Tag: malcolmmcdowell

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A Look at John Carpenter’s “Halloween” through the Ages

 

by Brian Fee

The infamous baby-sitter slasher film, “Halloween”, created by John Carpenter is widely regarded as a classic horror movie and has been known to influence several proceeding slasher pictures. The “Halloween” franchise consists of 11 films ranging from the original, which was released in 1978, to today with the newest adaptation which was released this Halloween season. The original, being an independent film, did not stop the series from ranking 4th in gross sales out of all horror movie franchises. During the making of the original film and being on a tight budget, Carpenter decided to compose the soundtrack himself because he believed he could do it the fastest and cheapest. That ended being a great decision because the final product, “Halloween Theme”, ended up becoming one of the most famous movie soundtracks of all time. Through the use of high pitched sounds and rumbling bass, Carpenter created an instant classic inspired by Bernard Herrman’s score from “Psycho”. With the making of this film and score, Carpenter changed the course of low-budget, independent films. Here at WWMPC, we are proud to have worked with Malcolm McDowell who played Michael Myer’s psychiatrist, Dr. Samuel Loomis in the 2007 adaptation of “Halloween”. McDowell starred in one of our feature films, “Red Roses and Petrol”.

 

The most recent in the famed Halloween slasher series has arrived in theaters this October. This time directed by David Gordon Green and starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Nick Castle. The film follows Laurie Strode (Curtis) after she narrowly escaped a small-town Halloween tragedy four decades ago. There have been many spinoffs or remakes of John Carpenters “Halloween”, but the 2018 adaptation serves as a direct sequel to the original 1978 film.

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Actor Malcolm McDowell Through the Years

 

 

At 75 years old, actor Malcolm McDowell has had an intensely unique and successful career. His boisterous, sometimes controversial roles have led to vast experience in various genres. McDowell has been best described as a character actor and first gained recognition 50 years ago in the film titled, If. Directed by Lindsay Anderson, this feature became a landmark of British counter culture cinema and became the 12th greatest British film of the 20th century. Just three years later, he played the sinister Alex DeLarge in the classic A Clockwork Orange (1971). He is perhaps best known for that role to this day.

Actor McDowell’s following feature works included Tinto Brass’s Caligula (1979), Time After Time (1979), Star Trek Generations (1994), remakes of the Halloween films, Easy A (2010), and The Artist (2011). In 2003, he starred in the Irish feature, Red Roses and Petrol which was distributed by World Wide Motion Pictures Corporation. McDowell has also had a string of television roles in shows such as Entourage (2009-2011) and Heroes (2007-2008). He has also become a prolific voice actor for video games and other animations like Fallout 3 (2008), God of War III (2010), Call of Duty: Black Ops III (2015), and the Walt Disney Studios film Bolt (2008). The British actor began his training at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame back in 2012. His profound ability to succeed in a variety of roles and film genres is what makes his career truly impressive. Happy birthday, Malcolm! We wish you many more successes and triumphs throughout the years and projects to come!