10 Movies That Could Have Been Truly Awesome (With A Single Change)

8. Halloween II (1981)

While it's now expected, even respectable, for a successful filmmaker to direct a sequel, such was not the case thirty years ago. John Carpenter declined the offer to direct Halloween II, suggesting that his friend Tommy Lee Wallace take the helm. When Wallace showed no interest (a situation that would change come Halloween III), the job went to Rick Rosenthal, an unknown quantity whose short film work had impressed Carpenter.

In the three years since the original film, horror movies €“ especially the slasher films spawned by Halloween's success €“ had become considerably gorier. Carpenter himself had tried to tell an old-fashioned ghost story with The Fog, but when the rough cut turned out to be less than expected, he went back and gored it up. He wasn't about to let Rosenthal make the same mistake with Halloween II.

Carpenter filmed additional scenes, all more violent, bloody, and downright terrifying than the rest of the movie, let alone its predecessor. The death of Alice, for example, is right up there with Carpenter's scariest work. It's a short scene, but it serves as a stripped-down remake of the first film, Halloween in microcosm, with an added splash of blood at the end. On its own, the added violence would simply be trashy, but Carpenter's eye for suspense proves that he should have directed Halloween II all along.