Halloween (1978 movie) type Movie genre Horror

John Carpenter has daggers for Rob Zombie.

In a recently resurfaced video, the legendary horror director — who’s helmed films like The Fog, Christine, and Assault on Precinct 13 — speaks to a group of students at the New York Film Academy, where he shares his perspective on the industry, his legacy, and Zombie’s 2007 remake of his classic, genre-redefining slasher flick Halloween.

“He lied about me,” the 68-year-old says, referencing a previous interview Zombie gave regarding production on the remake, which received negative reviews from critics and grossed $58 million at the domestic box office. “He said I was very cold to him when he told me he was going to make it. 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 s— lied, I don’t know.”

Carpenter revealed the interaction left a sour taste in his mouth, and ultimately colored his perception of Zombie’s Halloween adaptation and its subsequent sequel, which was released in 2009.

“I thought he took away the mystique of the story by explaining too much about [Michael Myers],” Carpenter said. “I don’t care about that. He’s supposed to be a force of nature, he’s supposed to be almost supernatural, and he was too big, it wasn’t normal.”

Carpenter is currently executive-producing a new Halloween sequel. “Thirty-eight years after the original Halloween I’m going to help to try to make the 10th sequel the scariest of them all,” he said in a statement earlier this year.

Watch his full New York Film Academy talk (the Zombie bits begin at around the 17-minute mark) below.