Halloween Ends (2022)

OCTOBER 11, 2022

GENRE: SLASHER
SOURCE: THEATRICAL (ADVANCED SCREENING)

It's funny: on the same day I was confirmed for a screening of Halloween Ends, the new 4K UHD set of 6-8 arrived at my door. This odd release (which is spread across and finishes two of the series' continuities and contains none of the films that are setting up said continuities) finishes the main franchise's conversion to the 4K format (leaving only the two Rob Zombie remakes), so Halloween "Ended" twice for me in the span of a few hours. And in Resurrection, Laurie Strode famously died - would I be seeing this character die yet again?

Well obviously I won't be spoiling that much, but it's impossible to talk about this movie without getting into something that's been more or less hidden from the marketing (though I feel one could suss it out if they put enough thought into what they were seeing and what they WEREN'T seeing). So if you want a totally clean experience, best to just bow out now and come back later, but I'll leave you with one spoiler-free thought: if you thought Kills was too much of a swing (and a miss), then you best not even bother with this one. This one swings even harder, to the point where you can conceivably forget for a long stretch that it's even a Halloween movie. If your ideal entry has lots of Michael Myers doing lots of Michael Myers-y things, this film is not for you.

(FINAL SPOILER WARNING! Plot details will be "spoiled" but I will not get into the film's ending.)

OK, for those still here, you've presumably seen the trailer or read enough about the movie (or maybe even saw it by now; it's posting before release but these reviews are here forever!) and thus have caught wind of a character named Corey Cunningham. Given John Carpenter's continued involvement the name Cunningham (as in Arnie) can't be a coincidence; he's very much like the Christine protagonist: awkward, shy, bullied, etc. His problems - as is the case with many a Haddonfield resident - began on a Halloween night, though I'll refrain from saying how (if you've seen the movie, I think you can agree it's one of the film's best shocks) except to note that they were in 2019, and now it's 2022 - a four year jump from the events of the previous two films.

It's an odd shift that the movie never really smooths over; for starters we barely know Corey enough to understand how he's changed since then, but it's just as equally "off" that we get no sense of how Karen's death affected Laurie. The movie really needed something like (stick with me here) Avengers: Endgame, where they get their revenge on Thanos in the first 15 minutes and THEN spring the jump forward on us. When we first see Laurie and Allyson here, they're both seemingly over it - Laurie's even decorating her (new) house for Halloween and baking a pumpkin pie! Since the last film ended literally on Karen's death, we've never even seen how Allyson got the news, only a few hours after her dad died, that she lost her mother too. It's the most character driven entry in this trilogy (which has already been more focused on the characters of the three women more than any other entry in the series save maybe Zombie's Halloween II), but it's also bizarrely missing a big piece. (That Karen is represented from a photo taken during a deleted scene of the 2018 film almost seems like a weird acknowledgement that they know they're just kind of brushing her off.)

But anyway, eventually Corey's path crosses with Laurie's, when he's being bullied by some local jerks over his Halloween past, which naturally earns her sympathy. He has an injury, and Allyson is now working for HMH, so she successfully plays matchmaker by bringing him there. Allyson and Corey bond over his injury and also her busted car (he in turn works at an auto shop/junkyard, another Christine nod), go on a date, etc. Meanwhile, Laurie reconnects with Frank (my man Will Patton) and seems to have her shit together for once! She's even writing a memoir about her ordeals; one hopes she can get Sidney "Out of Darkness" Prescott to write the foreword.

You might notice that I haven't mentioned Michael Myers. Well, that's because... he just isn't in it for a while. He makes exactly one non-killing appearance in the first hour (yes, HOUR) of the film, and it's an important scene, yes, but given that this is supposedly the series finale it's very strange how the marquee villain sits most of it out. Did they learn nothing from Jason Goes To Hell? Then again (OK, final spoiler warning!) maybe that's also intentional, because in that one appearance he seems to transfer his evil to Corey, much like JGTH's makers thought the best sendoff for their own boogeyman was to leave him on the sidelines for most of the movie. But at least there he had that great opening in the cabin! Again, this is why I feel the movie really could have used a 2018-set prologue where Laurie (and Allyson, perhaps) tracks him down after he murdered Karen, maybe let him kill some rando (or even Lindsey, who returns but has no purpose), and then let Laurie "kill" him in the usual (read: not effective) manner. Instead they just say he disappeared for all those years, which really rang false to me. He's just in a sewer tunnel in town - we know Haddonfield PD isn't the best police force in the world, but are they really so ineffective that they'd just shrug him off after he murdered over 40 people in a single night? Didn't they, you know, look?

