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The new keeper instantly recognises that it’s stirring, that religious denial is no longer appropriate and that scientific, philosophical and theological opinion is required. Prof. Birack enlists some of his more eclectic students, under the pretence of improved grades, for a weekend of study at the church. He is initially sceptical of religious dogma and prefers to rely on quantum theories of uncertainty and non-linear time. ” However there is no doubt that something is decidedly odd about the artefact – it carbon-dates at seven million years and can only be opened from the inside.

The Name Game: We are told that the Seagrass returned from Bodega Bay, a reference to Hitchcock’s The Birds which similarly features an isolated coastal town suffering from inexplicable attacks. The doctor who performs the autopsy is called Dr Phibes, after the two Robert Fuest films starring Vincent Price – The Abominable Dr Phibes (1971) and Dr Phibes Rises Again (1972). The characters Tommy Wallace, Nick Castle and Dan O’Bannon are named after Carpenter collaborators, indeed Tommy Wallace appears in the film as one of the ghosts.

4/5 Starman was a hit and gave Carpenter much-needed confidence after the disastrous reception to The Thing. A couple of scripts he’d written were picked up by the studios and he became executive producer on both The Philadelphia Experiment and Black Moon Rising. Although neither film was directed by Carpenter, indeed his involvement was minimal, both films were successful and his name on the credits certainly did them no harm. Also around this time his son, John Cody, was born. His next directing role was to encompass his love for Hong Kong movies and, although he was actually offered the chance to direct Eddie Murphy in The Golden Child (1986), he turned it down in favour of something big...