Lost Film : 'Scream Queen' (1998 / 2002) comes to Blu-Ray

They don't reach back as far as "musique concrète", despite the general consensus presented here being that the "synthwave" movement was kickstarted by a French electronic revolution spearheaded by outfits like Daft Punk and Air. With a backgroud in science and engineering, French composer Edgard Varese experimented with electronic media and became known as "the Father of Electronic Music" (author Henry Miller described him as "the Stratospheric Colossus of Sound"). French composers such as Pierre Schaffer, Pierre Boulez, Pierre Henry and Luc Ferrari would prove instrumental in the development of electronic music.
It's not just French musicians who are relevant to this topic, but also those pioneers who were connected to the French music scene. Nicknamed "the Father of Disco", Italian composer Giorgio Moroder worked with France Gall to create the seminal 'Der Computer Nr. 3' (1968) in Germany. The electronic scene in Germany would produce titans like Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream; Kraftwerk's epic recording 'Autobahn' (1974) inspired the slithering, snakelike, whiplash effect utilised by John Carpenter for the theme to 'Assault On Precinct 13' (1976).


Another key influence mentioned is "techno" music but I think this harkens back to the work of creative genius Juan Atkins of the Belleville Three. Atkins' work as a member of Cybotron was pivotal to the creation of industrial "techno" and came to define the early "Detroit techno" sound adopted in other rustbelt cities across the American midwest. Atkins was behind the music label Metroplex which released inventive "techno" records. It didn't last long as the music quickly became more about the "4 on the floor" beat being expanded exponentially to create endless, all-night dj sets, leading to a rapid distillation of ideas and the creation of braindead, treble-heavy dance music.


John Carpenter was born on January 16th, 1948 in Wilna, New York, but he often identifies himself with the state of Kentucky where he was raised, attending Western Kentucky University before leaving to study film at the USC School Of Cinematic Arts in California. A comic book fan and movie obsessive, Carpenter's a skilled formalist and expert craftsman who helped reshape action cinema for genre audiences in the 1970s and 1980s with a series of blistering siege dramas.
Like fellow capricorn action maestro Walter Hill, Carpenter brings a strong sense of cinema's traditions to the table and a wide-ranging appreciation of classical genre filmmaking, but he's also maintained an interest in experimentation that's at times seen him pushing at the established boundaries of cinematic technique and form. Nowadays he's slowed down considerably, admitting it's hard to commit to a gruelling night shoot or lengthy location filming schedule if you're concurrently battling against age and ill health, but his commitment to supporting cinema remains undiminished.


The aptly named book 'John Carpenter : The Technique Of Terror' sees a selection of experienced film academics taking on various aspects of Carpenter's cinematic universe. It deals with the influence that William Gaines' publications had on Carpenter and his contemporaries, the impact that the old cinema masters have had on his continued development as a filmmaker, and the gothic literature of H P Lovecraft which has informed some of his finest works. It also gives a compelling breakdown of Carpenter's gifts as a working film composer, covering some of his most influential scores and sound designs in fine detail.


A skilled editor who once worked as a staff cutter for father and son producers Albert & Charlie Band, Carpenter brings his own family's formidable musical history into play whenever he makes a film. He's cast popular musicians like Alice Cooper and Ice Cube in his movies (Carpenter and Wes Craven worked in the late '80s for producer Shep Gordon who was Cooper's manager) and worked in the studio with bands like Anthrax and Booker T's MGs.
Among Carpenter's seasoned stock company players, such as Donald Pleasence, George 'Buck' Flower and Peter Jason, leading man Kurt Russell famously portrayed Elvis Presley for him in the tv movie 'Elvis' (1979) after impressing as mass murderer Charles Whitman in 'The Deadly Tower' (1975). But it's Carpenter's own scores for movies that are most impressive among his musical achievements, sometimes co-composed with writing partner Alan Howarth.


Carpenter has been completely honest about the fact that he wanted to make westerns but never got the chance; except in a way, that's exactly what he's done. Some of his finest horror features are clearly designed as westerns, carrying genre archetypes and motifs that have proven to be instantly recognisable to fans of westerns.
I think alot of movie fans know that Carpenter is a rabid fan of Howard Hawks but he's extremely well versed in all aspects of the western and admires many of the genre's greats. Just as Martin Scorsese worships John Ford, Wes Craven admired Richard Fleischer, and Brian De Palma emulates Alfred Hitchcock, Carpenter revels in the cinematic ideas of his hero Hawks.


