Since it's October, it feels appropriate to talk about a Halloween fan film that nobody wanted to work on. Before I begin this one-shot, I want to start by saying, making movies is hard. People that take filmmaking for granted might just think that it's just a director with a camera and a bunch of actors, and boom, you've got a movie, so easy, even a child could do it. And I'm sure it must be easy to do an animated movie, right? Making a movie, both live action and animated, is quite difficult. Especially if it's just a live action movie without any use of special effects. You also have writers, cinematographers, sound crew, editors, producers who have the final say and can provide financial help, and various other crew members that contribute to making the film. Of course, there are some who are capable of writing, directing, producing, editing, and so on and so forth all at once, and if you're able to do that, you have my respect. The task of making a movie no matter how expensive or cheap it is can be so difficult, most people don't want to work on it. But maybe despite how some people don't want to work on some movies, they can sometimes be a success. An example would have to be The Lion King and Shrek. When Disney first developed The Lion King in the late '80s, nobody wanted to work on the film as they were more interested in Pocahontas. They were hoping that Pocahontas would be Disney's next magnum opus, but despite the odds, The Lion King became critically and financially successful, and has been one of Disney's greatest hits. When DreamWorks got the rights to Shrek and were ready to make it an animated movie, nobody wanted to work on that film. They were more interested in making Prince Of Egypt. Jeffrey Katzenberg was so adamant on making Prince Of Egypt DreamWorks' magnum opus that if anyone screwed up on the film, they would be forced to work on Shrek as punishment. He saw it as the animation equivalent to a gulag. But despite nobody wanting to work on that film, Shrek became critically and financially successful, and it became the first film to win the Academy Award for best animated feature.

But there are films nobody wants to work on that do not gain this kind of success. An example of that would have to be The Room, a film that is notorious for being considered one of the worst movies ever made and having a reputation of being "so bad, it's good." The brainchild of Tommy Wiseau who produced, wrote, directed, and starred in, the film had a troubled production that went over budget and past filming scheduling. Wiseau was a nightmare to work with, and he went through various actors and crew who didn't want to work with him and the movie due to its questionable quality, many of these actors and crew either quit or got fired. If you want a good perspective of what it was like working on The Room, I would recommend you read The Disaster Artist which was written by Greg Sestero, he played Mark in The Room. If anything, I can relate to what Greg went through as I went through a similar situation with my now ex friend Collin Reisenauer, AKA 1985cat

As many people know, I co-starred with Collin in his now lost fan film Red Hood Rises in which I played The Joker and Bruce Wayne (but not Batman because we couldn't afford to buy a Batman costume, lol). While I had fun playing Joker, the final product that is the film is so dreadful that I'm glad nobody will ever be able to see it ever again. (I'll explain why later.) I think it's worse than Green Lantern and the first Suicide Squad. Exorcist Believer is a better movie than Red Hood Rises. If I were to work for Warner Bros back when the fan film was still on YouTube, I would have bought the rights to the film from Collin and then made sure that the film never saw the light of day again the same way Nintendo bought the rights to a Mario porno parody to ensure that porno parody never again saw the light of day. That last sentiment about the Mario porno is a true story, no joke, but I digress. During production of Red Hood Rises, Collin talked about wanting to do more fan films and release them on YouTube. One of his ideas was to do a fan film about the Halloween horror franchise, which was meant to take place in the same continuity as John Carpenter's original continuity, not the Rob Zombie remake series. He was going to call it Halloween Death Of Michael Myers, don't really know if there was going to be a "the" in the title, not that I care, and I also didn't know that there was a mediocre 1996 fan film with that exact same title. What was Death Of Michael Myers supposed to be about, pray tell? Somehow, Michael Myers comes back to Haddonfield on Halloween to go on a killing spree, like he does as always. Many of his victims are supposed to be related to him and Laurie Strode somehow. And it's up to Jason Loomis, the grandson of Dr Sam Loomis, to stop Michael once and for all!

