COMMENTS:

John Carpenter, by way of Dean Cundey?s ethereally fluid cinematography, has fashioned a mode of film style that can be identified by an insistence on the expansive power of the widescreen frame, the rigorous play between onscreen/offscreen space, and use of deep space composition that instantly shifts the spectator?s attention from the foreground to the background of the shot (or vice versa) for the express purpose of shock and surprise. Carpenter exploits all these techniques to mine the uncanny nature of cinematic space unique to the horror film, a genre he is commonly associated with, and continues to thrive within, albeit with dismal results as of late. He employed the aforementioned tactics on repeated basis throughout the early part of his filmography, but always in a fashion that was neither hackneyed nor trite. A shot from John Carpenter?s shamefully underrated 1982 science-fiction/horror film THE THING provides a glimpse of his unique style of cinematic craftsmanship.

The shot begins with a man slowly rising up from a desk in a large office space, lit candle in hand as his desk lamp has recently faded out, the result of a mysteriously blown fuse. The shot is bathed in a nocturnal, dark-blue light. The man slowly makes his way to the doorway of the office (in the immediate foreground of the frame). The action is framed in a wide shot, the actor situated roughly centre frame, approaching from the background of the shot toward the space of the foreground. As he approaches the foreground of the shot, Carpenter has the camera slowly track frame left. The man accidentally kicks an object on the ground as a result of the oppressive darkness, and resumes his tentative trek toward entrance of the office. Just as he approaches the open door of the office situated in the foreground of the shot, a large shadow passes quickly from frame right to frame left, extremely close to the camera apparatus, temporarily obscuring him from the spectator. The soundtrack, which until now consisted of a low register, electronic synthesiser score, suddenly jumps to life as one of Carpenter?s characteristic ?stingers? (a sharp, discordant synthesiser effect that accompanies any sudden movement from offscreen into the onscreen camera frame) further accentuates the surprising and ominous passage of the shadowy figure in the extreme foreground of the shot. The man shouts ?Who?s that!?!? once the figure passes out of frame. With the lateral tracking movement of the camera halted, the man is framed in a medium shot in the foreground of the frame, the light of the candle he clutches in his hands illuminating his fearful expression from below.

[ By Friedrich Mayr • November 11, 2004 ]