"Director: John Carpenter"

• Halloween 1-5 Collection | DVD | (15/10/2012) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Director John Carpenter changed the shape of terror forever with the immortal story of babysitter Laurie Strode, Dr. Sam Loomis and the night that Michael Myers came home. Relive the horror with this 5 film collection. Halloween Fifteen years ago, Michael Myers brutally massacred his sister. Now, after escaping from a mental hospital, he's back to relive his grisly crime again, and again... and again. Starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Donald Pleasence, this is where the nightmate begins. ...

• Vampires | Blu Ray | (30/01/2017) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  The first few minutes of John Carpenter's Vampires--in which James Woods' vampire killer leads a dawn raid on a New Mexico "goon nest" of bloodsuckers--not only suggests a horror movie that refuses to pull its punches, but even evokes some of the more disturbing dream-memories of American Westerns. Muscular and uncompromising, the sequence suggests a new Carpenter classic unravelling before one's eyes. Things don't quite work out that way, but this is still a film to reckon with. There are a few serious (and surprising) misjudgements on the director's part, particularly a mishandling of Sheryl Lee's role as a prostitute poisoned by the bite of a "master vampire" (who pretty much wiped out Woods' team of goon terminators). But aside from some weaknesses, the action is jolting, the suggested complicity of the Catholic Church in destroying monsters is provocative, and the traces of Howard Hawks' continuing influence on Carpenter's storytelling are in evidence. -- Tom Keogh, Amazon.com

• The Thing | Blu Ray | (01/12/2008) from £7.06   |  Saving you £12.93 (183.14%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Director John Carpenter and special makeup effects master Rob Bottin teamed up for this 1982 remake of the 1951 science fiction classic The Thing from Another World, and the result is a mixed blessing. It's got moments of highly effective terror and spine-tingling suspense, but it's mostly a showcase for some of the goriest and most horrifically grotesque makeup effects ever created for a movie. With such highlights as a dog that splits open and blossoms into something indescribably gruesome, this is the kind of movie for die-hard horror fans and anyone who slows down to stare at fatal traffic accidents. On those terms, however, it's hard not to be impressed by the movie's wild and wacky freak show. It all begins when scientists at an arctic research station discover an alien spacecraft under the thick ice, and thaw out the alien body found aboard. What they don't know is that the alien can assume any human form, and before long the scientists can't tell who's real and who's a deadly alien threat. Kurt Russell leads the battle against the terrifying intruder, and the supporting cast includes Richard Masur, Richard Dysart, Donald Moffat, and Wilford Brimley. They're all playing standard characters who are neglected by the mechanistic screenplay (based on the classic sci-fi story "Who Goes There?" by John W. Campbell), but Carpenter's emphasis is clearly on the gross-out effects and escalating tension. If you've got the stomach for it (and let's face it, there's a big audience for eerie gore), this is a thrill ride you won't want to miss. --Jeff Shannon

• They Live | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Nada (Roddy Piper) arrives in Los Angeles, finds work on a construction site and a bed in a homeless camp. He notices the extent to which the people around him seem obsessed with television and obtaining material wealth, and one night, when he stumbles ac

• Halloween | DVD | (01/01/1998) from £20.71   |  Saving you £-0.73 (N/A%)   |  RRP £16.99

  It was a cold Halloween night in 1963 when six year old Michael Myers brutally murdered his 17-year-old sister. Fifteen years later he escapes from prison and returns home...

• Big Trouble in Little China -- Two-Disc Special Edition | DVD | (06/05/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £22.99

