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UPDATE: John Carpenter has some harsh words for Rob Zombie and his Halloween remake

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It’s been almost ten years since Rob Zombie directed his remake of the horror classic Halloween, and now franchise creator John Carpenter has finally shared his opinion on the reinvention – and it turns out he’s not overly impressed by the film, nor Zombie himself for that matter.

Speaking at the New York Film Academy (via iHorror), Carpenter discussed a Halloween documentary special, where he took exception to some comments made by Zombie.

“He lied about me. He said that I was very cold to him when he told me that he was going to make [Halloween],” said the filmmaker. “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 shit lied, I don’t know. He had no reason to. Why did he do it?”

“So, frankly, that will color my response to the film,” he continued. “If I take that away, I did not… I thought that he took away the mystique of the story by explaining too much about [Michael Myers]. 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.”

UPDATE: Following the publication of the comments, Carpenter has taken to Twitter to state that it’s “old news” and he’s since buried the hatchet with Zombie:

What did you make of Rob Zombie’s Halloween? Is Carpenter right in his assessment? Let us know your thoughts on the remake in the comments below…

Comments

      • Eh when compared to the original Swash, no. Comparing it to the crap Carpenter has put out since? yeah i’d say Zombie has the edge (2 ok movies and one masterpiece).

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        • Uh… Are you saying Halloween was the last good movie Carpenter ever made? If so, have you seen a movie since 1979? Carpenter’s run of greatness is almost unparalleled. He made some of the greatest genre movies in history, until the Hollywood machine became too much and crushed his spirit.
          1. Dark Star
          2. Assault on Precinct 13
          3. Halloween
          4. Escape From New York
          5. The Fog
          6. Christine
          7. The Thing
          8. Starman
          9. Big Trouble in Little China
          10. Prince of Darkness
          11. They Live
          12. In the Mouth of Madness

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    • IF IT WEREN’T FOR JOHN CARPENTER,ROB ZOMBIE WOULD STILL BE A NO-TALENT METAL/GRUNGE ROCKER,PROBABLY LIVING IN A TRAILER PARK WATCHING ‘DUCK DYNASTY’ AND EATING PIGSKINS FOR BREAKFAST,LUNCH,& DINNER.

      WHO DARES TO ARGUE THIS?

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        • Whoever heard of a Vegan Zombie?
          I’m sure they are very short-lived,and more likely get eaten by their carnivore kinfolk.
          Any vegan zombies in Walking Dead?.

          Seriously,his whole act is bogus and worthless,and all his fans have ZERO CLUE what real talent is.

          Alice Cooper,even in his advanced years, could smoke Zombie
          like salmon.

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          • I saw the Gruesome Twosome tour where Alice Cooper and Rob Zombie played on the same bill. Every other night one would headline and the other would be the opener. They each got to play their full set whether they opened or closed so you got two full shows from both. Alice was the opener the night I saw them and Alice SLAYED Rob. The audience was exhausted after Alice played his set. Rob could not recapture the energy Alice had going. He came out playing hard but he lost momentum after about 20 minutes. And I’m a Rob Zombie fan. Well, in fairness I’m also an Alice fan. But yup, Alice smoked Rob like salmon the night I saw the two. No question.

      • Um, you DO realize that he was already a multi-millionaire from his White Zombie and Rob Zombie music projects, right!?!? Moron.

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        • When he isn’t ripping off John Carpenter and his ideas then he’s ripping off Al Jourgensen / Ministry for everything from the look (melted cowboy hat and dreads) to the sound samples and aggro vocals. I wonder if Rob Zombie has had an original idea in his life?!? “31” was just “The Purge” in a factory!

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          • I’ll give you the John Carpenter “inspiration” but Ministry? Are you fucking kidding me? Manson ripped off Ministry like he owned them but you just proved you don’t know shit about Rob Zombie or White Zombie’s music. I hope you get cancer of the knob and you fall off a fucking cliff. But you don’t die on the impact. In fact you’re not all that hurt but you can’t move either. So you spend your last days on earth laying in the elements with say a broken hip. For food you’re earing the pus that’s dripping out of you cancerous and infected member. You reach out to God and ask him “why God have you give me such an indignant death”. God actually answers you and says “no, I think this one fits your life pretty good you dipshit. Also I never liked you”.

