John Carpenter was an artistically ambitious and commercially successful genre director for ten years in Hollywood before flaming-out almost overnight. Did the well suddenly go dry or was he a victim of the cost-conscious MBAs brought in to run the studios during the 1990s?

1976  Assault on Precinct 13 ****
1977  Halloween ****
1979  Elvis ***1/2 (TV movie)
1980  The Fog ***
1981  Escape from New York ***1/2
1982  The Thing ****
1983  Christine ***
1984  Starman ***
1986  Big Trouble in Little China ***
1987  Prince of Darkness ***
1988  They Live ***1/2
1996  Escape from L.A. ***