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Dip Your Toes In : John Carpenter's Apocalypse Trilogy

John Carpenter's Apocalypse trilogy is three films, over thirteen years, which on the surface seem to have nothing in common, other than being in the trilogy together. While each film is different, they all take influence from Lovecraft, and all share an apocalyptic threat to mankind.

The Thing 1982

The first being The Thing, in which an ancient alien that has the ability to imitate any life form perfectly is awakened and set loose on a research base in the Antarctic. Filled with great gore, and one of the greatest understated endings in horror cinema, The Thing shows an end for mankind in which we'd all be taken over by it.

Prince Of Darkness 1987

Prince Of Darkness is the tale of a group of students who are brought together to figure out what a malevolent tube of glowing green stuff is. While Prince Of Darkness plays on Christian theories of God, and the Devil, turning them on their head, if you change your point of view, and drop the idea of it being religious, you have a perfect example of Lovecraft inspired cosmic horror.

Prince Of Darkness shows a world where god is evil, what more of an apocalypse could there be?

In The Mouth Of Madness 1995

In The Mouth Of Madness follows John Trent, who is tasked with finding misng author Sutter Cane, a horror writer who's works have been driving people crazy. ITMOM is the most heavily drawn from Lovecraft, of the trilogy, with every location, character, and events being lifted from a Lovecraft story in some way. ITMOM shows a world where our perceptions of reality were never correct to begin with, and are much darker than we could of ever imagined

Love the way you tied the three films together, and personally freaking ADORE In The Mouth of Madness. Saw it in the theater and was wigged out for weeks. Fantastic film!

And I still can't watch the scene with the dogs in The Thing.

In The Mouth Of Madness is my favorite John Carpenter film, and John Carpenter is the one to label them as the Apocalypse trilogy on the commentary for The Thing.

I feel like I should write an article on William Peter Blatty's Faith Trilogy.

Great article.

I love this trilogy.

I think another theme here within these three films would be isolation.

All very creepy.