Fans of the living dead have one man to thank for the birth of the modern cinematic zombie genre: George A. Romero, the filmmaker who made Night of the Living Dead on the cheap in 1968 and kicked off a zombie obsession that’s lasted for decades. But Romero has a bone to pick with recent zombie fiction. In his eyes, the genre has been ruined—thanks to Hollywood’s rekindled interest in making blockbuster zombie films.

“I harbor a lot of resentment,” Romero told Indiewire in a new interview. “I used to be the only guy on the zombie playground, and unfortunately Brad Pitt and The Walking Dead have made it Hollywood-ized. I was ready to do another one, a $2-3 million one, and nobody will finance a zombie film now.”

Romero was referencing the wildly expensive Pitt film World War Z, which Paramount financed for over $200 million amid numerous behind-the-scenes troubles. Oscar-nominated director David Fincher recently signed on to helm the film’s sequel, a sure sign that prestige zombie fare is here to stay—and that the days of micro-budget movies about the slow-walking brain eaters are over.

This isn’t the first time the director has pointed a finger at World War Z and The Walking Dead, AMC’s splashy, successful zombie series that costs millions of dollars to make per episode. In an interview last year, Romero said he couldn’t get his smaller films financed as a result of The Walking Dead’s effect, despite his history of success.

“Because of World War Z and The Walking Dead, I can’t pitch a modest little zombie film, which is meant to be sociopolitical,” he told Indiewire in 2016. “I used to be able to pitch them on the basis of the zombie action, and I could hide the message inside that. Now, you can’t. The moment you mention the word ‘zombie,’ it’s got to be, ‘Hey, Brad Pitt paid $400 million to do that.’”

In the grander scheme, this logic applies to nearly every film genre being made in Hollywood right now. Unless something has blockbuster potential, it’s hard to convince studios to shell out even a micro-budget of a few million dollars, especially to a project that’s considered niche. Why spend cash on something that might turn a modest profit when they can focus their resources on the next Fast and the Furious installment instead, or an effects-heavy superhero adaptation with a baked-in audience and a guaranteed global box-office return?

Romero is still keeping busy, however, and has a new project in the works titled Road of the Dead, a zombie film in which the living dead know how to drive. He’ll be courting the project at the Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal later this month, where he’s hoping to secure financing. Romero also clarified that even though he dislikes the zombie boom of the era, he doesn’t take it too personally.

“It’s not really resentment,” he said. “I’ve had a terrific run.”