Let's Discuss: Fanboy Exploitation

Countless times by countless people I’ve been asked:

1.)    Will there ever be a complete box set of all the Halloween films in one collection?

2.)    Will there ever be an official release of Halloween 6: The Producer’s Cut?

I’ve answered both questions with a simple and definitive no. First, ownership of the rights to the individual films in the Halloween series. Think of it like a big pizza (yeah, I think of everything in terms of food). There’s simply too many parties involved to ever see eye-to-eye on who gets the biggest slice of the pie. As for the infamous “Producer’s Cut” of Halloween 6, a grainy workprint bootlegged and shared among fans for nearly two decades, I figured that if it's not gotten an official release by now, it just ain’t gonna happen.
The better question is: Do we really need a complete collection? If you're like me, you probably already own all the films on Blu-ray (with the exception of H6: The Producer's Cut, which I own a bootleg of on DVD). I kinda have my own complete collection Blu-ray set already... 
See, it all boils down to money. Fans love Halloween. The company's releasing Halloween love fan's money. It's business. The bottom line. A kind of crude, merciless capitalism. And, hey, I'm fine with that. This is America! But when is enough is enough?

When the news that SCREAM! Factory and Anchor Bay (two juggernauts at the forefront of horror fanboy exaltation) had combined forces to do the seemingly impossible, finally bringing all of the Halloween films together in one complete set, including the first official release of Halloween 6: The Producer’s Cut, most fans of the series were, shockingly, less than enthused. But why!?
Two reasons:

Money.

And the overwhelming sense that we’ve already had our pockets plundered by this series time and time again.

Those who rode the fence, hoping for a plethora of brand new extras to justify the set’s lofty $118.00 price tag, were further disappointed when the full list of special features and extras didn’t quite meet their expectations, and were, in large part, left-overs from past releases.

I’ve already heard claims of canceled pre-orders, either due to second thoughts over the price, or because of unhappiness with the extras. The disdain for the set among its target audience has even been felt by the companies releasing it and the people who worked on it behind the scenes. Disillusioned fans have been painted as crybabies and whiners, with an inflated sense of entitlement and unreasonable expectations.

Now, while fanboys can be an unruly lot, I admit, I take a little offense to these accusations. I, too, felt an overall banal sense of been-there-done-that when the set was announced. The price tag didn’t help matters. Also take into account that I already own every film on DVD and Blu-ray, with multiple editions of each. How many different editions of the same movie do you really need? Anchor Bay has long been in the business of churning out new editions of popular horror movies, justifying the release with a scant new extra or newly approved transfer to provide fresh revenue from an old cash cow. Halloween is just one of the movies in Anchor Bay’s catalog that has been released to death. 

The simple answer is to just not buy any new editions of movies you already own. But companies like Anchor Bay and SCREAM! Factory know that fans know that we just can’t help ourselves. It’s part of being a fan. When you love a film series like Halloween, you feel entitled to own every edition of it. You feel entitled to support the series. The Special Edition is quickly out-shined by the Deluxe Edition and, eventually, The Super Deluxe Special Edition takes its place on your every-shrinking shelf space. It’s exploitation, people. It’s a kind of exploitation involving individuals who can’t help but let themselves be willfully exploited. And it seems to only be getting worse.

The Halloween series belongs to the fans. I truly believe this. We own the series – not Anchor Bay or SCREAM! Factory. Us! You and I! THE FANS! We’ve put up with inferior sequels, ridiculous storylines, the insult of Busta Rhymes and his kung-fu defense against The Shape and Rob Zombie's lowbrow "interpretation" of John Carpenter's classic. We’ve even been asked to pretend some sequels didn’t exist (even though we paid good money for them!). They’ll try and tell you “we did this for the fans”. No, you did this for money. You know we’ll buy this set, because we’ve bought every other edition you’ve released over the years without fail. It’s the same movies, just in a shiny new package! We’ve already given you a fortune to own these films in our collections, and now you’re surprised that we’re a little pissed that you’ve asked for more. Instead of releasing and re-releasing the old movies, put that time and effort into making new Halloween movies.  You want to give the fans what we want, give us a Halloween movie LIKE the original. A no bullshit, gimmick-free, old-school slasher movie with an emphasis on atmosphere and suspense. Fanboys do have a tendency to live in the past, true, so give us something new to look forward to!
If anyone should feel insulted by the new Halloween: The Complete Collection, it should be the fans.