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He’s the horror icon who has caused nightmares for 40 years — but is Halloween’s Michael Myers the best horror villain of all time? VOTE FOR YOUR FAVOURITE

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He’s the horror icon who has caused nightmares for 40 years — but Halloween’s original Michael Myers admits he doesn’t like slasher movies and would rather go and watch a musical.

Nick Castle reprised his role in last year’s Halloween, with a cameo when the heroine Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis reprising her teenage role from the 1978 original) sees “The Shape” of Myers at the window.

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“It’s her first view of him and it’s iconic and special,” Castle says.

“It was done as a stamp of approval and to be part of the experience.”

He admits he never thought he would be talking about the role 40 years later.

“Not at all!” he laughs.

“No one had any expectation that it would become a cultural phenomenon, nor did I think I would be part of anything like that (let alone) some kind of horror icon.”

Yet although Castle — now an accomplished screenwriter and director — is mobbed at horror conventions and Comic Cons, he doesn’t like the genre.

“It’s something I don’t get,” the 71-year-old confesses.

“I don’t like to get scared. I’d rather go and see a lovely musical, thank you.”

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However, he can see the attraction it has for others.

“(To be scared) is a primal emotion and they have fun with that,” he says.

“I suppose there’s a cathartic reason for it. It’s better to do that than get real scares!”

He says the genre has a “unique” fan base and is constantly surprised by the lengths and the make-up effects the fans go to at conventions.

But, while he is proud to see all the costumes at party stores and action figures of the character, he hasn’t tried to use it to scare friends and family at Halloween parties.

“I’ve stayed away from practical jokes,” he admits.

As far as his competitors — Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, Leatherface and so on — he pleads he hasn’t “seen those movies as a fan would”.

“But Freddy is pretty good,” he says.

“The old Universal Studios monsters like Frankenstein, Dracula and Wolfman have more of a resonance with me.”

He thinks there may well be a connection between teenage rebellion, the fact that teenagers are the natural prey of horror movie characters like Michael Myers, and people’s love of the antihero characters.

“People do get a kick out of it,” he says.

“Saying f**k you to society and shaking your fist at the world. Boy, they love it!”

Jamie Lee Curtis and Nick Castle were in the original Halloween movie.

It also allows the audience to feel superior to the characters — particularly those who decide it’s a great idea to go into the cellar alone after the power has just been cut.

“It’s a social experience,” he says.

“One of the fun parts from the audience’s point of view is you are in the superior position.

“The phenomena of yelling at the screen is pretty much unique to this genre — and pretty much fun.”

The genre does offer its own kind of morality, with the mean, spoiled teens usually the first ones to die but the survivors tend to be the good-hearted ones.

“The idiots are always doing the wrong thing — you deserve to die, you idiot!” Castle says with a laugh.

“It’s a tried-and-true formula, let’s face it. The one you want to live is usually the one that is saved at the end.”

The latest Halloween movie is being released on DVD and digital and Castle says watching it in a “darkened room in a house by yourself” will only add to the scare factor.

Interestingly, he went from being Michael Myers to writing and directing a series of movies more aimed at children, including 1980s cult hit The Last Starfighter.

The ending of that was left open for a sequel that never came — although Castle says that could change.

“Everybody is mining the 1980s now and it has been very much on the front lips of many studios for the last decade,” he says.

“There is an issue with the rights being split by two studios but we’ll see. I’d love to see it.”

* Halloween (2018) is now available on 4K, Blu-ray, DVD and digital