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The workman Master of Horror, John Carpenter’s career has been checkered by commercial successes and, in the midst straight-forward meat/potatoes storytelling, some truly unnerving and unsettling filmmaking. None more than his self-named “Apocalypse Trilogy,” all three of which have been punished with box-office disappointment and eventual reassessment. On this episode, editor Keith Fraase joins me and Ted Haycraft to discuss:

- Why Ted, a genre-lover who was buying tickets to these films as they were released in theaters, gave up on Carpenter just before Prince of Darkness;
- how Carpenter’s low-budget productions and his ability to “know where to put the money” led to his box-office successes while his studio, bigger-budget films led to financial disappointment;
- the oddities of Carpenter’s pacing, where dread usurps payoffs or anti-climatic action.

And:

- Whether a lighting effect strategy revealed by Thing DP Dean Cundey ruins or enlivens the film;
- how Prince of Darkness’s schlocky, heady ideas culminates in a series of haunting mirror sequences and shots;
- if Mouth of Madness is the best H.P. Lovecraft adaptation because its meta-apocalypse media ends with its main character realizing he’s a character in a fiction from a malevolent author;
- what is the current state of John Carpenter’s reassessment from film fans, and is it fast or wide enough?

Keith Fraase has edited such narratives features as Knight of Cups, Song to Song, and Chappaquiddick, along with the documentaries Voyage of Time and Long Strange Trip. His most recent edited film is A Mouthful of Air, currently in theaters.

The Thing (1982) is currently streaming on Starz and DirectTV, while a blu-ray is available from both Universal and a Shout! Factory Collector’s Edition. Prince of Darkness is currently streaming on PeacockTV and is available on blu-ray and 4k UHD/BD from Shout! Factory. In the Mouth of Madness is currently available to rent VOD and on a blu-ray Collector’s Edition from (you guessed it) Shout! Factory.