Anyway, yeah: Corey takes on villain duties for the bulk of the film, sometimes even when wearing Myers' mask (so in addition to JGTH, there's a little New Beginning in there). I'm not opposed to this, I should stress - I think it's an interesting idea and I've certainly seen the real McCoy do his thing enough in 11 other films. My issue is both the placement (again, in the "last" film) and the awkward way we return to this world after Kills, where it feels like we missed a movie in between. I know Covid forced them to change plans a bit, but I can't imagine any scenario where they couldn't have just had a less awkward first act that could solve a lot of the movie's issues (shrugging off Karen, Myers' long absence, etc.). I mean, the movie's almost two hours long, brings back every surviving character (not that there are a lot), introduces several new people and locations - it doesn't FEEL like a movie that's hamstrung by the pandemic in any way. To sum up, they're already asking a lot of the fanbase to accept a movie that doesn't have their "hero" in it for the entire first half (and has him split duties for the second half), but they ask even more of us by doing it in a way that seems needlessly clumsy.

Once it gets going, it works really well, and will satisfy folks who were burned by Kills. It's not on kill overload (it's got a decent body count, but well south of the previous film's record high) and there's no "Evil dies tonight" or anything like that - it's just the usual brand of carnage, highlighted by a sequence at the junkyard where the Shape takes on four jerk teens. The movie occasionally dips into the weird melodramatic dialogue that David Gordon Green and his writers seemingly love (most prominently in a bar scene with a victim's father), but never to the point of derailing the whole thing like in the previous film. It doesn't even have any humor of note; a little bit of cutesy stuff between Laurie and Frank and a couple lines from Corey's father are the only attempts in the entire movie at making the audience smile.

And (not really a spoiler here, it's in the trailer and also obvious) the big showdown between Laurie and Michael is very satisfying, although it has very little buildup - you might not even realize that you're watching the climax until it's, well, VERY OBVIOUSLY the climax. I chalk that up to the lengthy setup period and the fact that most movies are seemingly over two hours now; by the time Myers is actually up and about and doing his thing, there's not much of the (1:50) movie left, but without knowing the runtime and just going off the "feel" of the film's pacing you might assume there's another half hour or so to go when he finds himself facing Laurie again. It doesn't help that Lindsey just disappears from the story at a certain point, and it's not until the very end I even realized that Frank was still working as a cop since there was no police presence in the movie (Sheriff Cowboy Hat only appears in two shots in what's essentially an epilogue); after taking forever to get going, they suddenly start racing through things.

The good news is: the stuff that works? It works REALLY well. Jamie Lee is terrific, seemingly fired up after spending so much of the last movie in bed (and perhaps a bit energized knowing it's almost certainly, definitely, for realsies no takebacks, the last time she'll play Laurie Strode), and Rohan Campbell (Corey) is the rarest of things in this series: a sympathetic young male character. Even when he starts doing awful things, it's hard not to root for him to shake it off and beat his demons, knowing they were triggered by just the absolute worst luck (twice!). Patton doesn't have much to do but he seems happy to be there (and his puppy dog affection for Laurie remains the most endearing thing to me), and Andi Matichak has finally gotten to really shine as a lead without being overshadowed by Curtis (in 2018) and the entire damn town (Kills). And with what little he has to do, James Jude Courtney remains an effective Shape - there's still no stalking of note, but at this point it'd almost be weird if there was since Green has shown no interest in it in his previous two outings. And - probably goes without saying - the Carpenter/Carpenter/Davies score is terrific, with Corey's character giving them some new motifs and one big cue in particular (called "The Procession", already available on streaming) is as epic as it should be given the scene it accompanies.

