John Carpenter makes a welcome return to my list with the haunting tale of Antonio Bay and the people who live there. This is a traditional ghost story from the same people that created the original Halloween movie with John Carpenter directing and produced by Debra Hill and written by the two of them combined. It starred many from the Halloween movie and those close to either director or producer. The actors being Adrienne Barbeau, Jamie Lee Curtis, John Houseman, Janet Leigh, Tom Atkins and Nancy Loomis. I won’t break down the connections here but I’ll be happy to if requested in the comments. Music was also created and produced by John Carpenter. The film itself had a relatively small budget on the back of the success of Halloween and with a production budget of $1.1m which was blown away with the successful return of $21.3m from the box office. It could be described as the 80s horrors even though it only just sneaked in in the first year, it did however continue to have success and interest over the years until a remake was made for the modern era in 2005 but that particular incarnation was not very well received. Critically this one was slightly better received but not as highly enjoyed as myself with IMDb giving it a 6.8 out of 10 and Rotten Tomatoes going slightly higher with 74%. Shall I move onto the plot.
In the coastal town of Antonio Bay which is in Northern California they're about to celebrate their 100th anniversary when paranormal activity starts to happen every night at midnight. The town priest named Malone discovers his grandfather's diary at the church where he was a priest also, when some masonry falls off the wall to reveal the Journal behind. The date of the journal is 1880 and it recalls when the six founders of Antonio Bay including his Grandfather or maybe his Great Grandfather deliberately sank a Clipper ship called the Elizabeth Dane. The ship was captained by Blake who was rich but suffering from leprosy so was looking to establish a colony close to the bay. The founders didn’t want that to happen so sunk the boat and then stole Blakes gold to help establish Antonio Bay. Every time everything goes nuts there is a fog around. A fog that conceals a ghostly vessel and its crew who are back to take revenge on the town that caused their downfall. Weird things keep happening with an escalation of activity each time and when people start turning up dead, something needs to be organised to stop the town from being destroyed completely.
This movie is exactly what it says on the tin as a ghost story with a very violent crew of pi**ed off ghosts riding on the back of a ghost ship that rocks into town seeking revenge from anyone in its way. Death has come to the town in the shape of ghostly black figures with red glowing eyes and hooks, cutlasses and knives. This is a spooky steady paced movie before it moves up through the gears and becomes your typical horror movie of tension and risk of death at every turn. A child trapped in a house with an old lady sitter. A couple in a car, a radio presenter at the top of a disused lighthouse, a priest in his church and the rest of the town attending a celebration of the century of their existence. This is a clever movie and really highlights the talent that John Carpenter had. He was my idol as a director and around that time he could do no wrong. His early career saw some fantastic movies and there will be more appearing on here also. The way he draws tension from the suspense he creates in his stories and the use of music and sounds which has been copied so many times in spooky scary movies thereafter. He was a pioneer with movies, but in recent years he has blotted his copy book with a dud movie too many. He does not appear to be getting the gigs that he used to, there isn’t the invites to direct new movies hence a return to the well of Halloween which had run dry many years before. His best work came when he was scrambling for cash which made his invented juices work so much harder which made some classics just like this one. This has not aged as well as some of his other works but this still stands many of the tests of time. If you have never seen it before, Should you watch it? Yes – simple as that.
Next up on the list is a superhero movie and I have really grown out of superhero movies, but this one I couldn’t ignore as the series is just too good…
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