John Carpenter is one of the minds behind the horror classic Halloween, which was the beginning of a franchise, of which he didn’t direct any of the sequels – here’s why. Back in 1978, Carpenter brought Halloween, a slasher movie that even though wasn’t well-received during its initial release, is now considered as one of the best movies in the realm of horror. In addition to that, Halloween is credited as one of the most influential horror movies and one that helped develop and popularize the slasher genre in the 1980s.
Halloween tells the story of Michael Myers, who after killing his older sister when he was six-years-old, was sent to Smith’s Grove Sanitarium. Michael escaped fifteen years later and returned to his hometown Haddonfield, Illinois, where he began to stalk Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) and her friends on Halloween night. Laurie was the only survivor, and even though he fell off a balcony and was shot by his psychiatrist Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence), Michael escaped, which unintentionally made way for a sequel, and then a film franchise with over 10 movies, of which only the first one was directed by John Carpenter.
Every Halloween sequel has been directed by different filmmakers, with Rick Rosenthal, Rob Zombie, and David Gordon Green being the only ones who have directed more than one: Rosenthal made Halloween II and Halloween: Resurrection, Zombie directed the remakes Halloween and Halloween II, and Gordon Green is in charge of the reboot movies Halloween, Halloween Kills, and Halloween Ends. Carpenter wasn’t interested in directing Halloween II as he had “made that film once” and “really didn’t want to do it again”, but still served as co-writer and co-producer. Carpenter has said the story didn’t turn out as he expected and has even called Halloween II an “abomination and a horrible movie”.
Carpenter, then, didn’t return to direct any of the subsequent Halloween movies, not just because of the bad experience with Halloween II, but because he and co-creator Debra Hill never planned for it to have sequels. Their original plan was to build an anthology series of horror movies taking place around the night of Halloween, so each entry would have had its own characters and setting. Carpenter wanted to leave the audience wondering what happened to Michael after the ending of the original Halloween, but the studio had other plans and Halloween II happened. Carpenter and Hill, then, planned to end Michael and Laurie’s arc with the second movie, moving on to a completely different story with Halloween III: Season of the Witch. Unfortunately for them, Halloween III wasn’t that well-received, and so the studio went back to Michael’s story.
While some were expecting John Carpenter to return to direct one of the reboot Halloween movies, he wasn’t left out of this new era in the franchise, and acted as executive producer, co-composer, and creative consultant, as these movies are direct sequels to his original movie. Ultimately, John Carpenter made a wise decision in not returning to direct any of the Halloween sequels, which failed to keep the quality of the first, though the franchise is now back on the right track with the reboot movies.