Halloween:
25th Anniversary Edition
(1978)
review by Head Cheeze

I'm torn. I really am. I've been looking forward to this 25th Anniversary release of Halloween since it was announced last year, only to have my expectations dashed by an incorrectly colour-timed transfer that has sucked the atmosphere right out of the film. However, the DVD's special features are so abundant and of such high quality that I can't just scream "Total Shit!" and be done with it. What is an amateur critic to do?

For a review of the actual film should click here for a semi-detailed synopsis and my feelings about this, my personal favourite horror film of all time. My thoughts on this film haven't changed, nor are they apt to anytime soon, so I'll cut to the chase and focus on this 25th Anniversary Edition from Anchor Bay.

This new two disc set is positively loaded with extra tricks and treats, including an all new DIVIMAX transfer, which will from this point on be referred to as "the botch job". That's right; this vaunted new technology has blown it big time. Remember the moody blues and fiery oranges of Halloween? Well, they're gone. Here's some screen captures courtesy of DVDFILE.COM.

Original Film

DIVIMAX Transfer

Original Film

DIVIMAX Transfer

While the botch job transfer is fantastically sharp and detailed (and looks marvelous on a flat panel monitor) it seems as if the folks who remastered the images felt they may have been "cleaning up" images by removing the hue, but the results are, as you can see, quite disasterous! There are few instances in which The Shape sort of fades in from the background, and in the original film, the blue tint helps to mask his visage until the precise moment ( Cundey spent hours setting up a system in which he could adjust the aperature to achieve this effect!). Now, with the blues replaced by what looks like natural light, not only is the effect ruined, but The Shape can clearly be seen well before he's meant to be. It's disheartening because the daytime scenes look superb and the film, as a whole, has never looked so vivid. However, it's all for not as the key scenes in the film are simply ruined by what I can only assume was bad judgement by the restoration team.

Now here's where it gets tricky. As much as I despise the mess that is the film's transfer, I'm positively enamoured by the supplemental materials herein. The commentary track featuring Carpenter, Hill, and Curtis is insightful and entertaining stuff, even if Hill seems a bit confused at times (she points out the film's "only" nude scene during the opening sequence, even though we all know P.J. Soles goes convertible for us toward the end). Curtis is delightful as she picks apart little mistakes in her performance, and groans aloud at bad dialogue (especially Sam Loomis' "Evil" monolgues). Carpenter is a font of low-budget film knowledge and explains, in great detail, how they cut corners to insure the best visual and audio representation available at the time (too bad the DIVIMAX folks didn't agree!!)

The 89 minute documentary, Halloween: A Cut Above the Rest, is worth the purchase of this set alone, and were it released as a separate film, I'd snatch it up in a second. A combination of rare behind-the-scenes footage, interspersed with new interviews, this documentary is a Halloween fanatic's wet dream. From concept to execution to aftermath, no stone is left unturned, and the slick production values are above and beyond any supplemental documentary I've seen thus far.

On Location- 25 Years Later focuses primarily on P.J. Soles visits to the houses used in the filming of Halloween. It's a fair bit of fluff, but Soles is a likeable host and seems to have a blast revisiting the neighbourhood. Debra Hill also chimes in with some commentary about the downtown area in which the hardware store scene was filmed, and about the daunting task of avoiding (unsuccessfully) the palm trees of Pasadena.

Rounding out the set are the trailers, radio spots, poster/stills gallery, filmographies, and talent bios from previous incarnations, as well as a DVD ROM feature that I actually used; the film's original screenplay.

What's missing, however, are those extra 11 minutes of footage shot for NBC's television debut of Halloween during the filming of it's first sequel. I realise a lot of folks hate that footage (as does Carpenter), but it seems odd to discount it entirely in light of the "anniversary" of the film.

Okay, so it's obvious that this is a 50/50 deal, here. Actually, it's more like 75/25, because it's not as if the transfer is bad in a way that it's unwatchable; it's just...well...wrong. Casual viewers probably won't notice a difference at all, but Halloweeniacs most definitely will. It basically comes down to the extras for me, and they are so good, especially the feature length documentary, that they are worth the price alone. However, hang on to your older copies, because they're still the best available for now!