Escape From New York

Well, I just couldn't resist!  Not only does the movie feature a synthezier soundtrack by Carpenter, it literlly wallows around in NYC's urban decay of the 1970's and 1980's to the extreme.  And, oh, it has cannabils that live underground.  In C.H.U.D.  the movie literally shows the tail-end of the real decay of the film; in this film it's 1997 and the whole city has been turned into the countries only maximum security prison; bad ole Gotham has become unrully, choatic urban Gitmo, with prison gangs with cars, inmates with automatic weapons, and, oh, live stage shows!!

It stars Kurt Russell as the toughest hombre to ever think about going into Manhattan prison, Snake Plissken.  The film also stars Andrienne Barbeau, Harry Dean Stanton, Ernest Borgnine, Lee Van Cleef, Issac Hayes, and Donald Pleasence as the President (I guess the US had changed it's US birth requirement in Carpenter's 90's world).  But the real reason, other than some similarities to C.H.U.D., that I put this one is because of Tom Atkins as Rehme.  There is no way a Friday Fright set in NYC would be complete without him.

It is also be noted that two of the characters in the prison are named for other famed horror directors Romero (Frank Doubleday) and Cronenberg (John Strobel).

I tried to find a clip of the crazies to tie in with C.H.U.D. but only found this Facebook trivia quiz instead.  These are the underground dwellers that grab people from the street level and ostensibly used for food, or some other unspeakable stuff.

I will say that being only two days away from the tenth anniversary of 9/11, it does kind of make me wonder what the hell religious terrorist really watch.  I mean, this film starts off with Air Force being flown right into the side of a skyscraper in Manhattan!  Are those guys really sitting around watching horror movies and looking a porn, and then turn around want to kill people in West for doing the same??  Just a thought.

Although most of the movie was not shot on location in NYC, with the urban decay of St. Louis, which was, and remains, so much worse off than even NY at the time(!), stands in for the Manhattan prison, the NY harbor shots are on location.  Below are two of the building used at the harbor in the film.

SOME NEW YORKERS APPRECIATE THE FILM!

The Escape From New York Pizza Shop!