JOHN CARPENTER
VS.
ROB ZOMBIE

September 27, 2016 Report E.C.McMullen Jr. UPDATE: SEPT. 28

JOHN CARPENTER VS. ROB ZOMBIE

Like Rob Zombie I'm a huge fan of John Carpenter's work. Carpenter is one of the few people whose movies I bought on VHS, then DVD and am currently supplanting with BLU-RAY. I'll no doubt be a sucker for these movies with their 4K iterations and whatever other superior media comes down the pike.

However, out of nowhere and for reasons I cannot explain, Carpenter recently called Zombie a piece of shit for apparently telling a lie about John regarding a supposed conversation the two had over the movie HALLOWEEN. John says it went like this,

But this is what I remember Rob saying back in 2006,

Before accepting the job, Zombie told Variety he'd reached out to Carpenter, seeking his blessing.

"The original 'Halloween' is hallowed ground to me, and I talked to him about it and he was very supportive of what I wanted to do," Zombie said. "He said, 'Go for it, Rob. Make it your own.' And that's exactly what I intend to do."

Continued at MTV

Which is what John says he told Rob and is exactly what I remember.

I've spent more time than I should looking for the History Channel documentary that John refers to and, so far, have come up with nothing. I've also found Rob offering nothing but praise for Carpenter in hours of online interviews throughout the years, so I can't comment on that, but otherwise the record is clear. Over the last decade, Rob offered nothing but honest respect for both Carpenter and his work.

However -

I eventually came across this, from bio: True Story.

Halloween: The Inside Story*

The 2010 documentary is about 90 minutes long and Rob only has a few seconds of screen time. At the 1:26:32 mark, Rob's years of favorably describing the warm exchange between himself and John decidedly shifted when he said,

"Y'know, I called him up and the conversation pretty went exactly like this. I was like 'Hey John, this is Rob.'
'Hey.'
'Just wanted to tell you, I'm doing a remake of Halloween.' And then there's like a weird silence and he goes,
'So, what do you want me to say?'
'I don't want you to say anything, I just wanted to tell you.'
'Okay, have fun with it.'
'Okay.' "
- Rob Zombie

The part only lasts for about 20 seconds and I don't know the context of this, but the documentary makers said Rob was describing John's "Chilly reaction".

I'm a long time fan of John's movies and music and a long time fan of Rob's music, so as a Horror fan in general I'm kinda bummed by this. As fans we generally hope that the folks we admire in Horror all get along as chummy as Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, but sometimes it doesn't work out that way.

The latest from John. He and Rob talked and worked it out like adults. A rare thing in Hollywood.

*Tip of the hat to Shawn Jones for finding the title of the documentary!

END

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