I been watching and rewatching stuff on YouTube. Interviews, fan reviews etc. And the more I think about how Carpenter only wanted one “Michael Myers” Halloween and then to tell other stories dawns on me… I have to wonder if this was the case would there still be such a huge fan following for Michael Myers or would he have fell short and just another story and maybe a forgoten movie now a days if there were say 8 diffrent Halloweens with stories like vampires or werewolves etc. ? The more I hear people talk and think about the movie my I find my mind now viewing the original movie just about a Halloween tale about the boogeyman and than Michael in a sense is indeed supernatural and is the boogeyman and not just a name given to him by Tommy Doyle and friends. When I view this movie in the way it really takes a diffrent shape in my mind, one that I never looked at as since I been alive there has always been multiple Halloween movies and the Michael Myers franchise has always been there for me. Which then got me to thinking was Halloween 1978 such a stand out film that if left at that, would Michael Myers be just a big deal, like a cult following perhaps, or would it be brought up as people saying… Oh the original Halloween is a story about the boogeyman …leaving Myers unnamed in most conversations…and then oh Halloween 4 is about the Aliens and Halloween 7 was about this ghost etc etc
? Anyone have an opinion or thought about it or just anyone else when sit back and look at it differently make you feel any sort of way like this?
I really wish Halloween was a one off with no more Myers sequels. I love the idea of JC doing a Halloween anthology, something different everytime. I would have loved to have something like this listed below:
Halloween: The Boogeyman (1978)
Halloween: Season of the Witch (1981)
Halloween: Satan’s Playground (1983)
Halloween: Demonic (1985)
Halloween: The Lady in White (1987)
Halloween: The Dead Come Back (1989)
This is a great question. Honestly, it’s kind of hard to say. Back in the 80’s, up until H4 and H5 in 1988 and 89, respectively, the only Michael Myers movie released in the 80’s was H2. So, we pretty much went nearly a decade with no Myers movies. Meanwhile, Freddy and Jason were tearing it up. I was watching Dave Mcrae on Youtube talking about this (he’s a great guy by the way, I highly recommend checking him out), and what he said was, due to this reason, when ever you dressed up as Michael Myers back in the 80’s, people would just think you were Jason, not Michael Myers, and that’s with 2 Myers movies, not just the original! So, it begs the question, if we only had H1 and H2, let alone just H1, and none of the sequels, would Michael be as big and popular as he is today? Like I said, it’s hard to say.
Hell, I still get called “Jason” by people in this very day and age when I am dressed in Myers garb, so…yeah.
I am of the camp that if it was only the one movie, most people these days wouldn’t even know who the hell Myers is. This of course if we are talking about a timeline that still has several Friday and Nightmare sequels. People these days, general public that is, have a hard enough time deciphering Jason from Michael, and so I think they would just call anyone dressed as Michael, “Jason”. Again, this is taking into account a timeline where the full Friday the 13th franchise still exsists.
If we only had the first Friday the 13th though, then I can see Halloween being a bigger deal and imprinting on people’s minds more. Jason became a powerful horror icon in his own right, and to a lot of folks, the better icon. Yeah I know, that’s blasphemy when a lot of us prefer Michael, but it’s very much true. Had we never gotten Jason as the Killer with those sequels, then Michael would be a bigger image in the general public brains in my opinion. But that’s not the case, and Jason in a lot of ways is the more popular killer with a huge portion of the general public. They have Jason on the brain, as every year, at least 3 or 4 folks out of a group of 10, will call me Jason. It’s unbelievably annoying…lol, and trust me they aren’t ribbing or trolling, they are dead serious when they say it.
That of course is not answering the fact of if I personally wanted the Halloween sequels, and if that needs an answer, yes, I would not change what has happened with the franchise. I would let it play out just as it has. My shelves would be bare with only one Myers mask to look at lol.
I would of been ok with Halloween being a one off film. I feel like the sequels ruined Myer’s legend. Though I do very much enjoy H2 and H18.
The fan base would of been significantly smaller if that were the case. I can’t see the huge fan base just based on the first film. There are a lot of fans out there who got their first Myers fix on H2, or H4 and H5, or H6, and so on.
And take into account, that while this may sound like total fuckery, there are a LOT of folks who find the first movie boring and not scary at all. I know, I know, how the hell could that be possible right?? But trust me, it’s very much true.
I know quite a few people who find the first movie boring and not scary, yet find H2 or H4 to be better films in their minds. Or even H20, hell, my wife is one of them. I am almost 40 years old, and most people I talk with about the films, are my age or older. So it’s not because they are young minded folk.
I personally love the first film, but a lot of people out there would not even give a shit about Michael Myers if it weren’t for the sequels. I know the hardcore H1 fans don’t want to hear that, but it’s true and then some.