If you want my honest opinion about the Halloween franchise, I honestly don't care much for it. I don't hate it, I'm just super indifferent about it. I'll always respect the fact that John Carpenter and his crew were able to create such a good horror film on such a low budget and create a timeless and iconic villain like Michael Myers. And that theme song is as iconic as Night On Bald Mountain. Plus the film introduced us to Jamie Lee Curtis, and I could never hate her, she is a queen, y'all! As much as I respect the film for creating something influential on so little, the continuity is a piping hot mess. The film has gone through so many retcons and rewrites that it remains totally contradictory and inconsistent! The Star Trek and X-Men continuities are easier to follow than the many reboots and requels of Halloween that ignore or are meant to be a definitive direct follow-up. One moment, Michael and Laurie are siblings and Laurie has a daughter, the next moment, what daughter? And right when Jason Blum, David Gordon Green, and Danny McBride wipe a clean slate for the franchise and we think it's about to return to form, they destroy that potential goodwill with those stupid sequels! I think the Halloween franchise should have been an anthology movie franchise like John Carpenter and Debra Hill intended. So yeah, I honestly don't care one way or another for the Halloween franchise and I'm more in favor with the Evil Dead, Chucky, and Nightmare on Elm Street franchises. I'd rather watch Hellraiser, Scream 3, or Seed Of Chucky than one of the Halloween films.

Now this was one of many films Collin wanted to work on that he planned on writing, producing, directing, and starring in, him being the egotist that he is. And if Collin had his way, this film would have been made right after Red Hood Rises. Collin wanted to play our main horror hero of the film, Jason Loomis, and he also wanted to play Michael Myers too. He wanted it to where multiple people would play Michael Myers, because that's what they did in the original film. I mean yeah, it's true Nick Castle portrayed Michael in the mask, Tony Moran portrayed Michael unmasked, John Carpenter and his editor and production designer Tommy Lee Wallace also portrayed Michael in some scenes. But Collin wanted multiple people to portray Michael, and he wanted me to play Michael as well. And he also wanted me as a producer. He pretty much said I was going to be a producer of the film and was also going to play Michael in the film as well even though, I must clarify, I never said yes to any of that! I mean seriously, Collin never approached me and asked me, "hey Tony, after we do Red Hood Rises, I plan on making a follow-up movie that relates to the Halloween franchise. How would you like to be a producer on the film and star in my passion project as Michael Myers? If you don't want to be in my movie, I totally understand and I will respect your boundaries as your friend." He pretty much made me be in the film without giving me a say-so in the matter. I think the reason Collin made me be in the film was because he believed that since I was his best friend at the time, I was obligated to star in all his projects and help contribute to said projects. Because best friends help and support each other no matter what, that's what Collin believes, I guess. Collin also made me pay some money to provide a Michael Myers mask. This particular mask was based on his appearance in Halloween 2 (1981) and I contributed $25 while Collin's mother contributed the other half to buy the damn thing. Despite the fact that I didn't want to be in the film and I had never said yes to joining, I tried to make the best of the situation. In fact, I did contribute some things to the film. These are all my ideas that Collin will probably not include out of spite.

° The first murder victim would have been portrayed by my sister, Celine. I actually wanted the death to be an homage to Casey Becker's death in the first Scream film. Sometimes less is more. It would mostly be your basic stabbing because I hadn't seen the first Scream film from beginning to end. That has since changed.

° Jason Loomis was going to be a detective and his middle name would have been Donald as a tribute to actor Donald Pleasence, the actor that played Sam Loomis in the original films.

° Jason would have worn a black fedora. Collin wanted Jason's wardrobe to be like DC Comics anti-hero John Constantine, and I felt that a fedora would make the character look a little bit cooler and more like a detective, so I gave Collin a black fedora from Burlington. Like the 11th Doctor believes bowties are cool, I believe that fedoras are cool.

° The film would have contained an unseen character named Mary Crane who would be a radio DJ and explain the basic exposition of the movie. I wrote this character for a friend of mine who was willing to join the film, and the name of the character is a reference to Marion Crane from Psycho.

° There would have been a death after sex scene. In slasher films, you gotta have nudity and sex. It's a cliche and practically tradition. That was my mindset back then, but I no longer want to do gratuitous nudity if that makes sense. I'm open to nudity, but it should be done in better taste and should serve a purpose.

