A great mystery of John Carpenter's filmography - how did one of the great directors of suspense, given a story that should have suited him down to the ground, a classic story, shot in his home town, go so horribly wrong?
It's a mess. Completely flat and involving. Very unscary. Clunky. Expensive looking. Astonishingly lacking in atmosphere - compare this to The Fog it was like it was made by a different director.
Kirstie Alley and Mark Hamill play the film with high camp, Chris Reeve is super awkward, Linda Koslowski is naturalistic and wins the film.
So many scenes seem silly - the kids with the eyes, people shooting themselves and stabbing themselves. It needed to be eerie. It's like they watched the rushes and went "oh this isn't scary" and added a bit more violence but it's silly.
There's no affecting relationships. You don't care when Reeve or Koslowski lose their partner. Or the couple who can't have kids have kids. There's too many broad acting character actors.
What happened? Did Carpenter not care? Was he distracted? Maybe it was too 90s - too much money or something. It's a mess.
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