Plot: What’s it about?
John Carpenter’s Halloween is nothing if not a seasonal staple in my household. I don’t ever remember an October 31st going by without it being on. That Carpenter chose to place the story on that date only in the final stages of story development is quite remarkable. I can’t imagine The Babysitter Murders (as the film was originally titled) holding anywhere near the same weight or morbidity as Halloween does, simply by virtue of its association with that darkest and most macabre time of year. I would guess the film would come off as rather tame by today’s standards if one were to show it to someone fresh. There’s hardly any blood or gore to speak of, and nothing about the film’s various shock moments are particularly frightening anymore (especially after the umpteenth viewing). So why has the film endured so splendidly that I keep revisiting it every year? I’m not sure I have an answer to that except to say that what Halloween does well – and, I’d argue, perhaps better than any film at least since – is to cast an effective, impenetrable atmosphere. Most of the best classic entries in the horror genre are still honored today for doing just that. Consider that Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining has only one death scene in a nearly two and a half hour running time, and Tobe Hooper’s Poltergeist has not a single fatality. But what those films had in abundance was a strong sense of foreboding.
From its now-classic piano-centric score to its use of Hitchcockian suspense tricks and camera placements, Halloween stirs something within our subconscious that creates a sense of fear within us without the film itself actually having to be particularly scary. It all adds up to our bringing our own sense of dread to the proceedings, granting the movie a sense of fear that perhaps it doesn’t innately contain itself. That kind of interactive experience is what the best cinema has always been about, and it’s what distinguishes the instantly forgettable slasher films of today from those like Carpenter’s 70’s and 80’s films which have so gracefully endured the test of time. It’s a difficult task to introduce such an influential film as Halloween to today’s post-Scream and torture porn audiences. We’re all now so familiar with the horror trappings which films like this pioneered that they run the risk of bordering on camp. Consider: the killer that simply won’t die, the virginal leading lady who gets away perhaps because of her very chastity, the oblivious side characters who are more interested in getting laid than paying attention to the danger that stalks them ever closer – all now staples of the genre (a phenomenon brilliantly parodied in more recent meta-films like Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon).
I think for me, what makes Carpenter’s Halloween work so brilliantly, is that it simply feels like the season of Halloween when you watch it (quite ironic, considering it was actually shot in the spring). It puts you in the mood to experience this night with these characters at this point in time. It’s about the feeling it imbues and not necessarily about who dies or when. It’s about the mood that seeing that pumpkin on screen with the slightly disconcerting slash down the nose into the mouth gives you as an audience member. It’s about that title card that tells you it’s 1963 or 1978, placing the film in a not-so-long-ago period that gives it a near-documentary feel. You consistently imagine far worse than what’s actually happening. Your mind fills in the blanks and you walk away feeling that you’ve gone through something exhaustingly horrifying yourself (it’s no wonder that Roger Ebert once said he would compare the work to Psycho). There’s something to be said for our knowing that Michael Myers’s mask was actually a Captain Kirk mask and yet still being unsettled by it. Somehow, it remains nondescript, vacuous and devoid of repentance despite our knowing what it’s supposed to be. And that’s the brilliance of a director like John Carpenter and a legendary lurker like Nick Castle. I know that Halloween will be playing at my house again this year as October comes to a close. Now, which edition I choose to put in my player, well…that gets a bit more complicated.
Video: How’s it look?
Director of photography Dean Cundey supervised and approved this latest version of Halloween, yet it remains as divisive a title as ever. Gone is the revised (but well-received) fall-like color timing of the previous 1999 (and, to a lesser extent, 2007) editions, replaced by a bleak, dreary, almost steely-green overlay. Color has been de-saturated to near-distracting levels here, giving the film a completely different feel than it’s ever had at home. But considering Cundey’s involvement and a myriad of anecdotal evidence presented by sharp-eyed fans who’ve researched the history of the film’s color timing back to the days of VHS, there is reason to believe that this color palette is, in fact, closer to how Halloween looked in theaters than we’ve ever seen before. We may never know for certain, but I’m inclined to give Cundey the benefit of the doubt (even if he and Carpenter obviously had different color-timing preferences for the movie 14 years ago). As it stands, I’ll chalk this new coloring up to a point of personal preference if not contention. As there’s no way of knowing precisely how Halloween should look, I’m not factoring the color issues (or possibly lack thereof) into my final video score. I will say, however, that the sheer level of color correction does teeter precariously close to overkill at times. The dim, oppressively greenish veil that’s now been draped over the image unavoidably reminded me of the Fellowship of the Ring controversy. But to be fair, in all other areas, this is Halloween as it has never been presented before. The level of detail here is near-reference quality. Textures on clothing are clearly noticeable for the first time. Nighttime sequences, while not as drenched in blue as on the DVD, do remain closer to that version than the blu-ray from 2007, which expelled the blue almost entirely from those shots. Grain is incredibly fine and uniform just as it should be, and this is certainly the most film-like this movie has ever been at home. Technically speaking, there’s no comparison with this new blu-ray and the previous offerings. I’m sticking strictly to a technical score on this title (which is all I can do without factoring in aesthetic preferences that really shouldn’t be a part of an objective review), but those planning a purchase will need to weigh any affection they may have for the THX DVD’s color timing against this new disc’s many technical merits.