  Trying to explain the cult appeal of John Carpenter's Big Trouble in Little China to the uninitiated is no easy task. The plot in a nutshell follows lorry driver Jack Burton (Kurt Russell) into San Francisco's Chinatown, where he's embroiled in street gang warfare over the mythical/magical intentions of would-be god David Lo Pan. There are wire-fu fight scenes, a floating eyeball and monsters from other dimensions. Quite simply it belongs to a genre of its own. Carpenter was drawing on years of chop-socky Eastern cinema tradition, which, at the time of the film's first release in 1986, was regrettably lost on a general audience. Predictably, it bombed. But now that Jackie Chan and Jet Li have made it big in the West, and Hong Kong cinema has spread its influence across Hollywood, it's much, much easier to enjoy this film's happy-go-lucky cocktail of influences. Russell's cocky anti-hero is easy to cheer on as he "experiences some very unreasonable things" blundering from one fight to another, and lusts after the gorgeously green-eyed Kim Cattrall. The script is peppered with countless memorable lines, too ("It's all in the reflexes"). Originally outlined as a sequel to the equally obscure Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension, Big Trouble is a bona fide cult cinema delight. Jack sums up the day's reactions perfectly, "China is here? I don't even know what the Hell that means!". On the DVD: Big Trouble in Little China is released as a special edition two-disc set in its full unedited form. Some real effort has been put into both discs' animated menus, and the film itself is terrific in 2.35:1 and 5.1 (or DTS). The commentary by Carpenter and Russell may not be as fresh as their chat on The Thing, but clearly they both retain an enormous affection for the film. There are eight deleted scenes (some of which are expansions of existing scenes), plus a separate extended ending which was edited out for the right reasons. You'll also find a seven-minute featurette from the time of release, a 13-minute interview with FX guru Richard Edlund, a gallery of 200 photos, 25 pages of production notes and magazine articles from American Cinematographer and Cinefex. Best of all for real entertainment value is a music video with Carpenter and crew (the Coupe de Villes) coping with video FX and 80s hair-dos.--Paul Tonks

• They Live | DVD | (22/09/2008) from £49.99   |  Saving you £-37.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  John Nada (Piper) is a struggling labourer who drifts into town and luckily scores a job at a construction site. Discovering a box of sunglasses Nada swipes a pair and is shocked to find what he can see through them; billboards demand citizens 'Eat' or 'Sleep' TV shows spout orders at him and some people look rather less than human.

• Vampires / Ghosts Of Mars | Blu Ray | (07/05/2018) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Double pack with two of John Carpenter's classic films Vampires and Ghosts of Mars! VAMPIRES: John Carpenter directs this horror based on the novel by John Steakley. When Jack Crow (James Woods)'s team of mercenary vampire hunters is slaughtered by the master vampire Valek (Thomas Ian Griffith), he teams up with Montoya (Daniel Baldwin) to fight back. Their only link to Valek is the beautiful, psychic prostitute Katrina (Sheryl Lee), and with her help they set out to confront the ultimate evil. FROM THE MASTER OF TERROR COMES A NEW BREED OF EVIL. James Woods leads a band of ruthless vampire hunters in a blood-soaked battle against the undead. Also starring Sheryl Lee, Daniel Baldwin and Maximillian Schell, Carpenter crafts a tense, brutal and action-packed horror/western crossover. GHOSTS OF MARS: Sci-fi feature directed by John Carpenter and starring Ice Cube, Natasha Henstridge and Jason Statham. The year is 2176 and Mars has been colonised by Earth, but the spirits of the old planet still continue to cause trouble. When a police team travels to a distant Martian mining outpost in search of the mass murder suspect Desolation Williams (Ice Cube), they find the place populated mostly by headless corpses. Williams is discovered locked in the town jail, and when the team is attacked by a mob of miners possessed by Martian spirits, it seems the jail might be the safest place for them all to be. IT'S THEIR PLANET. WE ARE THE ALIENS. John Carpenter blends horror and sci-fi in this action adventure set on Mars in the year 2176 as Martian police battle supernatural forces unleashed by a deep mining facility.

• Dark Star | Blu Ray | (28/02/2011) from £8.29   |  Saving you £7.70 (92.88%)   |  RRP £15.99

  The crew of the spaceship Dark Star are on a 20-year mission to destroy unstable planets and make way for future colonisation by using smart bombs which zoom off cheerfully to do their duty. But unlike the orderly inhabitants of Star Trek's Enterprise, the nerves of this crew are becoming frayed to the point of psychosis. Their captain has been killed by a radiation leak that also destroyed their toilet paper. "Don't give me any of that 'Intelligent Life' stuff", says Commander Doolittle when presented with the possibility of alien life, "Find me something I can blow up". When an asteroid storm causes a malfunction, Bomb Number 20 (the most cheerful character in the film) has to be repeatedly talked out of exploding prematurely, each time becoming more and more peevish, until they have to teach him phenomenology to make him doubt his existence. And the film's apocalyptic ending, lifted almost wholly from Ray Bradbury's short story "Kaleidoscope" has the remaining crew drifting away from each other in space, each to a suitably absurd end. Absurd, surreal and very funny. John Carpenter once described Dark Star as "Waiting for Godot in space". Made at a cost of practically nothing, the film's effects are nevertheless impressive and, along with the number of ideas crammed into its 83 minutes, ought to shame makers of science fiction films costing hundreds of times more. --Jim Gay

