I am big fan of Mr Carpenter or rather "Big John"...he is in my Holy Trinity of living directors (the others two being Dario Argento and Michael Mann)...i can watch endlessly Carpenter's movies, i like his elegant, "simple" style, his beautiful use of Scope and music.
He also seems to be a rather laid back, down to earth guy.
MY FAVOURITE:
"Halloween" (first time i saw it on tv, in the mid 80's, it really scared me...timeless classic for me, Carpenter's direction at his best)
"Christine" (i tend to think this is an underrated movie in Carpenter's career...again Carpenter's direction at his best, it's beautifully shot, acted, scored and the FX are stunning even in 2018)
"Starman" ( "E.T." for grown ups? i think it's a moving movie, beautiful performance from Karen Allen and the ending scene/shot is quite heartbreaking...maybe Carpenter should have made more "sentimental" movies like this one)
"In the mouth of madness" (Carpenter's last major movie in my opinion...an unusual kind of storytelling for him and a brillant Sam Neill performance)
GOOD/VERY GOOD:
"Vampires" (i enjoy watching this one from time to time...it's not perfect but i like the Western locations, the characters, the soundtrack..)
"Escape from NY" (i remember liking it very much especially the urban, nightime atmosphere, the soundtrack, Kurt Russell's performance, that ending...but i haven't watched it in years)
"they live" (fun and bitter at the same time, smart...it's even more enjoyable when you are unemployed like the (anti)-hero) !

)
"Assault on precinct 13" (i'm slightly bored of it because i have seen it too many times but it's still a great piece of directing and atmosphere)
"the fog" (beautifully atmospheric, great visuals, cool soundtrack...a bit uneven though)
"someone's watching me" (a tv movie but really good, great little thriller, suspensful)
"the thing" (it's solid, very good but...i don't know, it doesn't totally click for me...i like the opening scene, soundtrack, bleak hopeless tone but my favourite moments are somewhat not the ones with The Thing...the special effects/make up are quite incredible but somewhat distract from the story...i mean "Halloween" was somewhat a greatest achievement because Carpenter had only a plastic knife, white mask no blood to build his direction and atmosphere...here he relies, in part, on the great special effects)
"Village of the damned" (beautifully shot, and i like Christopher Reeve's performance in it)
"Big trouble in Little china" (it's...fun! Carpenter doing his pop corn/soda flick nicely and maybe better than Spielberg on Indiana Jones)
"Prince of darkness" (it's beautifully shot and scored as usual but my overall opinion depend on the viewings...sometimes i think it's intriguing thematically haunting and creepy, others viewings i think it's slightly pretentious, a bit cheesy at times, not very well acted and written...i like the last shot, though)
AVERAGE:
"memoirs of an invisible man" (i have to watch it again, i remember it being rather nicely shot, funny and bitter, but still relatively generic for a Carpenter movie)
"escape from L..A" (it's fun at times but it suffers from some weak visuals, Carpenter's style is less elegant than usually...the ending is great though)
"the ward" (watchable but very generic predictable screenplay unfortunately and cheap scare effects...Amber Heard is a decent leading lady though)
"Dark star" (more a funny students movie than a real Carpenter movie)
"Ghosts of Mars" (i remember rather liking it on the big screen but after each new viewing on dvd then blu ray i like it less and less...it's a bit lazy, silly, noisy...an average B movie almost Z movie at times?)
"Cigarette burns" and "Pro life" from the Masters of Horror tv series: both are mediocre but i haven"t watched them for ten years at least.