° Laurie Strode would play a supporting role in the film. This would also mean that we would have to ignore the events to Halloween Resurrection as that film killed off Laurie at the beginning of the film. I felt it would make sense to bring the character back because she's practically the heart of the franchise, she is the original final girl. Basically, we would see Laurie coping with her personal demons after everything she had been through in the sequels, and I would have also acknowledged her daughter Jamie Strode too. The grief of losing her daughter and everything Michael had done would have weighed heavily on Strode, and she'd be trying to overcome her own alcoholism and other nightmares. And Jason would've interacted with Laurie. I wrote those scenes and I'm honestly proud of them. And I'm not joking here, I actually wanted Tara Strong to play Laurie Strode in the fan film. And when that didn't work, I tried to get one of my old friends to play Laurie.

° Chucky from the Child's Play franchise would have made a post credits cameo appearance. The idea would have been that Chucky would have been reading newspapers regarding the carnage that Michael had committed in Haddonfield. And impressed by Michael's repertoire, Chucky would have decided to go to Haddonfield to bring his own carnage to the quiet Illinois town. The camera would have revealed that it was Chucky reading the paper and then he would say, "wait till they get a load of me!" And then the screen would fade to black with Chucky laughing maniacally. I was willing to do as many practical things to bring Chucky to life, whether it be a toddler in the Chucky costume or even an animatronic Chucky toy that I would dub over, and yes, I would have voiced Chucky and do my best impression of Brad Dourif. I'd even have Chucky say "wait till they get a fucking load of me," which sounds in character for him.

Those were my ideas. But I feel this was the equivalent to putting lipstick on a pig. As I kept on waiting for Collin to finish editing Red Hood Rises and to release the damn film, I started to become disillusioned and impatient. It's like Collin said he would do all this, but he took forever to do it. Collin is more of a sayer than a doer from my point of view. If Collin did this kind of crap in a professional movie, I feel he would immediately be fired for failing to meet a studio's deadline, and would be replaced by a professional who would get shit done. A lot of my family members and some of my friends did not support me in helping Collin on the film. They thought that Collin's movie would get a lawsuit from God knows what studio owns the rights to the franchise for copyright infringement. And nobody wanted to work on the film. One of our old friends was a born-again Christian named Noah Lowe, and he refused to be in the film because he believed that the Halloween holiday is a satanic celebration of the devil and the Halloween franchise is associated with an evil holiday that dares to celebrate Satan. I'm a Catholic, and even I think that's bullshit. But with all these people not wanting to work on Halloween Death of Michael Myers, I felt it was starting to take a toll on me. I was basically the only crew and collaborator that Collin had, and I didn't even want to work on the film! But I felt I was obligated to help him because I was pretty much blind with loyalty and didn't want to see the red flags. I wanted to make my friendship with Collin work. But even my first ex-girlfriend saw the red flags with Collin when I confided in her the stress I was feeling with him. And Collin wouldn't shut the hell up about the film. That's also the thing with Collin. You don't have a conversation with him. HE has a conversation with YOU. I cannot tell you how many times I've had to just let him talk without telling him to shut up because I was afraid that if I did tell him to shut up because I wanted to speak, I would come across as rude. My dad saw how stressed out and unhappy I was with having to make this film as we were in pre-production hell with Death Of Michael Myers and we were in post-production hell with Red Hood Rises, and I was putting up with Collin's tantrums. My dad suggested that I just back out from the film. I had contemplated leaving this project before, but I never did because I was afraid of hurting Collin back then. In fact, whenever I said no to Collin, no matter how nice I tried to be, Collin would get angry at me lash out at me, act like a spoiled child throwing a temper tantrum, and make me feel guilty for saying no. Don't believe me? Here are actual screenshots when I didn't want to read a fanfiction of his.

Does that look like a professional filmmaker to you? No, this is a petulant man-child attempting to manipulate me into feeling guilty for not wanting to do something and overstepping his boundaries. And this was what he called me when I refused to read one of his other fan fictions.

