Accusations against John Carpenter have been made claiming that he went on an angry, unpleasant tirade concerning the lack of credit he received for his role in inspiring Jordan Peele’s hugely successful 2017 hit film, GET OUT. Upon further investigation, it seems THIS is the fake news we’ve all been hearing so much about.

The accusations made earlier today say that John Carpenter is demanding more recognition, respect, and claiming that GET OUT wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for him and his work.

These accusations appear to have stemmed from a post by writer Jeffrey Wells, found on Hollywood-Elsewhere.com:

The original post attributes the following to Carpenter:

John Carpenter: To the critic who’ve been wetting themselves over Get Out since it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on 1.24.17: “I’ve been quiet over the last eight months because Jordan Peele’s a sharp, savvy actor, comedian, and filmmaker, and he deserves his day in the sun. But Get Out was a tribute to me, okay? To the kind of mid-budget socially reflective genre satire that I used to make. I’m the godfather, I won the patent, and now that Oscar season has begun I want a little acknowledgment of this. Have any of you pricks even mentioned my influence in your reviews? Would you even say the name Carpenter if I didn’t grab the mike and say ‘c’mon, what the fuck, guys…let’s be fair about this’? 

For the uninitiated, Wells has been writing a daily “stream-of-Hollywood-consciousness column” on Hollywood-Elsewhere for the past 13 years. While it may not have been clear in his original text, it appears that Wells was writing what he felt Carpenter should be feeling about the success of GET OUT.

Wells was not a fan of GET OUT, and decided to use Carpenter’s voice in a facetious manner to berate other critics for their unanimous acclaim of Peele’s film. Wells went on to explain himself in the comments section on Hollywood-Elsewhere:

Jeffrey Wells: Actually, when I got home from Toronto the Get Out Bluray was sitting on my doorstep, and I took a photo of it, and decided to add something copy-wise and thought up a way to re-cycle my John Carpenter observations by having Carpenter do the writing. 

So there you go, Carpenter never went on an angry tirade, and Wells isn’t at fault aside from being slightly unclear in his intent, but that didn’t stop other horror new websites from running with the quote as though it were fact despite having zero evidence to back up the claims.

Sure, their articles can be updated with notes about the doubtful veracity of the content, but the damage is done. Once claims like this are out there, it’s hard to convince people it wasn’t actually said. Most readers only skim headlines, and are ready to believe whatever they read, no matter how outrageous.

John Carpenter doesn’t need me to defend his legacy, but I refuse to stand by while a legend is slandered for cheap click bait. Shame.

Note: I’ve reached out to Jeffrey Wells for comment, but have not heard anything back at this time.

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NonSequitur

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