          • Ummm…nope Rob Zombie robbed the shit out of Al(ien)Jourgenson. Marilyn Manson ripped off Ogre of Skinny Puppy. Dip shit.

      • Well though Agree that the new myers movie were shit. Didn’t zombie make the 100corpses or whatever before he started destroying the Halloween franchise???
        If I’m wrong I’ll gladly admit I stand corrected. I just recall hearing about 100corpes way back,so I thought it came before he destroyd halloween

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        • That’s a very good idea.
          Rob Zombie would be a great artist for HEAVY METAL magazine.
          His style is a perfect fit,and Grant Morrison would be just like a brother to him.
          Much better than what he’s done recently.

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    • If Rob Zombie were remotely capable of making a better movie, he wouldn’t have needed to use Carpenter’s character, premise, and movie title.

      It’s bad enough the vast majority of Rob Zombie’s music is based off of a single Black Sabbath song (“Children of the Grave”). He’s a shameless, rip-off hack, both as a musician and as a filmmaker.

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      • Rob is to horror,what Adam sandler is to serious movies.They both seem to cast girlfriends/friends in key roles.I zombies case with little talent aside from flashing tits/skin.

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      • Rob Zombie didn’t need to use Carpenter’s character, premise or title. He was hired to make a Halloween reboot and that’s what he did. Rob Zombie is certainly capable of making an original film. Any remake of Halloween is unnecessary and would pale in comparison to the original. Blame the studio that financed it. Not Rob Zombie.

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      • I’ve listened to plenty of Rob Zombie in my time. Haven’t heard anything that reminds me of Children of the Grave in the slightest. Black Sabbath got their name from the 1963 Boris Karloff movie. Shameless rip-off.

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      • John Carpenter will be long remembered when Rob Zombie is just a trivia question on a game show.
        Not only did Carpenter do great horror with a slight twist of humor and social commentary,he also (if only briefly) had a Smokin’ Hot Babe of a wife who also ha the talent to be a writer.
        I recommend anyone reading this to buy “VAMPYRES OF HOLLYWOOD”.
        Or at least look it up on GOOGLE.

        Reply

    • Are you serious? You thought Rob Zombie’s Halloween was better than John Carpenter’s? Wow that’s something I never thought I’d hear.

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    • Zombie made a better porn movie than Carpenter, but that’s about it. The original Halloween is so much better that that porn parody Zombie made.

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  2. If you look at it as a Halloween film, it’s just aight, but if you look at it as a Rob Zombie film that just happens to feature Michael Myers, it’s pretty good.

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      • devils rejects is better then 99 percent of the horror films carpenter made including fog village of the damned an vampires an the ward

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        • Devils rejects is the one “ok” movie he’s made, but it’s still overrated. I think people were surprised it felt like an actual movie professionally made.

          That said, Carpenter indeed made some crap himself, but at least he flashed some signs of greatness. At a minimum his film scores were pretty iconic.

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          • Devils rejects came out 11 years ago…If you haven’t seen it by now, you probably never will. You are way beyond the statute of limitations for a “spoiler alert” warning to be necessary.

  5. I liked Rob Zombie’s movies better, especially the second one; though the original is still a classic. And the main thing is that they’re just different films, made for different audiences, and in no way changed what Carpenter did. Carpenter did his version of the story and Zombie gave us his. It’s not a competition. Carpenter went for more suspense and Zombie went for…whatever it was Zombie does.

    Thus said, I did think Zombie’s second one had some silly stuff that should have been cut, like the lame white horse thing. But when it worked, it was awesome. My favorite parts were the death scenes of the ambulance drivers and the fake-tough bar bouncer. Good stuff. If you can’t appreciate good murder scenes and prefer suspense over blood, you’re watching the wrong genre.