• The Thing Steelbook | Blu Ray | (23/10/2017) from £26.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Director John Carpenter and special makeup effects master Rob Bottin teamed up for this 1982 remake of the 1951 science fiction classic The Thing from Another World, and the result is a mixed blessing. It's got moments of highly effective terror and spine-tingling suspense, but it's mostly a showcase for some of the goriest and most horrifically grotesque makeup effects ever created for a movie. With such highlights as a dog that splits open and blossoms into something indescribably gruesome, this is the kind of movie for die-hard horror fans and anyone who slows down to stare at fatal traffic accidents. On those terms, however, it's hard not to be impressed by the movie's wild and wacky freak show. It all begins when scientists at an arctic research station discover an alien spacecraft under the thick ice, and thaw out the alien body found aboard. What they don't know is that the alien can assume any human form, and before long the scientists can't tell who's real and who's a deadly alien threat. Kurt Russell leads the battle against the terrifying intruder, and the supporting cast includes Richard Masur, Richard Dysart, Donald Moffat, and Wilford Brimley. They're all playing standard characters who are neglected by the mechanistic screenplay (based on the classic sci-fi story "Who Goes There?" by John W. Campbell), but Carpenter's emphasis is clearly on the gross-out effects and escalating tension. If you've got the stomach for it (and let's face it, there's a big audience for eerie gore), this is a thrill ride you won't want to miss. --Jeff Shannon

• Halloween Steelbook Edition: 35th Anniversary | Blu Ray | (21/10/2013) from £21.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Halloween: 35th Anniversary - Limited Edition Steelbook. For this very special release Anchor Bay went back to the vaults to present this legendary terror classic as never before including creating an all-new HD transfer personally supervised by the film's original cinematographer Academy-Award nominee Dean Cundey (Who Framed Roger Rabbit Apollo 13 the Back to the Future trilogy) a new 7.1 audio mix (as well as the original mono audio) a brand-new feature length audio commentary by writer/director John Carpenter and star Jamie Lee Curtis an all-new bonus feature with Ms. Curtis as well as selected legacy bonus features from previous ABE releases. Available in a collectible limited-edition steelbook package. Fifteen years ago Michael Myers brutally massacred his sister. Now after escaping from a mental hospital he's back to relive his grisly crime again and again... and again.

• Halloween | Blu Ray | (21/10/2013) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Halloween is as pure and undiluted as its title. In the small town of Haddonfield, Illinois, a teenage baby sitter tries to survive a Halloween night of relentless terror, during which a knife-wielding maniac goes after the town's hormonally charged youths. Director John Carpenter takes this simple situation and orchestrates a superbly mounted symphony of horrors. It's a movie much scarier for its dark spaces and ominous camera movements than for its explicit bloodletting (which is actually minimal). Composed by Carpenter himself, the movie's freaky music sets the tone; and his script (cowritten with Debra Hill) is laced with references to other horror pictures, especially Psycho. The baby sitter is played by Jamie Lee Curtis, the real-life daughter of Psycho victim Janet Leigh; and the obsessed policeman played by Donald Pleasence is named Sam Loomis, after John Gavin's character in Psycho. In the end, though, Halloween stands on its own as an uncannily frightening experience--it's one of those movies that had audiences literally jumping out of their seats and shouting at the screen. ("No! Don't drop that knife!") Produced on a low budget, the picture turned a monster profit, and spawned many sequels, none of which approached the 1978 original. Curtis returned for two more instalments: 1981's dismal Halloween II, which picked up the story the day after the unfortunate events, and 1998's occasionally gripping Halloween H20, which proved the former baby sitter was still haunted after 20 years. --Robert Horton

• Halloween | Blu Ray | (15/10/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  It was a cold Halloween night in 1963 when six year old Michael Myers brutally murdered his 17-year-old sister. Fifteen years later he escapes from prison and returns home...

