John Carpenter on “The Walking Dead” and the Current State of Horror

By JonathanBarkan on July 5, 2016

Anyone who’s ever watched an interview with John Carpenter knows that the iconic director is rather short and terse in his responses. He cuts right to the quick of things and doesn’t expand on his answers, preferring instead to let the few words he offers be his final word on a topic.

Recently, Carpenter appeared on an episode of Marc Maron’s WTF Podcast where he was asked a plethora of questions, including his relationship with Kurt Russell, his current musical career, and the lasting impact of They Live. Here, the interview is far more conversational in tone, which allows Carpenter to sound relaxed and interject with his opinions, his anecdotes, and his wisdom.

During that talk, he spoke about the current state of horror, using AMC’s “The Walking Dead” as an example of the state of the genre and how ideas are generated. He explained, “That was a movie that George Romero made back in ’68 [Night of the Living Dead] and they have milked…people have milked it and they’re STILL milking it. It’s unreal.”

Carpenter also weighed in on the current state of horror and how he feels that it’s rather stagnant. “Horror is due for a new beginning. It’s due for a resurgence. They have to change it. We have to change it up. We can’t keep doing these cheap ‘Poltergeist’ movies either. ‘Paranormal’… It’s just a cheap movie. Come on now!”

The esteemed director continues, talking about how horror has been a reflection of what goes on during the times and that the majority are bad, many are average, and only a handful stand out as being really great.

Interesting sidenote, Carpenter also says the The Thing is “…the best” horror movie he made.