John Carpenter’s Suburban Screams: It Wouldn’t Be Halloween Without Him
By John Kirk
Rating: A
Monotoned synthesizer notes tinkling, red lettering on a black background, and an insanely phantasmagorical premise — all hallmarks of a classic John Carpenter horror story.
Except, in this newest offering on his plate of terrors, Carpenter takes us to our own neighbourhoods, where some of the greatest stories are found unexpectedly outside our own front doors.
Neighbourhoods aren’t safe. There’s always one house that everyone stays away from, or an odd stranger who happens to walk down your street and stare at your house for a particularly long time. There’s always a place that’s haunted or a local legend that people bring up from time to time, safe behind a glass of their favourite vintage.
While we choose to forget these stories, it takes a master of horror storytelling to bring us face-to-face with the fear we conveniently avoid mentioning and remind us of it.
In the clever docudrama series, John Carpenter’s Suburban Screams, Carpenter gives us an anthology of terror from all around the continent. Whether it’s Nepean, Ontario or Long Island, New York, we are reminded that it’s the real stories that can be the most horrifying.
The first three episodes in a series of six give us an idea of what we can expect. The first, titled “Kelly,” is a real ghost story. When one man and his friends toy with a makeshift Ouija board and make contact with a spirit from the other side, they discover the story of a young girl’s actual death, who is desperately seeking peace.
The second, “A Killer Comes Home,” is a stalker story about one woman who can find no rest from a mysterious pursuer intent on giving her no respite. A true psychological thriller that is horrifying to imagine because it can — and did — happen in real life.
Finally, “The House Next Door,” is a haunted tale of folklore that every community seems to have. Carpenter delves into regional history to bring forth a story like the ones that every cub scout or girl guide was probably told around a midnight campfire.
It doesn’t have to be a contrived tale of imagined terror to entertain us. Carpenter reminds us of his ability to recognize a good scary story as well as telling one. Using cinematic re-enactments, personal interviews, and other documentary techniques, he shows us that he can bring us stories of dread in any format, proving his mastery of the genre.
What’s common is the vulnerable or chaotic emotional state-of-being the subjects admit to having at the time of these events. Of course, that just provides spice for the story because it also provides doubt as to the stories’ authenticity. It wouldn’t be a good horror story without the element of doubt, right? Thrown in for good measure, we question the sanity of the storytellers.
Carpenter’s classic style has inspired 50 years of cinematic terror. There’s a great of his influence in shows like Stranger Things, films like Attack the Block or even with directors like Quentin Tarantino. His return is long overdue.
Carpenter directs one of the episodes and sits in the producer’s chair. True to form, he also composed the music for the series, all tell-tale signposts of the Carpenter horror storytelling fans will remember from the 80s and 90s.
Thoroughly creepy with the reminder that these stories are told by people like your neighbours, this show is definitely one to add to your late-night viewing schedule. Whether it’s a scare of supernatural origins or one that’s straight out of the humanity’s own inhumanity handbook, each episode will send those tingles down your spine.
Their 44-minute run-time, meantime, is perfect. If these episodes are as good as the remaining ones in the season, then Carpenter has brought us another Halloween to remember. All that’s missing is Kurt Russell…
John Carpenter’s Suburban Screams. Directed by John Carpenter. Premieres on Showcase and STACK TV October 18.