FrightFest

After reading Stephen King's Full Dark, No Stars recently (and loving it), I was wondering:

Which horror writer / director has developed most during their careers and how?

Writer: Stephen kings earlier material and his short stories, probably followed by Clive Barker. (Somebody has to make a decent book of blood adaptation.)

Director: I am still a big John carpenter fan, grew up loving Halloween, the Fog, prince of Darkness and the Thing (still hate E.T. did a lot of damage to cinema that year!!)

What do you think to King's / Barker's later stuff?

King is not as good as he was. Barker is even better though it's been a while. The Art, Imajica, Weaveworld all brilliant.

I lost it with Barker around the time of the Harold Robbinsy Galilee and Coldheart Canyon I didn't enjoy at all. I agree with Daveroughcut that The Art, Imajica and Weaveworld are brilliant, but they are all a long time ago now.

While King might not have produced a masterpiece in a while, his books are still consistently enjoyable.

I dug Under The Dome despite the fact I thought it we The Simpsons movie. I must confess I have not read Galilee but did love the Abarat books.

MaxRenn wrote:I lost it with Barker around the time of the Harold Robbinsy Galilee and Coldheart Canyon I didn't enjoy at all. I agree with Daveroughcut that The Art, Imajica and Weaveworld are brilliant, but they are all a long time ago now.

While King might not have produced a masterpiece in a while, his books are still consistently enjoyable.

What do you consider to be the last King masterpiece?

In publication order probably The Dark Half maybe Four Past Midnight. it definitely went wrong at Needful Things which felt like a repeat of 'Salems Lot

Okay, because I am a total King-ophile, what would you like to see him do now?