Dan O'Bannon put together 'Dark Star' (1974) with his friend John Carpenter whom he knew at USC, but it was many years before he began directing his own features. In the meantime, O'Bannon carved out a career as one of the most inventive screenwriters working in fantasy, science-fiction and horror.
O'Bannon's debut feature 'The Return Of The Living Dead' (1985) is set in Louisville, Kentucky. Despite his typically frank admission that he was hell to be around for the cast and crew - angrily clashing on set with the veteran Clu Gulager who threatened to knock him out - O'Bannon was strongly supported in this personal approach by punk leader Linnea Quigley who hailed from the midwest. When he talked at length about the film for various retrospectives shortly before his death, O'Bannon spoke of his fondness for Quigley after the fact, saying she just got along with everyone, worked incredibly hard, did a tremendous job and went home.


O'Bannon's second feature 'The Resurrected' (1991) is based on a story by H P Lovecraft (he later co-scripted Peter Svatek's 1997 creature feature 'Bleeders' which is also based on a Lovecraft story). Directors like Carpenter, Lucio Fulci, Stuart Gordon and Jean-Paul Ouellette are among the small few filmmakers to have successfully crafted multiple horror features inspired directly by Lovecraft's writings. You can hear filmmakers Roger Avary and Quentin Tarantino discussing 'Dark Star' on their film podcast, 'The Video Archives'.


The book 'Wes Craven : The Man And His Nightmares' by John Wooley offers a stimulating text for anyone interested in the director's work. As with John Kenneth Muir's book 'Wes Craven : The Art Of Horror', Wooley takes a look at his early days when Craven studied everything there was to know about editing and sound editing, developing his own unusual techniques which would draw praise from Cleveland-born cutter Dede Allen (both appear in Wendy Apple's excellent 2004 documentary 'The Cutting Edge : The Magic Of Movie Editing').
Craven took a job in a New York building block that specialised in the making of documentaries, gradually working his way up from floor messenger to production house manager. He then left following an artistic dispute and became a night-shift taxi driver. He later fought his way back into filmmaking, using a range of different documentary techniques to execute his 1970s features, and applying ideas that he had learned when working under his second filmmaking mentor, cameraman Roger Murphy.


I think it helps when assessing his career in cinema to look at Craven's first mentor, the musician Harry Chapin, as he's the person who first taught Craven how to edit. Craven was in a psychedelic rock band with Harry's brother Steve Chapin who had studied under him at Clarkson College in New York (the Craven & Chapin families have retained strong links since those turbulent days of the 1960s). Music is massively important to Craven's work as editor, writer and director; he collaborated with experimental musicians and composers throughout his career.
Craven also worked as a gaffer, an assistant director and a writer for hire, fulfilling a variety of different roles to pay the rent. Two of his regular associates in the 1970s who have gone on to have successful filmmaking careers are horror directors Sean Cunningham and Steve Miner. In fact, it was Miner who helped edit the early scenes in 'The Last House On The Left' (1972) which pay tribute to the tough crime programmers of Richard Fleischer, an influential figure in low-rent crime cinema whose work Craven recalled more recently with the taut crime thriller 'Red Eye' (2005). {On the subject of Fleischers, voice artist Charles Fleischer has worked on two films for Craven}.


'The Man And His Nightmares' examines various aspects of the visual designs of Craven's pictures. He always believed in bringing in the people best equipped to get the job done, and he had to hire technicians capable of capturing his Rube Goldbergesque booby traps and contraptions while operating under strict time restrictions and budgetary constraints. As a result, he used down-to-earth documentarians like Victor Hurwitz and Sandi Sissel for street projects that evoked early memories of Cleveland, he primed the artistic lens of Robert Yeoman and Peter Deming for films in which he sought to create a vivid sense of the hyperreal, and he deployed adventurous camera operators like Philip Lathrop and Jacques Haitkin when conducting on-set experiments that needed to be nailed in one take.


