The Most Underrated Movie Ever?

I haven't seen it in a while, and didn't realize it was Carpenter's at the time, but I have to agree that it's sorely underrated.
Personally, I would pick "The Thing" as my #1 for Carpenter, and I loved "In The Mouth of Madness" and "Escape from New York" as well. "Big Trouble in Little China" is probably my 2nd favorite, but hardly a horror in any sense (definitely a comedy and some of the best tongue-in-cheek cliched dialogue ever). I would say the "Prince of Darkness" is the 2nd best horror and 3rd best of his films.
On thing I'll have to disagree with in comparison to many others who see this film as underrated is "They Live". I found that one simply awful. But, hey... art is subjective.
This brings me to an interesting thought... I find that there are sometimes differences between a horror movie that I consider "good" or even "great", and a horror movie that terrifies me. Sometimes, they can be both. For me, "The Ring" is one of these. Both the original "Ringu" and the American remake. However, sometimes they are one or the other. "Scream" is a great example of a horror film I simply loved... but didn't frighten me at all. I felt it was smart, brilliantly self-referential, and timely. The same is true for both the original "Halloween" and the remake.
Then there's the other side... sometimes a movie can be flawed in many ways... acting, writing, effects especially, etc., yet STILL scare the bejesus out of me. The best example is the (in my opinion, again) TERRIBLE film "Basket Case". Bad story, terrible acting, ridiculous effects... stayed with me for days.
Even the cult classic "Hellraiser" was quite low budget, with limited acting chops. The make-up was amazing, but many of the other effects were weak if not downright silly. Yet still, it scared the hell out of me and stuck with me for nights to come.

That being said, I can certainly understand what the detractors are saying about the low budget, weak effects and so on. This was not a masterfully-crafted film. However, it simply scares the hell out of me, and I know I'm not alone in this. So I have to go with yes... underrated.

Just a few fun thoughts to consider.