But only patient viewers will be rewarded, and you gotta deal with some weird plot points (Allyson was apparently dating a cop that's like fifteen years older than her? Again, anyone invested in her character's journey over these three films really got robbed of a big chunk re: Karen's death and how it affected her) and some strange "What year is this?" kind of writing (for example, everyone in town seemingly listens to the same FM station? In 2022?). Tone/pacing wise (meaning, ignoring the plot points) it almost feels like THIS should be the middle entry, setting up a Kills-like action packed finale, but instead it's more like an extended epilogue, which might work if the previous film didn't have such a gutpunch cliffhanger. It's bound to be the most polarizing yet of this trilogy (which is saying something!), and I am crushed that it's also heading to Peacock simultaneously, as that means a lot of the angry takes are going to be from people who weren't even fully paying attention to it and/or having the experience interrupted by ads.

I guess the best way to put it is this: it's a bad Michael Myers movie, but ultimately a good Laurie Strode one. Your mileage will vary depending on whose presence is more important to you in these things. And if you're like me, who assigns them (and Loomis, but he's not an option) equal value, it's just kind of bewildering at times, but ultimately ends in a satisfying way, enough to qualify it as a win. But I'd be lying if I said I didn't have to forgive a lot of clunkiness to get there. And here's hoping that "Halloween 14" is a return to the anthology format the series was meant to have in the first place, because there is clearly nothing less to do with these characters and I want everyone who is still alive at the end of this one to just enjoy the rest of their lives offscreen. They've earned it! Leave them alone! But don't remake them, either! Our affinity for them is mainly due to the actors who played them, something Rob Zombie clearly didn't realize. If a remake must be the way to go, do it without Loomis, Laurie, etc. The common complaint about Halloween III is "Where's Michael Myers?!?", not "Where's Laurie Strode?!?", so lean into it if going anthology isn't financially viable (though, I feel it'd be more accepted now especially since H3 appreciation has soared over the years. And if they can get Carpenter and his boys to do the scoring...).

What say you?

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Halloween Kills (2020- oops, 2021)

OCTOBER 21, 2021

GENRE: SLASHER
SOURCE: THEATRICAL (FESTIVAL SCREENING)

One of the more annoying things about the press cycle for Halloween (2018) was seeing it referred to as a "remake" of the 1978 film, a baffling mistake even if you hadn't seen the film (did they think Jamie Lee Curtis was being de-aged 40 years to play a babysitter?). But ironically, Halloween Kills ends up being a spiritual redo of the 1981 Halloween II; not only does it pick up immediately after the 2018 film, covering the same night, but it also has Laurie (Curtis) confined to a hospital bed for the bulk of the runtime, recovering from the previous film's injuries. It's also a more successful "later that same night" continuation, as David Gordon Green is much better at aping David Gordon Green than Rick Rosenthal was at aping John Carpenter - you can watch these two back to back without any of the whiplash that accompanies 1978 to 1981.

It also revives H2's "angry Haddonfield residents" idea, confined to a single scene (one of my favorites in that film, incidentally) where townsfolk are shown rioting outside the Myers house with the cops trying (barely) to calm them down. However, here it's expanded into what is essentially the B plot of the film; if you recall in H40, Michael Myers wasn't the only one who escaped from the prison bus, and one of those patients (specifically, the guy with the umbrella from that film's opening scene) is still on the loose but also kind of terrified, because after a chance encounter with Tommy Doyle (Anthony Michael Hall*) outside a bar, half the town is now convinced he is Myers, chasing him around while chanting "EVIL DIES TONIGHT!" Eventually they get completely out of control, as mobs tend to do, and you get the idea Michael could just take the rest of the night off and the body count might still rise.