'The Hills Have Eyes' (1977) was originally conceived to be a science-fiction fantasy set within a dimmed, dystopian future but this idea had to be altered due to budgetary constraints. Fortunately, Craven and his producer Peter Locke (for whom he had worked as an editor) both had the good sense to bring in a crack technical unit borrowed from producer Roger Corman. Led by cinematographic action specialist Eric Saarinen, they were able to capture pretty much everything that Craven wanted on a tight shooting schedule.


On August 30th, 2015, Wes Craven died from brain cancer. A dinner was held in Craven's honour with pictures posted on twitter; among those in attendance were film directors Stuart Gordon, Mick Garris, Robert Rodriguez, Edgar Wright, Eli Roth and his old friend Tobe Hooper. John Landis, Mike Mendez, Adam Green and Craven's former editor Patrick Lussier discussed his career in cinema at The Movie Crypt.


Among horror movie fans, the question often comes up about when exactly American horror entered the modern era. I've seen this question arise about American cinema in general, and there's a cluster of movies like Roger Corman's hallucinogenic odyssey 'The Trip' (1967), Arthur Penn's period crime outing 'Bonnie And Clyde' (1967), Mike Nichols' adult comedy 'The Graduate' (1967), Sam Peckinpah's nihilistic western 'The Wild Bunch' (1969), Paul Mazursky's sex comedy 'Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice' (1969) and Dennis Hopper's biker movie 'Easy Rider' (1969) that some movie-watchers feel heralded a new era of filmmaking.
In horror, films like 'Psycho' (1960), 'Night Tide' (1961), Carnival Of Souls' (1962), 'Blood Feast' (1963) etc, pushed the genre further out year upon year, culminating in the cultural phenomenon of 'Rosemary's Baby' (1968). 'Night Of The Living Dead' (1968) stands for me as a '60s horror film like no other, and it appeared bang in the middle of that special time when cinema was gaining greater independence as the studios were looking to adapt.


George Romero was born on February 4th, 1940 in New York City, but he carried an intense passion for Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania having attended Carnegie-Mellon University during his student days. He said he'd liked to have filmed all the time in Pittsburgh where he took in the cultural riches of working-class life and jazz culture.
Like so many of his friends and associates working in horror, Romero was a self-proclaimed fan of EC Comics. In his book 'George A. Romero : Knight Of The Living Dead', Tony Williams looks in depth at the influence of William Gaines' publications on Romero's cinematic output, as well as the influence that the author Emile Zola and the French naturalist school had on key horror creators of the time.


Williams has written a book on filmmaker Larry Cohen, so that last quote is eminently understandable within the context of his book on Romero. I think it's very interesting the extent to which the author discusses the works of Zola in 'Knight Of The Living Dead' as we know that German expressionism and French poetic realism are movements that have had a huge impact on fantasy cinema in general.
As an example, Zola's first designated naturalistic novel 'Therese Raquin', from 1868, is here suggested as being a direct influence on both Alfred Hitchcock's embryonic slasher 'Psycho' and Wes Craven's disturbing dream piece 'A Nightmare On Elm Street' (1984), as well as Romero's own living dead installments 'Dawn Of The Dead' (1978) and 'Day Of The Dead' (1985). Incidentally, 'A Nightmare On Elm Street' includes a subtle homage to Roman Polanski's horror film 'The Tenant' (1976) and 'Day Of The Dead' includes a more explicit homage to Polanski's earlier work 'Repulsion' (1965), two parts of the Franco-Polish director's 'Apartment Trilogy'.


The novelist Stephen King is a committed Gaines disciple who collaborated with Romero on the EC-inspired comic book compendium 'Creepshow' (1982). Romero tried unsuccessfully to make films of 'Salem's Lot' and 'Pet Sematary' before shooting his King adaptation 'The Dark Half' (1993) in the 1990s, and he had also planned to bring 'The Stand' to the screen with King's co-operation (it was eventually made as a television mini-series by King's director of choice Mick Garris).



