Regardless of his personal demons/vices and the whole "Poltergeist" deal, I give it up for the man who gave us this...

Like Wes Craven, Hooper's career was maddeningly uneven, and his worst films were genuinely terrible (although sometimes entertainingly so, like the gloriously bonkers Lifeforce), but he deserves a place in the Horror Hall Of Fame for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Salem's Lot and Poltergeist alone. Yeah, let the "Spielberg really directed Poltergeist!" conspiracy theorists come out of the woodwork yet again, but Hooper's stamp is definitely on that film as well.

Gonna be a sad start to this year's Halloween horror marathon in October.

Hooper's career is kind of sad on the whole. I personally do think Spielberg directed most of POLTERGEIST...beyond the way the film looks and plays, Zelda Rubinstein and others said Hooper was "drugged out" and would sit in a corner not even interacting with the cast for much of the shoot. Some of the personnel on LIFEFORCE said the same things in that documentary, that he was a real pill and seemingly was "on something." Can't recall if it was Dan Jakoby but one of the writers essentially confirmed that too.

That, really, is a shame if it's true, because when he was "on," Hooper did have a unique voice in the horror genre. He had a great opportunity to make something truly great with major budgets in the '80s and pretty much blew his opportunity...then regressed into producing some truly terrible movies towards the end.

All that being said, Hooper leaves us with a few gems -- THE FUNHOUSE being one of them. Very "moody" as opposed to gory and always a movie I check out around Halloween...

It is my hope that the truth can finally come out about the production of Poltergeist, but we may have to wait a few more years for that to happen.
It's evident just from watching the movie who directed it, and the accounts of multiple cast and crew confirm it.

Hooper's work on The Funhouse was truly disturbing, as was his work on Salem's Lot.
I agree that he blew it in the 1980s - the proof is in the movies that followed Poltergeist.

In a similar way, I've always felt that John Carpenter blew his opportunities in the 1980s and really in the 1990s. Carpenter made a few gems also, but eventually succumbed to his worst instincts, with predictable results.