It's a solid concept, and helps ward off the film's inherent rehash quality caused by its "same night and Laurie is in bed" setup that we've seen before (for all its callbacks, H40 never felt like a redo of any other entry). However, the actor playing the innocent patient is a bizarre choice for someone to be mistaken for Michael Myers, as he's shaped more like Danny DeVito, and mistaken BY PEOPLE WHO HAVE SEEN MICHAEL (i.e. Tommy) to be the tall, lanky man of their nightmares. The whole "pegging the wrong guy" thing has been a big problem because of social media over the past few years, and it's a missed opportunity that they didn't utilize that sort of thing to tell this story instead of relying on a previous victim's eyewitness "it's him!" account that makes little sense given their history. By the time Laurie finally sees this poor sod and tells the rampaging mob that it's not him, it's too late - they're all riled up and ignore her. And yeah, that's the inevitable conclusion for this plotline, but it would have worked so much better if it wasn't built on such a shoddy foundation.

As for the actual Shape, he's having the time of his life! This may have the highest body count of any film in the series; I didn't stop and count, but the previous record holder is 20 (a tie between H5 and Zombie's first one**) and thanks to two massacre scenes, along with the standard standalone victims in between, it has to go beyond that. One of them is the one in all the trailers, with Myers taking on the firemen who were actually trying to rescue the big dummy, and from there he kills his way through the town on a path back to his home (so no, he doesn't go to the hospital this time, the other big switch from Halloween II). Some of his victims include minor characters from the last film, so a fresh rewatch might be in order if you don't think you'll recognize every bit actor from the now three year old movie (even if this came out on time I doubt anyone but the hardest hardcore fans would realize that a pair of characters here are ones we've met before). Not that it matters much as far as understanding the movie, but it's kind of an amusing irony; in this revival that removes Michael's personal mission against Laurie, he ends up inadvertently finishing the job with everyone else that ever came within spitting distance of him.

Oh yeah, Laurie. She's livelier here than the last time she went to Haddonfield Memorial (maybe if Jimmy actually brought her that Coke she woulda been a little more animated?), and given her injuries in the last film it makes more sense that she's out of commission for a while, so long story short I don't mind that she's not up and about - it'd be pretty silly (even for this franchise) to have her back prowling the streets looking for her not-brother so soon after taking that beating. And she ends up sharing a room with someone else who survives an attack (no spoilers), giving both characters some rather sweet character development time - plus one of the few deep-cut Halloween nerd references that actually worked for me. It was kind of surreal to have Curtis show up to intro the film, bursting with her usual candid energy (translation: lots of F bombs) only to watch her mostly lie in a bed for two hours, but whatever faults the movie may have, her somewhat limited screentime and confined performance was not one of them. And for all the people who missed the fact that Michael coming to her house in the last one was NOT his goal, this movie reaffirms it, with Laurie hearing it herself that he never intended to go after her again.

But yeah, those aforementioned faults? It's gonna be a polarizing film, for sure. The "EVIL DIES TONIGHT!" stuff paves the way for some truly terrible dialogue, as does the return of some of the original characters. Pretty much everyone who survived the first movie is back in some form or other, and while it's lovely to see Sheriff Brackett again (and yes, played by Charles Cyphers), his role comes off as fan service more than an organic addition to the story - by the time he's repeating "Everyone's entitled to one good scare," you might find yourself regretting ever wanting them to bring the character back in the first place. As for the others: Lonnie (the great Robert Longstreet from Midnight Mass and Hill House) is probably the best revival, as Cameron's dad/Tommy's former bully, now pals with him, Lindsey (Kyle Richards, who is actually pretty great), and Nurse Chambers (Nancy Stephens), forming a group of "survivors" who get together every Halloween to toast their escape from the boogeyman.

In theory it's not a bad idea, but the mix of returning actors and people taking over from others stunts the "reunion" aspect of it all (particularly for Hall, as he's now the third person to play Tommy Doyle in the main franchise), and like the not-Myers guy they chase around, it's kind of built on a giant leap of logic. I'm just trying to imagine the scenario in which Chambers (who, in this version of the timeline, never did anything else beyond drive Loomis to Smith's Grove and get her car stolen) found herself palling around with two kids to form this little group. It's a minor ripple of the same problem that kind of plagued the 2018 film: it erased the series' entire history, but also kind of relied on it to explain why anyone today acted the way they did. Yes, assuming she didn't die in H20, I'd expect the woman who took care of Loomis and comforted Laurie in H2 would find herself keeping in touch with these people she actually encountered, but none of that happened, now. Might as well invite the guy from the hardware store to join them. As with Brackett, it's a "nice to see them again" kind of thing, sure, but their reasons for being there are flimsy at best, and also retroactively mess up the previous film - if they're all still so haunted by Myers, and have kept in touch with Laurie, why is it they're only finding out about his escape/return now? News of his escape hit the news that morning. Seems to be a "sidequel" kind of approach would have been better to bring them back to the story, showing what they were up to during the day and how they processed the possibility of facing their monster again.