    And the funniest thing about this were all the people who said Zombie ruined the franchise. Like, what? The franchise was ruined with every sequel after the original. Zombie did it better by making it his own instead of trying to copy Carpenter like those terrible sequels did. And Halloween 3 wasn’t even a real Halloween movie and should have been called something else.

    And yeah, I don’t care much for Carpenter’s sour grapes. He made some good original films a long time ago but has made a lot of bad ones since then. I suspect the old bitter John Carpenter wouldn’t care for the young John Carpenter either.

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  7. this reeks of but hurt an i like carpenter an hes a much better filmaker then zombie but lately carpenter has been a dick for some reason first he put down friday the 13 when its better then every halloween sequel including 2 which he wrote now he attacks rob zombie why zombie said an i quote carpenter told me to make it my own zombie did say that at the time he never bad mouthed carpenter

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  8. I met Carpenter at a Horror Hound convention and he comes off as cold, so perhaps Rob Zombie got the same vibe from him that I got.

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  9. I’m a huge carpenter fan. I love escape from New York and the thing. He has a bunch of other films that are fun as well. Dark star, assault on P13, they live, prince of darkness, ghosts of Mars and others. That being said the original Halloween might be carpenters worst film. Directors cut of zombie’s version rules. Sorry John.

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  11. Of course JC’s Halloween was the superior movie. And that POS Halloween 2 Zombie made wasn’t just nonsensical, it was plain STUPID.

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  13. The actual question regarding theses two directors is: “Will Zombie ever be capable of directing any genre other than horror and win an Academy Award”?

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    • and the answer is an emphatic “yes!” Perhaps you’re unaware of Zombie’s period piece starring Meryl Streep and entitled, “Prudence of the Magistrate” (you fucking retard)

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  14. zombie made a crap film with no soul. he thrives off gore and WWE style villains. It didn’t work because he’s not an artist. Carpenter is the artist.

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  15. Zombie’s movies were HORRIBLE. Pure shock and awe. No artistic merit whatsoever. Carpenter’s remark about revealing too much about Michael Myers is spot on.

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  17. John Carpenter: Halloween, The Thing, The Fog, They Live, Escape From New York, Christine, Big Trouble in Little China.. hell, even Starman, Dark Star & Assault on Precinct 13. That is a film legacy.

    Rob Zombie: Come on, you gotta be kidding…

    No contest whatsoever.

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  19. Carpenter needs to get off his high horse and change his diapers. He only directed the first Halloween film and acts like he directed the entire series. Of all of his movies, the only ones I liked were The Thing and Memoirs of an Invisible Man.

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  20. I think we can all agree that Rob Zombie’s two films were still better than Halloween III: Season of the Witch. A Halloween movie without Michael Myers is a complete slap in the face to the entire franchise.

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  23. Zombie’s Halloween sucked and Carpenter is right when he said ” he took away the mystique of the story by explaining too much about Michael Myers.” I also didn’t like that Zombie made the Myers family all white trash- but that is what Zombie always does with characters in his film and it gets old. If Zombie would have made a more classic telling of Halloween but made a modern telling of it- I think it would have been good.

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  24. I agree with Carpenter about the mystique of Michael Myers. It was the same problem with The Curse of Michael Myers. He is much more effective as a mysterious crazed man who seems almost supernatural in the way he can survive death and his incredible strength. Once you start building a reason for why he does what he does, you humanize him and run the risk of building a level of sympathy for him. Michael Myers from Halloween and Halloween 2 is the best version of him.

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  29. In the original, I was just scared because of this” man-shaped monster” that was killing them brutally! Zombie’s version, I do get it, but it kinda made me care about the kid that had a crapped life and due to the trauma became even more devoid that he ‘became” a monster. I didn’t want to care nor give that much thought to his”humanity” I liked just being scared because I didn’t know what he was or why

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  30. Rob Zombie is a joke of a filmmaker. I tried watching his last two films, “Lords of Salem” and “31” and they were absolute crap

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  31. Guess we were giving Rob Zombie 10 years to see if he was the new generations Steven Spielberg, before criticizing his remake of HALLOWEEN. Fair. Now lets kill him.

