What Godzilla Has In Common With Michael Myers, According To John Carpenter
Godzilla is going through a big resurgence right now. The iconic kaiju is finally an Oscar winner thanks to the masterpiece "Godzilla Minus One" taking home the first Academy Award for the 70-year-old franchise. There's also the surprisingly great "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters" successfully expanding the MonsterVerse to television, while "Godzilla x Kong" has delivered some thrilling kaiju action and dominated the box office.
While this is a great time to be a Godzilla fan, the truth is that it's always been a great time to be a Godzilla fan. Ever since the giant monster debuted in the 1954 film of the same name, Godzilla has been an international pop culture icon — one that is as synonymous with Japan as Pikachu or Mario. Since 2015, Godzilla has served as an official tourism ambassador to the Shinjuku ward of Tokyo, despite the ward having been destroyed by the King of the Monsters three times in his movies. Godzilla is also a creature with great crossover appeal, as he's now faced off against numerous kaiju, King Kong, and even The Avengers in various mediums.
There is a reason for this, the same reason Michael Myers has remained an iconic movie monster for so many years (the third best, according to /Film). At a New York Comic Con panel (via ScreenRant), John Carpenter talked about how Michael Myers continues to be a pop culture force, and compared him to a familiar kaiju.
"[Michael Myers] is an all-purpose character," he said. "If you want the first movie, you've got that. If you want him to be able to kill all the time, you've got that. The only other all-purpose monster is Godzilla."
All-purpose Godzilla
It's not surprising, but Carpenter is right, of course. Michael Myers — for better and worse — is the glue that sticks the entire "Halloween" franchise together, returning over and over again as a man, a supernatural force of pure evil, and more.
But Godzilla takes things to a whole other level. Godzilla as a character is as malleable as the entire sci-fi and horror genres, capable of being used in any story and any situation to explore any theme — to great results. Just think of the variety of Godzilla movies, and how many portray the monster as a villain while others portray him as a hero (which John Carpenter thinks was a mistake). The King of the Monsters has been a savior, a villain, a superhero, a force of nature, a pure monster, a reminder of nuclear horror, a primordial being, an ancient dinosaur, and even a biblical god outside of space and time.
This is a character, an icon, who works in live-action, in tokusatsu man-in-a-suit form, and in animation with ease. Godzilla can be a terrifying monster in a serious dramatic film for adults and can also appear in a silly Saturday morning cartoon by Hanna-Barbera. Indeed, Godzilla is as versatile as Barbie.