John Carpenter’s Original Halloween Title Would Have Doomed The Franchise
When creators John Carpenter and Debra Hill were drafting Halloween, the first title they gave the project was not anywhere near as marketable or worthy of franchising. The Halloween movies hinge on the morbid holiday as their main selling point, as well as the central demonic figure of Michael Myers. Had Irwin Yablans not stepped in to request a title change, Halloween may never have transformed into a successful franchise.
Indie film producer Irwin Yablans and financier Moustapha Akkad approached John Carpenter while watching a screening of his film Assault on Precinct 13 to see if he'd be willing to direct a film about a serial killer who targets babysitters. When Debra Hill and John Carpenter's Halloween first came to conception, the project had the working title The Babysitter Murders. Despite the title linking directly to the prompt Carpenter was given, Yablans implored him to change the title to Halloween and instead have the story center around Halloween night. It was a complete tonal shift from the original concept.
Related: Halloween Ends Is Already Correcting Its Biggest Laurie Mistake From Kills
If The Babysitter Murders remained the title for John Carpenter'sHalloween, it could have single-handedly ruined the possibility for the movie to kickstart a franchise. The appeal of horror icon Michael Myers' terrifying M.O. is that he does not discriminate when it comes to murder. Carpenter and Hill's hyperspecific original title would have painted the series into a corner by inadvertently requiring that every victim of Michael Myers looks after children for money. Furthermore, having the series not be centered around the holiday Halloween would have made the concept less marketable, and Myers' film may have been
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