Their return also means a lot of clunky dialogue to remind the audience who they are, which poses an interesting scenario - seems to me that people watching will either know exactly who Lonnie Elam is without needing the reminder, or won't care anyway, as it ultimately means very little in a movie with something like 40 characters. There's Laurie and her family, a couple who join Lindsey and Chambers' posse, the firemen, the couple who owns the Myers house (the best of the lot, I should add), the cowboy Sheriff, Cameron, Brackett, another couple who lives near Laurie (guess what happens to them), and - oh yeah - a handful of other characters who appear in the lengthy flashback to 1978 showing how Michael got captured in the first place (a scene more or less meant for the 2018 one but never shot). So with all that going on, does it really matter than Lonnie was the bully kid who Loomis scared away from the Myers house? Nope, but we get a dialogue exchange reminding us!

More on the flashback stuff - you can skip this paragraph if you've avoided the trailers - it works pretty well; even the Loomis standin looks pretty great (they still can't quite nail the voice though). And it helps to establish once and for all that even Halloween II was wiped out in this timeline (ironically not helped by a shot of the film appearing when they feel the need to explain who Brackett is), so I really wish they had found the place for it in the last one as originally intended. The problem with it is that most of it appears early on, adding to the strange editing choice that keeps Laurie from appearing for like twenty minutes, as we get the flashback AND another scene that shows us where Cameron was and how he gets reintroduced to the story before finally catching up with our hero. I think if they found a way to sprinkle the flashback stuff throughout the film (it largely focuses on a character who is around in the present day, so a Lost-style series of quicker flashbacks could have worked) it would have all landed better.

To sum up the last few paragraphs: the movie has a pretty rough first half hour, as it's trying to marry the need to set up all of the new ideas (the Myers house, particularly Judith's bedroom window, ends up being a "thing" throughout the movie) plus the "immediate continuation" approach, and it's not particularly successful. You might feel frustrated just waiting for Laurie AND Michael to reappear and start doing their thing. The sheer amount of kills and scenery changes keeps it going once all that stuff is out of the way, but it's one of those things where it might be difficult to get a general audience - i.e. the people that turned the last film into the most successful entry of the franchise - to go along with these relatively ambitious ideas before they get to the stuff they came for.

Unless they came for suspense, as there isn't a lot of it. Kills? Sure, but very little of the build up the best entries offered *before* the finishing blow(s). Weirdly, all of the best moments for that sort of thing occur in the Myers house (take THAT, Halloween Resurrection!); the flashback, the current day owners, and a few of our heroes all take turns creeping around the place looking for its former resident, and those scenes have lots of the slowly building dread that I tend to prefer over yet another hacked up victim. But otherwise, he's just more like a force of nature, barely even pausing between kills at times. I don't particularly like the brother angle, but one thing it offered was a more restrained Shape when he was out and about Haddonfield; one of my favorite scenes in Halloween II is where he is just making his way through the town square, ignoring all of the people around him that didn't interest him. This version of the character would kill them all without any resistance, and maybe that sounds appealing to you, but to me it just gets almost tiresome. I'd rather get five great chase scenes that end in deaths than twenty kills without much of a setup.

Also (another paragraph to skip, though the spoilers are vague) the ending is pretty grim, not to mention rushed. Michael successfully takes on a mob in a way that seems absurd even for this series (it's like a Jackie Chan fight scene where everyone waits their turn to get kicked, or in this case killed) and then seemingly teleports to kill a major character elsewhere, all in the span of like 45 seconds or so. And then it cuts to credits, a cliffhanger of sorts because we all know Halloween Ends is coming next year. So it's a movie that starts wonky and ends abruptly - that's a lot to ask out of an audience who might be hesitant about going to the theater (or signing up for yet another streaming service). I'm sure when Ends is out it'll play better (kind of like how Saw V is fine when you're marathoning), but for now I suspect there will be a lot of frustrated viewers, and they also have to really bring their A game in that one to make up for the seeming loss of _____ in the proceedings, as they were a welcome addition and will be missed (then again, it IS a slasher series and thus I know the body count has to be higher than the number of survivors).