Yeah I totally agree with your statement. But never underestimate the power of H1 .lol I think it would of been as legendary as the Birds, the Shinning, or An American Werewolf in London, ( I don’t consider AWIP a sequel), if it was a one off. But as far as people liking the sequels better than H1, I would say that’s a small minority, from what I personally observed. But I’m no expert man. I could be wrong. lol
Doubt the hobby would be what it is with only one film
That’s just what I mean though when I say, if in a world without the Friday and Nightmare franchise, and if those franchises were just one film a piece, I could see it taking on that status. However, in a world that still has the Friday and Nightmare franchises with all of their sequels, I don’t see Halloween having that status.
Those films you mentioned, the Shining, the birds, etc, are all very unique, more psychological films than anything else. If we are talking about a slasher killer in the night, then you have to remove those other franchises, as people really gravitate towards those and they are embedded in their minds.
The folks who find the first H1 to be non scary and boring though, they probably are a minority, but I would say it’s a sizable minority. As in my experience, out of every 5 people I might of talked to, 3 of 5 say the movie is too slow and nothing happening for 3/4 of the movie so they don’t like it much. They don’t see the stalking for 3/4 of the movie as something that scares them, where as other folks find that to be the scariest part.
It’s a weird thing, but maybe I am just surrounded by a bunch of lame ass people who don’t get it which is why it seems to be a higher number of folks who dislike the film.
At the end of the day though, without the sequels, this fanbase would be a lot more tight nit and a smaller overall group. I think that would be a fact.
But I really don’t want to know, because I like our fan community, so I am glad to have the franchise have the films that it does. This discussion wouldn’t even be happening right now if we didn’t. And this is a good discussion! Lol
Excellent take brother. And yes , this is a fantastic discussion . Cheers. 
Much like the original Psycho, until the sequels, Halloween would have been just fine without any sequels and YES…we would still be talking about it today. Halloween is, almost, the perfect horror film…and is the granddaddy of slashers. Halloween is perfect for just what it is and should be left alone.
For hardcore fans, and some general public, yeah, the perfect horror film. And yeah we would talk about it. But a wider range of general public and them viewing him as a horror icon? I can’t see it, sorry. Just too many variables in the general publics opinions on the first film for me to buy into that. I buy it if their isn’t a Friday the 13th franchise, but I don’t see it reaching the icon status it has, without the many sequels regardless of how asinine or out there they got.
The sequels played a huge part in the growth of the fanbase. Those folks I talk about that find the first movie dull and boring and not scary, find the sequels to be their cup of tea and is what made them fans.
Trust me, I know it sounds completely ridiculous, especially when you and I and tons of other fans love the first movie, but the size of this fanbase would not be what it is today, without the sequels. To us, yes, it’s a horror classic, yet to a sizable base out there, it’s a boring dull non-scary sleep fest.
Yet those same group of people say how they love H2, or they love the Thorn trilogy and have Thorn tattoos, or how they love Rob zombies better, etc. When we talk about fans of MICHAEL MYERS, not Halloween the movie, this fanbase would be significantly smaller without the sequels.
I’ve talked to hundreds of people about these films over the last almost 30 years of my 40 years on this Earth, and this is what I hear time and time again. I would say if I had to go back and divide the folks up in camps of those who love the original, and who find the original boring, it’s almost half and half out of the folks I have discussed this with over three plus decades.
This forum would not have grown to the size it is now without the sequels, nor would the mask collection community. How many different H1 masks do you think could fill up thousands of pages of forums for discussion? I absolutely love H1, but that would be boring to me. I would love the film dearly to this day, and would love to talk about the mask, and the film itself and how it worked and what not, but a forum this deep and diverse? Doubt it.
This is just my opinion, so no need to get defensive, as I know how the H1 purist feels and thinks, but I just can’t see this much depth in this forum and community without the sequels.
They mean something to a portion of the fanbase out there, so much so that they tattoo thorns and all that other shit onto their bodies, so the sequels are just as important to them, as H1 is to the H1 purists. I don’t think that can be denied honestly.
A large portion of the fanbase, are fans of Michael Myers, and not necessarily the films themselves, other than being vehicles to see their icon run amok in. It’s just how I see it pan out when I am at horror-cons and theater viewings of the films over the years. It’s Michael Myers, not so much the films themselves, where a large portion of the fans sit. Is it the whole damn base? Hell no it isn’t, but that’s why the base would be significantly smaller, without the sequels.
Again, just my subjective opinion, based on a collection of discussions, events, theater viewings, etc, over 30 plus years.
Much like Hitchcock, Psycho is his most remembered film. And, for Carpenter, Halloween is his signature calling card. Fuck the fan bases of Michael Myers. It’s the fans of John Carpenter that keep Halloween alive much like Psycho did for YEARS beyond any “Fans” of Norman. The names of the Directors top it.