Calling me a backstabber because I didn't want to read something he wrote? This was the kind of backlash I was afraid would happen if I backed out of Halloween Death of Michael Myers. But I had to face the cold reality that I was in a no-win situation. If I stayed on Halloween Death of Michael Myers, I would be stressed out and miserable. I would probably have a mental breakdown from all the stress, and I would probably destroy a lot of relationships with my friends and family if I continued this path. But if I backed out, Collin would be angry with me, he would see me as a traitor who sabotaged his movie, and he would let everyone in God know what I'd done. This was the no-win situation I was facing. But I knew I had to make the right choice for my sanity and my own mental well-being. Collin only cared about what benefited him, and he wanted me for his own personal benefit. He might say that isn't true, but his actions certainly speak louder than his words. I actually wanted to try and tell Collin my plans to back out face to face because it would be better if I told him to his face instead of hiding behind a screen and telling him like a coward. I'm a traditional face-to-face kind of guy. But in hindsight, I think it would have been better to tell him on the phone or on a computer screen because if I told him at a public restaurant or outside his home, Collin would most likely react negatively and make a scene for everybody in God to witness as he lashes out at me for stabbing him in the back. So on September 1st 2018, I told Collin on Messenger that I was backing out from Halloween Death of Michael Myers and all of his future movie projects. And to nobody's surprise, Collin did not take it well at all. He tried to convince me to postpone filming, he said, "why are you doing this to me" like a gaslighting boyfriend, and then he publicly posted what I had done on Facebook and even went so far as to tag me in the post, much to my embarrassment. That's another thing that annoyed me about Collin, he posted everything on Facebook and would tag me in just about anything even if it had nothing to do with me. And this would be one of many times Collin would publicly vilify/talk shit about me on Facebook, even when we were still friends! It was so fucking embarrassing and stressed me out. At one point, Collin tried to make me reconsider backing out and tried to make me go back into the film. But, I stood strong and refused to have any more involvement with Halloween Death Of Michael Myers and other future projects Collin had planned. I'm the master of my own story, no one gets to decide my future for me. I get the final say so of doing my own thing.

And looking back, I do feel like this was the contributing factor to our toxic friendship ending. I honestly feel like Collin and I were one dysfunctional argument away from coming into physical blows. But honestly, I feel guilty for the way Collin turned out. I made the mistake of praising his work, saying he was talented when I should have known all his stuff was the equivalent to putting lipstick on a pig, and then I rejected him. I think I did the right thing ending this toxic friendship with him. But in doing so, I think I turned Collin into more of an entitled douchebag with a Jesus complex. I honestly feel like Mr Incredible rejecting Buddy Pine, unwittingly turning him into the supervillain Syndrome, or like Peter Parker rejecting the Symbiote and unintentionally creating Venom, one of his most dangerous villains. So yeah, I feel responsible for Collin turning into an entitled douchebag who believes he's a celebrity.

But in the end, it would no longer matter that I backed out from Halloween Death Of Michael Myers. On September 15th 2022, Collin's YouTube channel was terminated. All of his videos, including Red Hood Rises, were now permanently lost. I think there were possible reasons for why Collin's channel was terminated, and one of those contributing reasons was because he infringed a lot of copyright laws whenever he did live streams of watching movies and did all his god-awful singing covers. But like a true narcissist who doesn't believe he's in the wrong, Collin blamed others for his channel being terminated. It's ironic that he had the audacity to accuse me of blaming him for my problems, because now he's doing the exact same thing, blaming others for his problems! And for over a year, Collin has been trying in vain to get his channel reinstated. As of this publication, Collin's YouTube channel still remains terminated, and that means the future of Halloween Death Of Michael Myers seems very unlikely. I doubt it's ever going to be released. The Batgirl movie starring Leslie Grace and Brendan Fraser has a better chance of being released than Halloween Death Of Michael Myers, the failed fan film nobody wanted to work on. I'm certain Collin blames me for his film not getting made. He probably thinks I'm one of the backstabbers that sabotaged Death Of Michael Myers. I am certain that I am the villain in Collin's story. Also, I believe the  Covid-19 pandemic didn't do this film any favors. So you could say that Collin's ego, people who didn't want to work on the film, and Covid-19 killed Halloween Death of Michael Myers.

But, that's my side of the story. It's definitely a toxic one, but I'm glad to have gotten it off my chest. Do I care if I get a negative reaction from Collin? Not really, but I wouldn't be surprised if Collin threw a tantrum for making him look like the bad guy. But I'm not afraid of him. Collin has no power over me. He doesn't have a leg to stand on or any form of social media to try and slander me. He doesn't have a "Reisenarmy" to get me and try and ruin me. What's he going to do? Sue me? Is he going to fetch the FBI to investigate me? On what crimes? This, I would like to see. But yeah, I'm just glad I was able to get this off my chest, and hopefully I can make a better future for myself. And that's all I have to say about that.