The Walking Dead: Horror icon John Carpenter subtly slams zombie series

The Halloween director probably won't be tuning into season 7

The Walking Dead is one of the world's most-watched television shows.

What started out an out-and-out zombie apocalypse drama has evolved into an intriguing character study over six seasons, which isn't to say the series now steers clear of gruesome deaths and spine-tingling tension. Quite the opposite, in fact.

While scoring legions of fans over this six-year run, one person who doesn't consider themselves as such is horror maestro John Carpenter.

Appearing on an episode of WTF Podcast with Marc Maron, the Halloween director subtly criticised the AMC series when talking about his peer George A Romero, the filmmaker attributed with inventing the zombie genre with Night of the Living Dead in 1968.

"[The Walking Dead] was a movie that George Romero made back in 1968. And they have milked that, and they are still milking it," he said.

Still, we're sure Robert Kirkman, Greg Nicotero and the remainder of the show's producers are probably contented with how things are for the series which is due to return this October for its seventh season.

Perhaps Carpenter's just miffed about the season six cliffhanger which saw new villain Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) brutally murder a character, the identity of whom was kept from the viewer.