The Return of John Carpenter

Back in 2001, director John Carpenter released the science fiction horror Ghost of Mars, by a man of his standing it took a critical and box office mauling. The self-imposed exile began. Those with short memories will not credit Carpenter with the recognition he deserves. Halloween, The Fog and The Thing are just a taste. But after almost a decade, Carpenter is treading the festival boards once more, this time in Toronto talking up The Ward in a candid interview with bloody-disgusting.com.

"After Ghosts of Mars j thought, i don't want to do this: it's too hard, too fucked up." The words of a broken creator. But The Ward offers his return. The film, features Amber Heard [Mandy Lane] as an institutionalized arsonist who is haunted by a ghost. Subject matter of the bread and butter variety for Carpenter.

The reason for his return? Well, after shooting a couple of episodes for 'Masters of Horror', Carpenter felt his groove coming back.Quite frankly, Carpenter liked the return to the contained, scaled back production after the big budget, effects laden Ghost of Mars feeling a world apart.

Speaking about The Ward, Carpenter said "The whole project was a movie that was contained", he said. "And it promised to have a real interesting cast…kinda get away from an effects-driven movie. So this was up my alley. It also wasn't too long a shoot."

Carpenter also revealed that the film will offer the kind of 'jump' shocks of his previous classics and if you don't like it "tough shit". Carpenter's reemergence into the cinematic world appears to centered on giving the fans what they want, while flipping off any one that would judge him otherwise.

As one of the old guard director's presently active, Carpenter has opted to revel in the incorporation of the new digital technology. "Most of the effects [in ‘The Ward' were] done on set, but there are some things we did digitally, It's just another tool. [It's] a great tool to use…there are a lot of choices." Carpenter said.

What say he on the plethora of remakes that have been undertaken on his classic works?
"I have no real control over [remakes of my films]", he said. "That's what I learned early on. When the producers wanted to remake ‘Halloween', to do sequels…I thought, ‘this is a big mistake.' But in California I cannot stand in the way of them making the sequel. All I can do is share in it. So I crossed that bridge way back in the early ‘80s and I thought, ‘well, what am I gonna do? Am I gonna sit and cry or am I just gonna sit and go along with it?'" Unfortunately for most, this will mean that the accumulation of wannabe's will continue to clog the pipelines for the distant future.