Some thoughts about his filmography
I've been slowly working my way through Hooper's entire filmography over the course of the past year, and I can't believe he's gone before I could even finish.
He certainly had a varied career; it's difficult to discern a consistent style from one film to the next. He never made anything like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre again, and every film after it was wildly different in tone to the last.
Pure speculation on my part, but I think his drug problems and personality quirks frequently led to others on his productions taking the reins thus diluting his style. Look at all the flicks he either departed partway through filming or was outright fired, including: Eaten Alive, The Dark, Venom, Poltergeist, and even The Thing (before Carpenter took over). Many of the projects he actually completed required the assistance of others to get them over the finishing line.
The only stretch in his filmography when you could say, "Yeah, this is definitely Tobe Hooper" is when he was working for Cannon Films. Lifeforce, Invaders From Mars, and TCM2 make one hell of an eclectic trilogy. Then you have The Mangler later on... He made some truly unique additions to the cinematic world, even if they were mostly unsuccessful. Really sad I never got to meet him...