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  32. The original John Carpenter Halloween is one of the greatest horror movies of all time hands down! Rob Zombies vision really feel short on almost every level, and it really didn’t work at all. Loved his Devils Rejects film ! Stick to that and stay away from the classics !

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  34. Rob Zombie made One mediocre-good movie (1000 corpses) and one absolutely FANTASTIC movie (Devil’s Rejects), and then made a watchable but forgettable Halloween movie….. Why Carpenter is butthurt now is confusing, it’s been many years since Carpenter has released anything remotely good and now he’s all bitching about something 10 years ago?

    I didn’t like the whole “origin” story that Zombie did either, but it was still a pretty decent movie. Does John Carpenter have a new movie coming out and he’s just trying to get his name back in the press before release because otherwise “I mean seriously, Rob Zombie said you were cold to him? What are you 15 years old John? Hell giving this statement actually makes me believe he probably didn’t want you screwing with his movie. John, let it go and maybe make a movie worth watching, rather than complaining about something from 10 years ago.

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  36. Carpenter’s Halloween II is what got me into my horror movie obsession. i haven’t looked back since. Carpenter was spot on in his critique of Zombie’s film. Michael Myers is “The Shape”. He’s this thing that keeps coming after you, for no rhyme or reason. Similar concept to “It Follows”. When you explain too much of the back story, it destroys the mystique of the film. Plus he’s not supposed to be the size of the Undertaker.

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  37. I thought when Michael Myers had that gay scene with the black teenager and didn’t even attempt to harm the guy but climbed out the window and the the scene shot to a sunset was indicative of the changing of the times a metaphor like. Hey I’m gonna get all the bad people who don’t want us to be. Then kinda heroically he passes on an if you look at the crowd in the last scene of the movie. You can see his “mystique” the segregation undertones of gay love. Because they made him stand in the back of the crowd and watch the burning corpse Michael Myers used to be. The end. Or rather Michael takes it in the end. By a black androgenous teen looking 40 year old. I didn’t think it was appropriate. But hey it’s new age sh* nowadays. First Michael Myers turns out to be gay what next incredible Hulk is a black man? Come on gtfo here! We got to get back to reality people. You know.

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  38. I thought Zombie’s lacked suspense, had over-the-top gore and was way too in your face. In other words, it was like most mainstream horror movies of the modern era. I know that the American public has the attention span of a gnat, but Zombie didn’t have to feed into it. Carpenter’s version was vastly superior.

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  39. The RZ version was very good! I thought it did a terrific job about being horrifying. I also feel there was some supernatural element to MM, His size being one thing. Starting has a small child and then becoming so large in stature is what made him supernatural, as if his driving force was his rage. The RZ Halloween remake was very nightmarish. Now the Sequel was just plain whacky, I didn’t like it at all. I’m not going to bash the carpenter version because it was from another time so I’m sure it was great at the time.

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  40. rob zombie is an inept director…he totally doesnt understand the nuance of horror…if you prefer his Halloween to carpenters, im sorry but you are stupid

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  41. While I completely agree with Carpenter’s criticism, John did tell Zombie to “make it your own movie”, and that is what Rob did. Unfortunately, Zombie’s vision of HALLOWEEN eliminated what was cool about the Michael Myers character. That being the mystery, and the supernatural element.

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  42. Halloween 1 remake was an incredible trip inside what was behind Michael’s psychotic behavior. I think Zombie culled a believable narrative that had me weighing the nature vs nurture argument. It kinda seemed like a bit of both.

    His remake of Halloween 2 however, was confusing and disjointed and sucked by the end. All that white horse bullshit and the wishy washy emotions of Laurie took me out of it.

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  44. Rob Zombie took Halloween, raped it, shat on it, injected it with steroids and doused it with a thousand gallons of blood and gore.

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  46. I have been saying that since I saw Zombie’s remake. The mystery and mystique of Michael Myers is what really made Carpenter’s original an epic. No explanation for why he did it, to me, leaves it to your imagination making it more scary to every individual. Zombie makes him just another abused psychopath.