• They Live | DVD | (21/10/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  John Nada (Piper) is a struggling labourer who drifts into town and luckily scores a job at a construction site. Discovering a box of sunglasses Nada swipes a pair and is shocked to find what he can see through them; billboards demand citizens 'Eat' or 'Sleep' TV shows spout orders at him and some people look rather less than human...

• Elvis | DVD | (16/08/2010) from £9.70   |  Saving you £6.29 (39.30%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Just two years after Elvis Presley passed away Kurt Russell brought him back to life in the original biopic about the King of Rock n Roll. Released through ABC in 1979 Elvis marked the first time director John Carpenter and actor Kurt Russell would work together in what would become a legendary pairing in film history (Escape From New York Big Trouble In Little China The Thing and Escape From L.A.). Tracing Presleys life from his impoverished childhood to his meteoric rise to stardom to his triumphant return to Las Vegas Elvis features Shelley Winters (Gladys Presley) Season Hubley (Priscilla Presley) Bing Russell (Kurts real-life father as Vernon Presley) Pat Hingle (Colonel Tom Parker) Joe Mantegna (Memphis Mafia member Joe Esposito) and Ed Begley Jr. (drummer D.J. Fontana) in an all-star supporting cast for an effort that garnered numerous Emmy nominations including Outstanding Lead Actor for Russell. Restored From The Original Film Elements.

• Christine | DVD | (07/03/2005) from £25.00   |  Saving you £-12.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Hell hath no Fury...like Christine. She was born in Detroit on an automobile assembly line. But she is no ordinary automobile. Deep within her chassis lives an unholy presence. She is Christine a red and white 1958 Plymouth Fury whose unique standard equipment includes an evil indestructible vengeance that will destroy anyone in her way. She seduces 17-year old Arnie Cunningham (Keith Gordon) who becomes consumed with passion for her sleek rounded chrome-laden body. She demands

• Prince Of Darkness | DVD | (21/10/2002) from £9.98   |  Saving you £9.00 (128.76%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Deep in the crypt of an old church absolute evil has been lurking in the form of the Sleeper a sinister green liquid that contains the essence of the Devil himself. Discovered by a priest this liquid is investigated by physics experts in the hope that science will help fight the battle against evil but their experiments unwittingly set Satan free...

• John Carpenter's Vampires / John Carpenter's Vampires: Los Muertos / Vampires: The Turning | DVD | (27/06/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £22.99

  Vampires: ""Forget everything you've ever heard about vampires"" warns Jack Crow (James Woods) the leader of Team Crow a relentless group of mercenary vampire slayers. When master Vampire Valek (Thomas Ian Griffith) decimates Jack's entire team Crow and the sole team survivor Montoya (Daniel Baldwin) set out in pursuit. Breaking all the rules Crow and Montoya take one of Valek's victims hostage. The beautiful prostitute (Sheryl Lee) is their sole psychic link to Valek a

• The Thing (Double Pack Including Original) | DVD | (26/03/2012) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £22.99

  The Thing (1982)Horror-meister John Carpenter (Halloween, Escape from New York) teams Kurt Russell's outstanding performance with incredible visuals to build this chilling version of the classic The Thing. In the winter of 1982, a twelve-man research team at a remote Antarctic research station discovers an alien buried in the snow for over 100,000 years. Once unfrozen, the form-changing alien wreaks havoc, creates terror and becomes one of them.The Thing (2011)Paleontologist Kate Lloyd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) joins a Norwegian scientific team in Antarctica that has discovered an extraterrestrial ship buried in the ice, and an organism that seems to have died in the crash. When an experiment frees the alien, a shape-shifting creature with the ability to turn itself into a perfect replica of any living being, Kate must join the crew's pilot, Carter (Joel Edgerton), to keep it from killing them off one at a time. Paranoia soon spreads like an epidemic as they're infected, one by one, and a thrilling race for survival begins...The Thing is a prelude to John Carpenter's classic 1982 film of the same name.

• Films That Define A Decade: '80s | Blu Ray | (22/08/2016) from £15.00   |  Saving you £-1.54 (-11.40%)   |  RRP £13.46

  The excessive ˜80s... where everyone had huge hairdos and massive shoulder pads, mobile phones were the size of bricks and the movies were larger than life. We had John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd starring as The Blues Brothers; An American Werewolf in London took horror to new heights; a young Al Pacino thrilled as the iconic Scarface; and Kurt Russell challenged shape-shifting aliens in The Thing.