That said, there is still a lot to like here, and I ended up putting it somewhere in the middle of my ranking***. It actually started reminding me of the underrated Halloween 5 in many ways; it's taking some big swings, and while not all of them work, I have to respect the attempt, even moreso with this than H5. We're talking about what is essentially "Halloween 12" (yep, with Ends it'll surpass the Friday the 13th series in total entries for the first time), so they almost have to take risks just to keep it from feeling like a rerun. One thing they've definitely fixed from the 2018 one is the number of off-screen kills, something that was noticeably prevalent there but barely occurs here - almost every death is shown (and pretty graphic, there's a splattered head that even made ME wince). If you're the sort of fan who equates a body count with quality then you're gonna love the flick for sure. And Carpenter's score is another winner, once again reviving the themes and bringing new stuff to the table.

It also has some legitimately sad moments, something that a slasher often doesn't have time for. Remember Oscar the incel from the last one (and his gruesome spiked fence death)? His mom shows up at the hospital and sees his corpse, and it's a pretty devastating moment, as is the one where Allyson realizes that her father is dead. In fact all of the character work is pretty on point (clunky introductory dialogue aside), as even the most anonymous victims (like Laurie's neighbors) have some personality that you can't always expect out of a slasher sequel. I wish cowboy Sheriff had more to do (especially with Brackett around; what a contrast! No one will care to bring this guy back in forty years), but thankfully cases like his are the exception instead of the rule.

Long story short, it's got all the pieces there, they just don't always fit together as well as I hoped. I've rewatched the 2018 one a bunch, but I feel this one won't get grabbed off the shelf as often, at least until I can follow it up with Ends and see the whole story. Overall I like it, but at the same time it's just kind of jumbled, a "for die-hard fans only" kind of affair that asks more of its audience than the last one did, and I don't watch these movies to furrow my brow and wonder why they were doing something the way they were doing it. I think if I was 12 when I saw this I'd love it and grow up defending it, but now, with limited time for watching stuff at all let alone rewatching it, I can't help but feel slightly disappointed that this one doesn't have the same pull that the last one did.

What say you?

* With the film debuting on Peacock and thus will be easier to manipulate the footage, I expect - no, DEMAND - someone deepfake Paul Rudd into a few of Hall's scenes ASAP.
** Actually, Halloween III has 21! But that's not Myers, so it gets asteriskized!
*** 1, 3/4, 2018, 2, Kills, 5, RZH2 (d-cut) Curse/H20, RZH1, Resurrection

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Halloween (2018)

OCTOBER 17, 2018

GENRE: SLASHER
THEATRICAL (PRESS SCREENING)

For a while there, it looked like I may never get to use my "Halloween Series" tag on this site again unless it was for yet another re-release of one of the films on Blu-ray that inspired me to write something. Multiple incarnations of a new entry in the series fell apart (one just a few weeks before shooting), Dimension seemed to be having problems getting ANYTHING done, and the other "old guard" franchises like Freddy and Leatherface were either on ice or barely getting released, so it just seemed like no one would want to bother. But through some combination of miracles and presumably a healthy number of zeroes on a paycheck, the series was revived by Blumhouse, and they even managed to get Jamie Lee Curtis and John Carpenter on board. Two years and change after it was announced, Halloween (hereafter "H40" so as not to confuse with the same-named original) is now here, and thanks to a few festival and test screenings a lot of info and spoilers are out there, leaving only one question: Was BC, bastion of Halloween continuity and nitpickiest asshole on the planet, satisfied?

As a matter of fact, I was.