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  47. Zombie’s version was just very lackluster and kinda sucked. The only redeeming quality about it is that he cast Danielle Harris.

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  48. It was shite he took the supernatural element out of myers by making human ie he grunts when stabbing etc, in the originals he never makes a sound making him scary, also the hill billly rape scene was damn horrible and shouldnt have been in there, what is it with zombie and hill billy rape

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  49. I liked the backstory of Myers. It finally explained why he’s so tormented and evil. It give you a sense that the guys is not just some schmuck running around in a mask killing people and by day making pancakes for his kids and going to his job.

    Carpenter’s time is done. He likes to have a character be just because “he’s like that” without explanation. Which was fine for the 70’s and 80’s but now we like that the story teller gives us the point of origin to something.

    Best line from this is “..He’s supposed to be almost supernatural. And he was too big. It wasn’t normal.” yeah.. ok.. so you’re saying that he was to big and it’s ain’t normal.. Ok, but it’s normal that your story shows a smaller version of a guy who can basically kill off multiple people but no one of same size and strength can stop him? Yep makes sense. Also, to be “normal” means that he can’t be supernatural.. To be supernatural he would need to be different than most of us, oh like let’s say.. Euh.. Bigger… Stonger than most people out there.. OH! .. I see what Zombie did there.. Well played Zombie.. well played..

    I think Zombie’s take on the size is actually the better version since for him to be a force of nature, to be able to drag people and flat out kill them with brutal force with limited amount of retaliation or harm coming to him he needs to be able to give and take those blows. So he needs to be big as a freaking tank compared to the “normal” sized humans.

    I’m not a super fan of either of those guys, but I think the new movie was better. Maybe it’s because it’s set in more recent days so the quality of the picture is better, the actors give better performances than those of the 70’s and 80’s but to shit all over it.. Come on Carpenter!

    If Carpenter’s feelings were hurt, he has all the right to come out and say “You know what, I hate Zombie.. He lied about how I treated him and for that I hate the movie because I hate the guy.” .. there.. That’s it.. To go on and explain why the movie is bad on the most ridiculous points just shows a man that was hurt and now is playing baby by criticizing points about a movie which are the same failures as his own creation..

    Grow a pair Carpenter. Just say you don’t like the guy so so won’t watch his movies because you have become biased on everything Zombie does.

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  50. Zombies film sucked balls. It played out like a Pepe lepew cartoon except with tits and screaming every three seconds. It was like watching every bargain bin D slasher movie made from the early 90’s. Just god awful.

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  51. Like everything in life it’s a matter of opinion. I loved Carpenter’s version, but I loved Zombie’s version too. I loved knowing the backstory. As far as I’m concerned they both made some kick ass films, but no one said you had to like them all.

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  53. It’s like Friday the 13th. The new one was good I feel the second will be as well once released. I think things have come along way with remaking these films better then ever. The quality is there the rest is up to the writers and producers to pull it off.

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  54. Rob Zombie has always been a no talent, shock rocker who especially hates artists like Marilyn Manson for being a genuinely talented. (Narcissists always hate and envy the real deal). He’s also full of delusions of grandeur when it comes to making movies- B grade trash unworthy of the silver screen. Lately he’s been at war with anyone brave enough to state the obvious about his music and his works. Reality is finally rearing its ugly head and the old geezer is doing his best to bury his head in the sand so he can remain in denial.

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  55. I dispise Rob zombies Halloween movies. He destroyed the mystical nature surrounding micheal myers by giving an excuse for why micheal kills. One of the greatest things about Halloween 1 and 2 is you don’t no why micheal is killing but not killing everyone he sees. He targeted specific people and then just anyone who got in his way.

    Zombie just had to go down the root of saying he had a bad childhood so that’s why he does what he does. Which is complete bullshit. I had a extremely shitty childhood and guess what I don’t go around killing people. Zombie I was crappy director imo. In fact when I re watch halloween movies from time to time I never watch his remakes. I refuse to even by the dvds they that shit

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