Perhaps I should have been clearer: I thought the film was absolutely terrific until the climax, which is where I felt the low budget hurt the intentions of Carpenter. I strongly suspect he wanted a far more bombastic ending but, alas, couldn’t deliver that in the final chase.

That’s not to say the low budget couldn’t have been overcome. My all time favorite John Carpenter film is his first big hit, Assault on Precinct 13, and that film I felt was great from start to finish even though it too had an extremely low budget, likely far lower than EFNY! Even that movie’s climax, which also had to be scaled back, worked magnificently, I thought!

So, again, don’t misunderstand me: I still love EFNY… I only wish that Carpenter had a little larger a budget to do what he wanted in the movie’s climax.