Dave McCRAE IS exactly got me thinking this way actually love his videos and thoughts
A lot good posts and opinions. I guess it would maybe have come down to how good the other Halloween anthology movies where in a whole as well… if the anothologys where well received I believe Michael being the first would hold a lot of credit with fans of the anthology movie series. Maybe not as well as he has done on a stand alone franchise but more of a cult following. There been alot single movies that gather lot of attention I thought about when making this. Monty Python and the holy grail stuck out, because yes it’s the only one of its kind but there is other monty python movies as well but the holy grail seems to have taken the cake. Also a new film but very hard to find someone who doesn’t know it is The Big Lebowski, a one time film that may not have all the glamour to a collector but it has a nice following as well. For me I do not mind mist the sequels… being born in Oct. 88 I didn’t get my taste of Michael for a while and H2 was my first and I was traumatized of hospitals after that. What kills H4 H5 H6 for me sadly is the masks… I know alot of people like them, me personally find it hard to watch. I just like to see an edited version of all 3 with the original mask
I hate to disagree with you man, but the majority of the masks that people show off here, are H1 and H2… I rarely see anyone brag about owning a H4, H5, H6 masks. If you ask James Carter, what do the majority of his customers request? H1 and H2. So to say the masks from the sequels are what keep this community afloat, I strongly disagree. And many of us could view pics of H-1 and H-2 masks all day. And that’s because of the many looks of the original Hero. Closet scene, hallway scene, when he comes out of the shadows , the phone scene… etc. And I’m not sure where you’re getting the notion that many people find H78 boring, and half of them are all about the sequels. I was at the H40 con. And anyone who was in attendance will tell you that majority of the people in attendance were wearing H1 gear, and had H1 masks. I don’t know man, maybe I’m living in a different world. lol
Whenever you have a “Horror” franchise…and everyone points to the original as the best…that means the sequels were unnecessary. Halloween being exhibit A. Nothing beats it in the franchise and it’s always, every poll, every mask…everything…#1.
Maybe you missed the part where I said I might just be surrounded by a bunch of lame asses in a couple posts back. Trust me I get it, but out here on the east coast, at the cons out this way, I see about half and half. and they are not necessarily just fans of the sequels, but fans of Myers himself. The sequels just serve as a vehicle to see him do his thing. I think I clarified that before but maybe not.
Again, we are talking about fans who are more likely to go to the Jason side of things, so for them to view Myers that way, makes sense if they are Jason fans. I don’t think you would disagree that Jason is the reason to watch the Friday sequels, no? Well that’s where some of these fans minds are at in it all, if you get what I am saying.
As for the masks, I can definitely look at them and talk about them, but I don’t know if I could go on for days about them. But if we are looking at H2, well, there you go, it’s one of the looks from a sequel, regardless if it was the same mask or not. Without warlock wearing it, you wouldn’t have that look, which A LOT of fans love that look.
I am a fan of the original movie, as well as the majority of the sequels, but not all of the sequels. If you can live on H1 masks and have five different versions of the same mask and that keeps you talking, then that’s great man. It’s subjective material, so not everyone is going to feel the same way.
Same as for the original film itself, it’s all subjective in how one feels about it. When I start hearing people basically cram an opinion down others throats, that’s when it gets silly. And no I am not saying your cramming any opinions down any throats, it’s just that I know how people can get on here, so please take no offense to that. I am certainly not cramming anything down anywhere, and simply stating, based on the lame ass people I have talked to over the years, that they do in fact find the first movie boring, and if not boring, then it moves too slow for them.
Subjective material is just that, it’s subjective. Us as individuals get to decide if we love something, like something, hate something, etc. But not everyone is going to feel the same way. And that’s what I am saying, is people around where I am from, are more of the Jason camp of people, who would rather have that type of slasher than one that requires thought and patience.
As for this community, I still think it’s smaller without the sequels. Even if we only got H2 as a sequel, the community is then much bigger. I see TONS of H2 masks on here, so without that film, well there goes that whole section. And that’s a highly popular section.
And Kirk Magnum, it’s all good there brother, I love the original Halloween and also love John Carpenter as a film maker. I have probably 80 percent of his movies in my collection, double and triple dipped on vhs, DVD, Blu-ray, 4k, steel books, etc. Big Trouble in Little China being one of my all time favorites. So you don’t have to reenforce anything with me. I am just relaying what I hear out in the world.
I hear what you’re saying man. Love we could keep this civil. We need more folks like you.
Brother I am one of the easiest people to get along with, at least I hope I am! Lol And yes, I just like constructive discussion, but maybe I am just old school that way, a lot of folks these days just start attacking the shit out of each other to the point of no return and it’s quite sad honestly.