Though he’s been taking it easy in the arena of directing movies (the last feature film he directed was 2010’s The Ward), John Carpenter has been keeping busy with other things. Like letting people know just how disappointed he is with Rob Zombie’s Halloween remake, and showing off the Utopian Facade music video, done for a track on his recently released music album Lost Themes II. What’s that, you say? John Carpenter is releasing music albums? Yes, yes he is. But first, let’s talk Halloween.

John Carpenter Hates on the Halloween Remake

According to the Guardian, the Halloween / Rob Zombie dissing comments were made back in April during a New York Film Academy discussion with Carpenter, but only very recently came to light as Zombie’s indie horror film ’31’ has been showing up On Demand. Interestingly, it appears the NYFA discussion video was available at one point, but it has now been marked as private. However, we do have a written record of the two most quoted bits. First up, Carpenter responds to a claim Zombie made in a 2010 documentary Halloween: The Inside Story:

“He lied about me. He said that I was very cold to him when he told me that he was going to make [Halloween]. Nothing could be further from the truth. I said, ‘Make it your own movie, man. This is yours now. Don’t worry about me.’ I was incredibly supportive. Why that piece of shit lied, I don’t know. He had no reason to. Why did he do it?”

After which he explained his reason for not enjoying the Halloween remake:

“I thought that he took away the mystique of the story by explaining too much about the guy. I don’t care about that. It’s supposed to be a force of nature, he’s supposed to be almost supernatural. And he was too big. It wasn’t normal.”

However, perhaps sensing that Carpenter would one day call him a piece of shit, Zombie previously shared his own shit-related reasons as to why he decided to remake Halloween in an interview with Loudwire:

“People say, ‘Why would you [remake] Halloween? That’s iconic.’ Which it is, but that’s why I wanted to make it different. I love John Carpenter, I’ve known John for a long time and I love Halloween, but to me, I always thought the sequels were kind of shitty, so I was like, ‘Well, they already shit all over it.’ If there had never been another Halloween movie, maybe I wouldn’t have done it.”

Which, you know, he’s not wrong. The Halloween sequels were largely forgettable.

John Carpenter’s Utopian Facade Music Video

OK, so back to Carpenter’s music. It’s no secret that Carpenter has been composing minimalist synth music for many of his movies (like the original Halloween, Assault on Precinct 13, The Fog and Escape From New York), but with the release of 2015’s Lost Themes, and Lost Themes II earlier this year, he’s began releasing original (though it definitely wouldn’t feel out of place in his movies) music as well. So, here’s the just released Utopian Facade music video:

The music video comes courtesy of directors Gavin Hignight and Ben Verhulst, who previously directed a music video for Night, a cut off of Carpenter’s Lost Themes album. They used that previous video as a starting point for the new one, with Hignight saying that “our goal was to explore these feelings combined with the visuals of the electronic synth driven world established in the ‘Night’ video. An android’s nightmare is what culminated.” Carpenter shows up in both videos playing what appears to be himself before he enters a VR world.

If you’re a fan of what you’re hearing, and you live in the UK or Europe, you still have a chance to pick up tickets to see Carpenter on tour with his music.

I wonder if musician Rob Zombie has any words for musician John Carpenter?

Featured Image: Sacred Bones Records