bad. Rest of the cast was fine, especially the Asian professor.

  13. 11 months ago
    Anonymous

    Prince of Darkness is peak depressed Carpenter. The last priest who can guard the cylinder dies at the beginning, it's over before it even begins. And then people literally collapse into themselves. Actually I see the parallels to Thing now with the alien being inherently unbeatable and all the body gore.

    Haven't seen Mouth of Madness yet.

  14. 11 months ago
    Anonymous

    My favorite Carpenter moment

  15. 11 months ago
    Anonymous

    How do you rank them?

    For me it's Thing > Prince > Mouth

    • 11 months ago
      Anonymous

      That's how I rank them as well.
      The thing has the best effects, best cast, and is the most complete film

      Prince is just so different from everything else because of the quantum physics

      Mouth just flounders

    • 11 months ago
      Anonymous

      Same ranking but it's a close race.

  16. 11 months ago
    Anonymous

    The Thing speaks for itself.
    Prince of Darkness I found a bit of slog. Need a rewatch.
    In the Mouth of Madness is great, don't get the hate at all, one of his best.
    The Thing > Madness > Darkness

    • 11 months ago
      Anonymous

      >In the Mouth of Madness is great, don't get the hate at all, one of his best.
      Why do you like it? Help me to understand

      • 11 months ago
        Anonymous

        Different anon but the tone and story are great.It loses it's way a little when they get to Hobb's End but the build up to that and the ending are great.

  17. 11 months ago
    Anonymous

    Did Thing-Norris fake the heart attack or did the Thing just mimic him so accurately that its heart actually gave out and it had to roll with it to keep up the disguise?

    • 11 months ago
      Anonymous

      >just mimic him so accurately that its heart actually gave out
      This what I always assumed and it was an unintended side effect

  18. 11 months ago
    Anonymous

    I watch them religiously during the lead-up to Halloween. I've watched them in every order I can think of. Prince of Darkness is my favorite next to Mouth then The Thing. I love how the fate of the world hinges on the actions of regular joes, especially the pornstache guy. Also that the rest of the world is going batshit as Satan slowly gets released. My only problem with it is the cute retarted chick with glasses just staring at the anti-matter fluid just to get sprayed on it. I get that Satan was probably calling to her but it could've been done better. Mouth is great in its entirety with Sam Neill's descent to madness and the eerie yet comfy atmosphere of Hobb's End as all small towns are. Shame that the eldritch beings at the end were just fast cuts because of how they were made and operated. I also felt that Sutter could've had more of a presence in the real world instead of just being a total pawn, maybe used whatever gift the eldritch beings gave him against them. The Thing speaks for itself, it's great but I just prefer the other two more

    • 11 months ago
      Anonymous

      >just prefer the other two more
      I get that
      Their settings are less cut off

  19. 11 months ago
    Anonymous

    1 > 3 > 2

  20. 11 months ago
    Anonymous

    Prince of Darkness is JC's best movie, but The Thing is a close second and ITMOM is a masterpiece in its own right.

    • 11 months ago
      Anonymous

      just watched Prince of Darkness and it really holds no candle to The Thing, first bit of the movie is shit and then its all really by the numbers basic possession type horror with bugs and spitting fluids and a lot of nothing really happening, i enjoyed it but it really struggles to hold the viewer

  21. 11 months ago
    Anonymous

    I somehow wish that Prince of Darkness was better. The concept is amazing but the scenarios just don't hit hard enough and the hokey science isn't good enough to hold the great ideas together.

  22. 11 months ago
    Anonymous

    All three are absolute kino, people get filtered by mouth of madness

    • 11 months ago
      Anonymous

      I'll probably watch it again sometime
      Was weirdly the comfyest of the 3

  23. 11 months ago
    Anonymous

    prince of darkness is really good, horribly underrated

  24. 11 months ago
    Anonymous

    >*makes himself a sandwich*

  25. 11 months ago
    Anonymous

    The Thing: God tier on all aspects
    PoD: it's amazing how they made a 90 minute movie feel like 3 hours. Cool ideas but that pacing.
    MoM: the directing and camera work doesn't hold up. Very crap movie.

  26. 11 months ago
    Anonymous

    The Thing > In the Mouth of Madness > Prince of Darkness
    All are awesome. I've seen each of those movies so many fricking times and I still want to watch them. They're some of the best horror movies.

  27. 11 months ago
    Anonymous

    The creature in The Thing isn't evil.
    I wouldn't say a single word to The Thing. I would listen to what it had to say. And that's what no one did.

    • 11 months ago
      Anonymous

      If it was willing or able to have that sort of interaction, it would have initiated one itself. It's likely that it was literally incapable of communicating on its own behalf since there wouldn't be any room for its "true" personality in the fake brains of the creatures it imitates. The closest thing it likely has to a real personality or identity are the rudimentary instincts wired at the cellular level that we see in the blood test scene. I doubt it's even truly conscious in a way we would understand.

    • 11 months ago
      Anonymous

      Would The Thing have just fricked off and froze again if he was allowed to escape and Bennings and they didn't burn his ass?

  28. 11 months ago
    Anonymous

    I don't care what any of you pleb homosexuals say, In the Mouth of Madness is a great movie and my favourite of Carpenter's.

    • 11 months ago
      Anonymous

      Agreed. Perfect example of that distinctive 90s horror feel.

  29. 11 months ago
    Anonymous

    I agree. Prince of Darkness is super underrated. That movie absolutely terrified me when I first saw it as a kid.

  30. 11 months ago
    Anonymous

    Sam Neil is the glue that holds MoM together. Prince of Darkness is the polar opposite where it's male lead makes the movie subjectively worse.

  31. 11 months ago
    Anonymous

    >getting filtered by mouth of madness

    • 11 months ago
      Anonymous
  32. 11 months ago
    Anonymous

    Prince of Darkness is underrated. The overall tension of it is a good horror atmosphere and any story where someone accidentally unshackles Satan is kino.

    • 11 months ago
      Anonymous

      >accidentally unshackles satan
      thats barely what happens, they're all there doing research and then one woman stands close to the tube and it hoses her down making her satan's b***h, there was no point where any single character made a mistake other than just being in the wrong place

      • 11 months ago
        Anonymous

        Sounds like accidentally unleashing the devil to me

  33. 11 months ago
    Anonymous

    in the mouth of madness felt a little too ambitious for carpenter
    good flick nevertheless

  34. 11 months ago
    Anonymous

    All 3 are fantastic and some of my favorite movies.

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