I’ve been watching every John Carpenter film and have seen almost all of them now. I’m only missing two. I’ve also been watching a bunch of his interviews, and in one of them he mentions the eeriness of a ghost in the daytime from a distance. Basically, it’s much scarier to show horror clearly rather than conceal a monster in darkness which is the way most people do it. This is why THE THING is so terrifying.

He specifically references a horror movie from the early 60s called THE INNOCENTS, and the ghost in the daylight by the water. That image alone compelled to me watch it! And so I did tonight and it really did scare the hell out of me. There is something about Victorian-era stuff that is super creepy to me, and so I reckon that was half the dread I felt the entire time.

Though yeah, you should watch it. The screenplay was written by Truman Capote, for god’s sake!