Halloween II and John Carpenter

Michael-Myers.net General Discussion
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Ever wonder why John Carpenter doesn’t like talking about Halloween II or Halloween III? On the Shout Factory Halloween II release we witness one of the main reasons…Irwin Yablans. During the interview for the documentary we get a clue on the behind the scene troubles on Halloween II. After Halloween, which everyone involved thought the movie was a one trick pony, everyone moved on to something else. When Halloween became a surprise hit, Irwin approached John about what he’d like to do next; a sequel to Halloween was still never even thought of and John mentioned a ghost story involving a lighthouse entitled The Fog. Irwin believes a verbal agreement was made between John that The Fog would be made for Compass. After the meeting with John, Irwin left on a flight for Milan to a film festival where Halloween premiered overseas.

On the flight to Milan, Irwin found himself sitting next to Robert Rehme, President of Avco-Embassy Pictures. Irwin and Robert began talking and Halloween was brought up because of the success it was generating and then Irwin also brought up John’s next feature, The Fog. This is where is get real sketchy but apparently after the trip to Milan, Robert came back and approached John about The Fog and made a contact with John for a 2 picture deal with Avco-Embassy with the first picture being The Fog. When Irwin arrives back from Milan, Irwin reads where John signed a 2 picture contact with Avco-Embassy and decides to sue both Avco- Embassy and John for breach of verbal contract.

In order for John NOT to get sued by Irwin and Compass, the deal was John would make The Fog with Avco- Embassy and the sequel to Halloween with Irwin and Compass. Basically, John was forced into Halloween II to get out of a legal issue. If you have ever read anything about John it’s this…if you’re a producer, and you ask John to change something or do something, he’ll do it…with no problems. If you tell John to change something or do something, he won’t. There’s a BIG difference between the 2; asking and telling. So, John does The Fog with Avco-Embassy and gets forced into Halloween II with Irwin and Compass.

(During this time, before the making of Halloween II, Akkad and Yablans make an agreement to sell the Halloween rights to Dino De Laurentiis and become Executive Producers with Dino De Laurentiis becoming the main person in charge of where the Halloween franchise will go. Also during this time, Irwin and Akkad’s business relationship gets strained and Compass is dissolved. Compass being dissolved is another thread that I’m working on next and believe me, you want to read it. Just why, a successful independent company would be dissolved is unbelievable.)

Sure, John will say Halloween II was a business decision, but it was a decision that he was forced into. John never, ever, wanted to make a sequel to Halloween or stay in the “horror” genre; John wanted to be a Howard Hawks type of filmmaker. Meaning, he would do all genres and not only “horror”. John wanted to be taken seriously as a filmmaker. If you read any of the back issue of Fangoria on the making of Halloween II, Debra says one of the first things they did was to ban Irwin from the set; this seems a strict retaliation against the Producer in which, John now had full, 100% creative control while making Halloween II, one of the demands for making Halloween II with Dino.

I think this explains a lot about just why John doesn’t look fondly at Halloween II or Halloween III. Not only was he dealing with a project he didn’t want to do, he found himself tampering with it and getting attached to a franchise he didn’t want necessarily to be attached to. John fully knew his name recognition with the Halloween franchise might hurt him in Hollywood so he tried to put out a good product even though his heart was not in it.

What do you think? Could the bad memories of the past be one of the reasons why John doesn’t like talking about Halloween II?

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Really interesting info Billy,i only know the little dribs and drabs about John and Halloween II from what ive heard him mention in the documentaries i.e he felt he never done a good job with the script etc because he never setup for a sequel movie but this is a good insight,Yes’ i would think all this is definitely something that would make him not want to talk about H2,thanks for sharing.

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As much as I love Halloween 2, I can’t say I blame Carpenter for keeping his distance. It sounds like this was probably a pretty painful place for him, watching his career aspirations kind of choking on this series.

Great read, btw. I love these fantastic, informative threads.

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The original Halloween is an absolute classic. Everything came together perfectly and set Carpenter up to become a successful director. The ending was brilliant and there really was no story left to tell. Now I enjoyed Halloween II. In fact it is the only sequel I care to watch. It’s not a great movie. It’s not really even a good movie but it gives us a little more of what we liked so much about the original - The Shape, Haddonfield, etc. Carpenter himself said there was no story left to tell and that the script was basically a repeat of the original. It was produced purely for business reasons, not creative. I’m sure he wanted to distance himself as much as possible from the slasher genre that was booming at the time.

All of the other Halloween films to follow (4 and on) were done pretty poorly and in many cases more influenced by Friday the 13th than the original Halloween. Carpenter probably saw that coming. When I see him in interviews he seems like a pretty intense guy. It also seems like he has become much more fan-friendly than in past times. My belief is that he is in many ways setting up his legacy as a filmmaker and wants to be remembered for the classic films he was responsible for. Asking questions about a cash-grab like Halloween II is probably insulting to him. Remember, the guy is an artist and a very talented one at that. It’s like asking George Lucas about the Star Wars Holiday Special or Howard the Duck.

WT

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Interesting, interesting read…

But the way I read this, makes it sounds like John was at fault for going behind Yablan’s back in striking the deal with Avco-Embassy. Or am I wrong, and did he strike the deal so that he would not be forced into having to do Halloween II with Compass (even though, because of the lawsuit, he had to anyway)?

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I find it puzzling as to how Yablans could have sued Carpenter over a verbal agreement. I know next to nothing about those types of laws, but it seems to me that The Fog should have been fair game until someone drew up a contract. Were there witnesses, or something?

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That may be a reason why he doesn’t like to talk about it, but I feel the main one is that he knew off the bat that there wasn’t anything there worthy of a sequel, the original was open and shut, ended perfectly and kept that sense of mystery and fear of the unknown Carpenter always goes for. Halloween II while a good film, took away those aspects key to Carpenter films, it explained too much, it took away mystery and it tried to end the storyline. Carpenter never ends a storyline, every film he has a direct hand in ends on an ominous note or a sort of “to be continued note” and keeps a sense of mystery; Laurie’s face staring blankly in the ambulance was as close to Halloween II got to that sort of ending. Mr. Carpenter never intended for The Shape to have a method of operation, an origin, a motive, or an ending. I believe this was the rest of the reason why he doesn’t look back at Halloween II fondly, he went against his principals both in storytelling and in business dealings and Mr. Carpenter seems to be a man of principle.