If the original 1978 Halloween was the only movie on his resume, John Carpenter would be a genre legend for that alone. But no, this is also the man who made Assault on Precinct 13, The Fog, The Thing, Escape from New York, Prince of Darkness, They Live, and many more — a run of classic movies that few directors working in horror and sci-fi have matched since.

Right now, however, we’re talking about the new Halloween, which discards the torturous mythology of seven previous sequels and acts as a direct follow-up to the original film, focusing on Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) as she deals with the still traumatic effects of her encounter with Michael Myers some 40 years later. Michael himself has been pared back to his essence as The Shape, an embodiment of unstoppable evil whose motivations are frightening because they’re utterly unknowable.

Directed and co-written (with Danny McBride) by David Gordon Green (Stronger), this Halloween benefits largely from a simple decision on the part of Green and producer Jason Blum: get Carpenter himself involved again, as an executive producer, composer and all around spiritual advisor. The results — of Green and McBride’s grasp of the material, of Blum’s steady guidance and of Carpenter’s seal of approval — is perhaps the best Halloween since we first met Michael and Laurie all those years ago.

We had the chance to chat with Carpenter by phone in advance of the movie’s opening, and the director (who last directed a movie himself in 2009 with The Ward) spoke about getting involved with the new Halloween, why Michael Myers is such an enduring monster, and whether those recent reports about projects like a Prince of Darkness TV show are true.