'Eaten Alive At A Chainsaw Massacre' also touches upon Hooper's passion for music and the fact that he made a little-seen documentary for PBS about the folk group Peter, Paul & Mary. Hooper worked as an editor and sound editor early on in his career, he co-wrote the music for some of his films, and his passion for music was always an important factor in his work. Back in the 1960s, he'd documented local artists like The 13th Floor Elevators, The Golden Dawn, Bubble Puppy, The Moving Sidewalks and Sir Douglas Quintet, as well as Shiva's Headband who collaborated with him on his debut feature 'Eggshells' (1969).
Muir also looks at Hooper's influences and lays down some provocative thoughts about his fascination with the 1950s (an obsession he shared with David Lynch who was born in 1946). We see this most explicitly in his filmography with the remake 'Invaders From Mars' (1986), but there are many elements of Hooper's film work that revel in '50s culture. One of my favourite examples covered by Muir is the colourful, paranoid opening to 'Spontaneous Combustion' (1990), a miniature marvel of technical filmmaking for which Hooper was able to convince seasoned film noir specialist Andre De Toth to take an acting role (three years later, he'd cast Roger Corman in 'The Eye').


Hooper made three films with actor William Finley, who was a member of Brian De Palma's stock company, and he worked with Robert Englund on four projects (Englund was also a member of Wes Craven's stock company). His last film 'Djinn' (2013) was for some time unable to secure an international distribution deal which I'm guessing must have been a sad and frustrating situation for him to be in (it was for us fans). Perhaps if he'd had a recognisable face like Englund in the cast then 'Djinn' would have had a better shot at getting a reasonable distribution deal. It was a small-scale production from the United Arab Emirates which couldn't claim any star names to appeal to western markets.



In Clara & Robert Kuperberg's documentary 'The Silver Screen Revolution' (2008) they track the uneasy transition from the old Hollywood studio system to what's been labelled "New Hollywood" (or the "Movie Brat Generation"). There are interviews with producer Dominick Dunne, production designer Dean Tavoularis, photographer Jerry Schatzberg and filmmaker Martin Scorsese, and Scorsese tells an interesting story about how John Cassavetes totally chewed him out for making 'Boxcar Bertha' (1972) which he considered to be nothing more than dumb trash. Cassavetes had loved 'Who's That Knocking At My Door' (1967) which he felt was a deeply personal and artistic work, so he advised Scorsese to get as far away as possible from producer Roger Corman and follow the right direction for his career. Despite this, Scorsese entertained the idea of making 'Mean Streets' (1973) with Corman producing it, but he didn't want to make the changes required so he sought suitable backing elsewhere.
What's interesting to me about this story told by Scorsese is when he adds that his whole life he's been torn between whether he prefers watching / making personal films, or genre films; to me, a genre film can be extremely personal, with 'Mean Streets' serving as a perfect example of this (Cassavetes did enjoy 'Mean Streets'). One director who has long worked in genre productions, while leaving his personal stamp on everything he does, is Scorsese's old friend Brian De Palma.


De Palma was born on September 11th, 1940, in Newark, which is New Jersey's storied jazz centre. The book 'Brian De Palma : Interviews' gathers together a fascinating selection of interviews that have been edited for re-publication by Laurence F. Knapp. Like another book I've read on De Palma ('The De Palma Rant' by Randall Brooks), it pursues a regular timeline within a chronological framework, tracing his career path from his early days as an experimental satirist to his many years working for the major studios. It's a fascinating read if you like De Palma and includes a transcript of his famous one-to-one conducted in the U K with superfan Quentin Tarantino. This inclusion I find fitting because Tarantino has been collecting printed De Palma articles his whole life and keeps them stored inside a bumper scrapbook.
I've seen almost all of De Palma's feature-length films, and there's only a couple I wouldn't care to sit through again. I think he's one of the great suspense directors, with a filmography to rival anyone. His films are technical marvels that are meticuolously constructed. They are daring, provocative, and totally immersive. It's great to hear his thoughts from across the decades as you learn about things that have changed in his approach to filmmaking, as well as raw essentials that remain the same.
De Palma sometimes gets bogged down during interviews responding to quips about bad reviews from critics, or fielding questions about unfulfilled potential; it's almost as if making genre pictures is somehow a lesser trade than directing overtly personal, dramatic works. But he clearly has his obsessions and he can't deny them. He's also a director who likes to work with women and he's been brutally honest about this, stating that he photographs his actresses with meticulous attention to detail. His simmering psychodrama 'Passion' (2012) was recently celebrated by feminists at the 'Woman To Woman Festival' held in Madison, Wisconsin, alongside Atom Egoyan's 'Where The Truth Lies' (2005) & 'Chloe' (2009), Darren Aronofsky's 'Black Swan' (2010) and Steven Soderbergh's 'Side Effects' (2013).


