Science & Tech Quote by Tobe Hooper

Hooper’s line plays like a weary swat at the undead of modern fandom: the sequel rumor that refuses to die. The title he cites, Return of the Living Dead, isn’t even his franchise, which is part of the joke and part of the irritation. In one breath, he’s correcting the record and admitting the futility of doing so. “That’s been on the Internet for years” is less a timestamp than a diagnosis: online culture doesn’t merely preserve misinformation; it embalms it, reanimates it, and sends it back into circulation whenever someone needs content.

The intent is defensive but not humorless. Hooper, a filmmaker whose name is permanently stapled to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Poltergeist disputes, understands how authorship gets flattened into brand. The subtext is: I’m not in control of the narrative you think I’m in control of. In the internet age, directors become characters in a collective story about “reboots,” “returns,” and “secret projects,” whether they’re participating or not.

What makes the quote work is its offhand specificity. He doesn’t grandstand about “fake news” or “the media.” He points to the mundane mechanism: the rumor’s longevity. That casualness is the sharper critique. Hooper is basically saying that the online machine runs on perpetual anticipation, and the smallest spark - a forum post, a misattributed interview, a half-remembered title - can keep a non-existent film shambling around for a decade. The horror, here, isn’t zombies. It’s the afterlife of a headline.