The Good

This movie is probably the greatest horror movie ever. Period.

The Bad

I for some reason thought that this release would have more extras.

Halloween is Director John Carpenter's early masterwork. Like Orson Welles before him, he may or may not ever recapture the brilliance of this film in his other work (although he came pretty close with movies like Christine and The Thing, but that in no way stops the magic from flowing. The story of Halloween is simple. Michael Myers is a psychopath who was institutionalized at a very young age after he killed his sister. Now some years later, he escapes with the intent on killing even more people in Haddonfield, the town he was taken from. This story is so simple that it might some mundane but Carpenter has infused it with so much elegant tension that it has truly lost nothing over the years. In fact, it is so good that it makes films 4 through 8 really pale in comparison.

Features

Halloween Unmasked 2000 produced and directed by Mark Cerulli

I was expecting more from this. I thought that it would be longer and take us into the nuts and bolts of this production, but it really is just a 25 minute (or so) look at the making of this film that sadly didn't reveal much more than I already knew. Some of the nuggets that I did cull from this were that when Michael Myers' face is revealed they actually got another actor for that scene instead of the one who had been playing him. Also, I didn't know that John Carpenter only had a few days to put together the incredible score for this movie. Lastly, I always wondered if Jamie Lee Curtis being cast in this movie had anything to do with her famous, Scream Queen mom, Janet Leigh, and this featurette confirms that it did.

Talent Bios and Still Galleries

Video

2.35:1 Anamorphic - This movie looked good but I didn't really put together that the main reason for its release was the fact that the film had been fully restored from Lucasfilm's THX Digital Mastering Services. Had I put this together (rather then just been excited to get another copy of it on DVD), I probably would have watched it on a better system than my 13", one speaker television. As it was, things played really well but I can't help but think I might have missed something.

Audio

Dolby Surround 5.1 - The audio for this movie sounded awesome but again, like I mentioned above, I probably should have gone through this DVD on my father's surround sound setup. I feel this way because this movie sounded good but I was hearing everything out of one speaker. At the end of the day, so much of this movie is a visual/audio experience that it really doesn't need dialogue to get its point across. Which I guess probably explains why this release was redone.

Package

The iconic shot of the knife carving out the pumpkin is what is presented to us here against a black background. The back cover showcases a description of what of this movie is about, a Special Features listing, a credits list and of course system specs.

Final Word

Halloween II is without a doubt one of the best sequels to a horror movie ever made. Also, considering what it had to live up to it seems to really go out of it's way to give viewers a sequel that is worthy. From the opening shot that seamlessly takes us into the rest of Halloween t, I would love to see both films edited into one because I think that could be a long but intriguing viewing experience. Also, I loved the idea that they were going to move away from Michael Myers and make films based on the Holiday. This is why we have Halloween III: Season of the Witch in this series. However, this movie is also quite good as it manages to focus more on the myth behind Halloween, and brings forth brand new characters that we haven't ever seen.

Sadly it seems like this release of Halloween was mainly put out to piggy back on the Rob Zombie remake.