Edward R. Pressman has produced dark crime pictures, coal black comedies, colourful fantasies and macabre tales during his career as an independent film producer. He made his name producing a string of counterculture pictures directed by Paul W. Williams, under the (somewhat) informal banner Pressman-Williams Enterprises. Among the stars of Williams' first three features 'Out Of It' (1969), 'The Revolutionary' (1970) and 'Dealing : Or The Berkeley-To-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues' (1972) were Jon Voight, Charles Durning, John Lithgow and Jennifer Salt who were also members of Brian De Palma's informal stock company (also appearing for Williams were Joy Bang, Barbara Hershey, Victor Argo, Paul Sorvino, Seymour Cassel and De Palma's good friend Robert Duvall).
Pressman would produce 'Sisters' (1972) and 'Phantom Of The Paradise' (1974) for De Palma who would then hook up with producer George Litto for 'Obsession' (1976), 'Dressed To Kill' (1980) and 'Blow Out' (1981). Pressman regulars over the years have included Oliver Stone, James Toback and Abel Ferrara. Pressman has contibuted greatly to the fantasy cinema landscape with productions like John Milius' 'Conan The Barbarian' (1982), Sam Raimi's 'Crimewave' (1985), Steve De Jarnatt's 'Cherry 2000' (1987), Nicholas Kazan's 'Dream Lover' (1993), Alex Proyas' 'The Crow' (1994), Mary Harron's 'American Psycho' (2000), Larry Fessenden's 'Wendigo' (2001) and Robert Parigi's 'Love Object' (2003). In 2006, Pressman got together with experimental filmmaker Douglas Buck for a remake of 'Sisters'.

De Palma has often turned to reliable character actors whom he feels can negotiate the tightrope between light comedy and highwire tension, with performers like William Finley, Allen Garfield, Gerrit Graham, Charles Durning, John Lithgow, Dennis Franz, Gregg Henry and Kevin Dunn stepping up to the plate whenever called upon. He's also used major stars on multiple projects with an eye on the specific talents they can bring to the table, be it Robert De Niro who started out with him as an unknown, Kirk Douglas, John Travolta, Al Pacino, Sean Penn, or most recently Gary Sinise.
With Francis Coppola having fired Harvey Keitel from 'Apocalypse Now' (1979), Coppola, De Palma and Scorsese are the lucky guys I know of to have directed De Niro and Pacino in movies (De Niro also worked with Michael Cimino). Enamoured by Amy Heckerling's New York gangster spoof 'Johnny Dangerously' (1984), De Palma reunited Jersey guys Danny DeVito and Joe Piscopo for the mob comedy 'Wise Guys' (1986) with back-up from the Brooklynite trio of Keitel, Dan Hedaya and Ray Sharkey. De Palma has said actors he'd like to work with from back in the day include New Yorkers Richard Dreyfuss and John Savage.
Tarantino told De Palma in 1994 that the station set-piece in 'Carlito's Way' (1993) - a film he had watched four times at the cinema upon release - was perhaps his finest action sequence to date; De Palma says he enjoys working with Pacino because he can perform incredible ballets with the camera and is a highly instinctive performer.


There's lots of books with articles on Brian De Palma's film career and a few where it's the focus. This collection of interviews is great for hearing what the man himself has to say about his work. And what he says is that you have to have a good work ethic, plenty of fight, and a bit of luck never hurt either.
In addition to his documentary and film work, De Palma got to direct videos for New Jersey songwriter Bruce Springsteen which was a gift to him. Having been raised in Philadelphia, De Palma was pleasantly surprised to see The Boss win an Academy Award for Best Song, and that song was 'Streets Of Philadelphia' from Jonathan Demme's drama 'Philadelphia' (1993). Whether De Palma will one day be presented with an Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement is something that remains to be seen, though he's never yet been nominated for an Oscar; he has, however, been nominated five times as Worst Director by the Razzies which (I feel) tells its own story.


If you're interested in learning more about the films of Brian De Palma, check out Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow's documentary 'De Palma' (2015), a one-man conversation piece that invites De Palma to talk at length about his career in cinema. It's an unusual documentary as its sole focus is on Brian De Palma, the raconteur. As such, it's filled with anecdote, reflection and personal recollection.