Audio: How’s it sound?
Oh, Anchor Bay. What have you done to Halloween? While I grant you that this supposedly all-new 7.1 TrueHD track does sound marginally better than the 5.1 lossless track on the previous blu-ray, I suspect that the two have just a tad too much in common to be completely different beasts. The long and short of it is that, if you owned the previous blu-ray, you know more or less what to expect here with regard to the newfangled sound effects, music stings, and clumsily-inserted theme song in the closing scene of the movie (all unfortunate holdovers – yet again – from the rightfully derided Chace 5.1 effort bestowed on the 1999 THX DVD). Dialogue is intelligible enough (though arguably a bit less clear in the mix than previous versions), and the soundstage has admittedly been enhanced and widened on this new edition, but I found the placement of the music in the mix to be most off-putting, even when compared to the previous surround mixes. The sound field just sounds a bit too spacious at times, as if it’s drawing attention to itself being a surround track. Does that work for a big-budget action film? Absolutely. Does it work for an eerie, atmospheric film like Halloween? Not so much. Directionality is just fine, and the mix does present a very slight edge over the prior surround efforts just by virtue of being barely more faithful to the original elements than earlier discs have been. Unfortunately, that’s where my praise for Halloween’s audio ends. As a standalone 7.1 track, this audio sounds technically okay. But it simply doesn’t work for the film. As an added insult to film purists, the so-called “original mono” track is nothing more than a downmix of the awful Chace 5.1 audio track, with a few inexplicable tweaks thrown in. Dialogue is muddy and hard to discern in the mix at times, the sound effect of Dr. Loomis’s gun clicking at the end of the picture is missing altogether, and all of the added sound effects and revisionist music cues are on full display. And what of the unaltered, original mono track? That’s nowhere to be found on this new blu-ray. That’s right. There’s no way to watch the film on this release with the original audio. This is an unacceptable, blatant case of false advertising, and anyone who has any interest in hearing Halloween as it originally sounded will be sorely disappointed by this release. It’s my opinion that Anchor Bay should, at the very least, correct the mono track on this disc and offer those who’ve purchased it an option to exchange it for a copy which includes the original sound design as was advertised.
Supplements: What are the extras?
First up, we’ve got a new commentary track with John Carpenter and Jamie Lee Curtis. While it’s always a pleasure hear these two bounce off of one another, I must admit that this track simply isn’t of the same quality as the excellent commentary that’s been on the last several releases of Halloween. Carpenter is far more subdued this time out, not offering nearly as many interesting behind-the-scenes factoids as he did on the previous track. And Curtis seems so enamored with the film and its scares at times – rather than actually offering anything of real substance to the track – that Carpenter himself seems to be a bit irritated, albeit playfully so. Still, it’s nice to hear something new after listening to the old Criterion commentary for so many years. Next, we get an hour-long HD documentary entitled “The Night She Came Home”, detailing Curtis’s experiences with the Con scene and fans of the film. While this is an interesting extra, I honestly don’t see many fans revisiting it more than once. It’s not as directly related to the film as something like the “A Cut Above” documentary was on the old DVD, so I’m not sure how much long-term interest this one will hold. Ported over from previous editions are the “On Location: 25 Years Later” featurette, the film’s trailer and TV spots – all presented in SD only. Anchor Bay has seen fit to include the 10 minutes of television footage shot for Halloween during the filming of Halloween II, but they’re here as an extra only. There’s no branching option for watching these scenes incorporated into the film as they were with Anchor Bay’s “Extended Cut” release, so those expecting that capability may want to reconsider a purchase. What’s more, the footage is obviously sourced from the SD version and looks substantially worse than anything else presented on the disc. These scenes were obviously an afterthought, and no real weight has been giving to their inclusion here. In all, the Halloween: 35th Anniversary Edition is an incredibly hard disc to recommend to anyone. It all depends on what kind of Halloween fan (and, indeed, what kind of film fan) you are. If you enjoyed the fall-like color timing on the older edition, you may not appreciate Cundey’s new choice of palette here. On the other hand, if you want something that’s (arguably) closer to how the film probably looked in theaters, this is the edition to get. But here’s where things get even more difficult. If you just want the purest version of the film as presented theatrically, then the lack of the original mono track will undoubtedly be a huge disincentive. If you enjoy the extended cut of the film, that isn’t an option here, either. Put all these elements together, and you’ve got a release of Halloween that’s almost guaranteed to annoy virtually everyone, and likely all for different reasons. About the only fans I can readily recommend this reissue to are those who a) don’t want the extended cut, b) want the film to look as close to how it did in 1978 as possible, and c) don’t care at all about the film sounding like it did in 1978. That’s an odd combination of preferences, but I have no doubt that those fans are out there. To them, I’d say this is your release. For everyone else, maybe Anchor Bay will finally get this right on the 40th Anniversary edition. All that’ll take is offering the film with your choice of color timing, your choice of cut, and your choice of the surround or original unaltered mono track – preferably in lossless for once. Yeah, I’m not holding my breath.
