Hardly anyone expected John Carpenter to get back in the director’s chair and just as many have accused him of being overambitious in recent years. Which makes, maybe, a perfectly consistent moment in time that he’d return without leaving his couch: a panel at Texas Frightmare Weekend (all right) revealed John Carpenter’s Suburban Screams was shot in Prague while, to quote the man, “I sat on my couch and directed it. It was awesome.”
Prague Reporter did a bit of digging to find Suburban Screams had been “officially registered with the Czech Film Fund when submissions re-opened this March” by Milk and Honey Pictures, which oversees Prague production on Apple TV’s Foundation and Netflix’s Haunted; meanwhile, Creepy Catalog found a Staff Me Up listing noting involvement of industry veteran Mark Fenlason. That’s about as deep as the rabbit hole goes for now, but it would mark as major a return as any in recent years. Needless to say we’ll stay tuned.
Almost as curious is the hint of a sequel to arguably Carpenter’s greatest work. Though he’s “been sworn to secrecy,” The Thing 2 is seemingly in some form of development––a surprise to me, but first discussed a year ago as something he’d “like to do,” then brought up last fall in a much more roundabout, wishy-washy manner. But keeping that flame even in embers months down the line is, by Carpenter’s standards, a major vote of confidence. Surely Kurt Russell isn’t doing anything better.