The movie John Carpenter regrets making
The Halloween film franchise is one of the most important in movie history. The original 1978 film directed by John Carpenter became the blueprint for both slasher films and film franchises that would follow. The precedent set by Carpenter’s return to Michael Myers’ world would be massively influential to film sequels, both horror and otherwise, that would follow.
Only Carpenter wasn’t the director of Halloween II. That distinction went to Rick Rosenthal, a first-time film director who was picked by the film’s producers after Carpenter decided that he didn’t want to continue. Carpenter would eventually come aboard as a co-writer and producer, but after the film’s release, he made it clear that he wasn’t happy with the extended prolonging of the franchise.
“I felt that there was no more story after the original,” Carpenter told Giant Bomb in 2014. “But audiences wanted to see Michael Myers return again and again. Or maybe it was producers who wanted him to return again and again for reasons having to do with profit.”
“That was a project I got involved in as a result of several different kinds of pressure,” Carpenter told Twilight Zone Magazine in 1982. “I had no influence over the direction of the film. I had an influence on the post-production. I saw a rough cut of Halloween II, and it wasn’t scary. It was about as scary as Quincy. So we had to do some post-production work to bring it at least up to par with the competition.”
Carpenter went so far as to blame his decision of making Laurie Strode and Michael Myers siblings on booze. “I made Halloween [II], and then Halloween [II] was sold to NBC to show it. But it was too short… they needed it to be a certain length. So I had to go back and shoot some more footage to make it longer. And I was absolutely stuck. I didn’t know what to do. I mean, the movie is the movie… I don’t want to touch it. But everybody will be happy with me, and they’ll make money, and that’s great. So I had to come up with something. I think it was, perhaps, a late night fueled by alcoholic beverages, was that idea. A terrible, stupid idea! But that’s what we did.”
Despite his disdain for what Halloween had become, Carpenter had come around to the franchise by the time 2018’s Halloween went into production. While David Gordon Green directed the film, along with the sequels Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends, Carpenter served as the executive producer and composer for the newest additions.
