Back in the summer of 1983, I decided to perform a science experiment of sorts. As a Yale man, I had a thirst for knowledge. The world was full of marvelous questions which I found necessary, as a searcher of truth, to answer. And no question plagued my mind quite like, “What would happen if I were to leave a package of Hostess Snow Balls on my bureau for 25 years?” This was the next step in the evolution of experimentation. Newton, Einstein, Kaufman – I was on my way to the history books. I ran to the local corner store and purchased the marshmallow-covered cakes.

Good Lord!  How long have I been gone?  Well, here's the deal, Fangorians.  You may or may not know that I took over as team captain for Blog@Newsarama, with my new group kicking things off on December 1st.  I also made some preparations for my original site, ShotgunReviews.com, to begin celebrating its TENTH YEAR online.  Needless to say, it's been busy.  But I haven't wanted to neglect my Fango friends, so I've been giving a lot of thought to what to do for the third installment of this (now more) regular series.  The first two go-rounds, I talked '31 Frankenstein and Dracula.  I really kicked around covering Spanish Dracula, and I WILL get back to that eventually.  Today, though, I've decided to cover someone that's still in the game.  And I'll begin with this question: between 1978 and 1988, was there a genre director that had a better run than John Carpenter?

I recently read something that I believe will resonate with more than a few people, based upon what appears to be the prevailing opinion regarding Hollywood's output during the last decade (or two).

"The movies have been so rank the last couple of years that when I see people lining up to buy tickets I sometimes think that the movies aren’t drawing an audience — they’re inheriting an audience. People just want to go to a movie. They’re stung repeatedly, yet their desire for a good movie — for any movie — is so strong that all over the country they keep lining up...