Nearly five decades after Halloween changed horror forever, John Carpenter still doesn’t believe the film needed a sequel.

Speaking with The Guardian in a new career-spanning interview, the legendary filmmaker once again reflected on why he walked away after the 1978 classic, explaining that, in his mind, Michael Myers’ story had already been told.

“I didn’t think there was any story left, but they were going to do it whether I wanted to or not. So what are you going to do?”

It’s hardly the first time Carpenter has shared that opinion.

Back in 2014, he expanded on the decision, revealing to Deadline that all of his creative ideas had gone into the original film and that he never intended to continue the story.

“I didn’t think there was any more story, and I didn’t want to do it again. All of my ideas were for the first Halloween—there shouldn’t have been any more!… However, I couldn’t stop them from making sequels. So my agents said, ‘Why don’t you become an executive producer and you can share the revenue?’ But I had to write the second movie, and every night I sat there and wrote with a six pack of beer trying to get through this thing.”

Even while promoting Halloween II in 1981, Carpenter admitted:

“I had made that film once and I really didn’t want to do it again.”

And decades later, he was still making the same point with a laugh.

“I didn’t want to direct sequels. I didn’t think there was story left. Boy, was I wrong, huh?”

Although Carpenter has remained remarkably consistent about believing Halloween should have stood on its own, he also isn’t about to complain about what followed.

In the same interview with The Guardian, he joked that once Universal decided the franchise would continue without him, there wasn’t much he could do except enjoy the benefits.

“[Universal] took it out of my hands, but they had to pay me every time they made a movie. I sit on the couch, and a cheque arrives in my hand. What’s wrong with that? I have to admit, with all the rebellion in the world, I am a happy capitalist.”

It’s classic Carpenter: brutally honest, self-aware, and delivered with the dry wit that’s made him almost as beloved off-screen as he is behind the camera.

The irony, of course, is that the film Carpenter believed never needed a sequel has gone on to become one of horror’s most successful franchises. Since Halloween debuted in 1978, it has spawned multiple timelines, reboots, remakes, legacy sequels, and more than a dozen feature films, cementing Michael Myers as one of the genre’s defining icons.

Nearly 50 years later, Carpenter still hasn’t changed his mind. Halloween was a complete story. Everything that came after was someone else’s idea.

Tags: Halloween John Carpenter

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