John Carpenter IMHO is one of the best directors out there. He has a great sense of vision and brings some unique styles to films. He has also written some of the best scripts out there. I do think that most people only really know him from Halloween and The Thing, and I wish they would look at some of his other work as well.

I also see a lot of people who bash his work for various reasons, but it seems to be that they do not get the idea of what the film is about or how it was portrayed. Eg. Escape From L.A. and Ghosts Of Mars.

The one film I really feel is not his best is Memoirs Of An Invisible Man which really lacks some of his best qualities.