This will be a long review, as per tradition, so I just wanted to get that out of the way so you could move on, especially if you've managed to avoid any major spoilers or plot information. I won't get into specifics, but I will be talking about spoiler-y things in general later, so maybe wait to read the rest now that you know it's passed my smell test. It's not a perfect film - there are two blunders at a crucial time in the narrative, and it seems some character beats got left on the cutting room floor (at 105 minutes, I can't exactly blame them for trying to trim wherever they could), but it gets all the important things right: Jamie is at the top of her game (far better than she was in H20), it has a terrific, crowd-pleasing finale, and (most importantly?) the Carpenter score is PERFECT. Yes, some hardcore fans may bristle at the "none of the sequels happened" slate-wiping approach, but if you'd rather make John Carpenter sit down to write music for a scene where a Druid cult talks to Busta Rhymes just to ensure every previous movie got its due, I'm not sure anything can ever make you happy in life.

Might as well start with that approach. The biggest hurdle this movie has to overcome is getting the fans to forget everything else that's happened, including/especially the whole "Michael is Laurie's sister" thing. For many fans (including this one), this has always been the case, either from seeing a sequel first or just hearing about it - it's horror's version of "Darth Vader is Luke's father", i.e. common knowledge to people who haven't even seen the films. And the film does a pretty good job of establishing the non-existence of those other films (better than H20 did, for sure - fans have made attempts to explain how 4-6 could have still happened in H20's timeline, and even though they're wrong, it's at least somewhat possible. This time? Not a chance in hell), as well as waving away the sibling idea through dialogue ("Just something people made up") - but then engineers a plot that sends Michael to Laurie's front door.

So it's kind of a "having cake and eating it too" thing; they want to restore Myers to the "boogeyman" who kills at random, but they also want to give people a showdown between him and his most famous target. To be fair, he does seem fairly content wandering around Haddonfield and murdering folks and only crosses paths with Laurie because she's obsessed and hunting him down... for the first 75 minutes or so. But then there's a plot twist (which I'll get into later) and it's hard to forget he's back to being a random murderer, as he ends up at Laurie's house when he seemingly could have just returned to town and found more people to kill there (Laurie, understandably, lives in isolation outside of town). They're not related anymore, and he sure as hell doesn't work for a Druid cult, but the third act is reverse engineered to bring him to her front door anyway.

Speaking of Laurie, the other thing we have to just kind of shrug off is... you know, H20. I don't love that film, but despite the fact that this film is superior in every way, the "I've waited forty years..." stuff never quite lands with the impact it should, because we know it's only been 16 years (since Resurrection), and we've already seen a damaged Laurie have her reunion with the guy in the white mask, which steals a lot of H40's thunder. If you are indeed the ideal audience member for this movie, i.e. one who saw the original and none of the other sequels (and stayed oblivious to the sibling twist), I am eternally jealous of you, because I never managed to fully shake/ignore my memories of those films*, even though many of them were inferior. When Jamie first sees Michael again in this film, as he's being transferred (as always, they transfer this guy on literally the worst night of the year to do so, Halloween Eve), she breaks down and cries, and you want to feel that forty years of buildup that Laurie is feeling - but I'm just like "Well at least she knows it's not a paramedic wearing his mask this time."

But like I said, this approach is preferable to the alternative of saying those movies DID exist, and trying to find a way to explain how it can all work is best left to fans with nothing better to do. For whatever split personality vibes you might get from it, the simplicity of the film is what makes it work as well as it does, and we get to spend more time with Laurie as a human being than as the guide through forty years of conflicting sequels. And it helps demystify Michael, helping us think of him as an everyday real world killer as opposed to a supernatural maniac like Jason or Freddy. Our entry point to the story are the two people behind a true crime podcast, and one of them makes a plea to Laurie for her to go to Smith's Grove (we are led to believe she never has done this) and confront Michael, and say the things that she's been bottling up for the past four decades. She doesn't get to do that, but it got me thinking of how in a normal world, if someone were to survive an attack, they'd likely have to sit in a courtroom with that person and perhaps get some things off their chest there. By removing all the Druid silliness, it's possible to think about that happening, and it becomes a really effective moment. We all laughed in Halloween 5 when they put Myers (with his mask!) in a jail cell, but this version, who has only killed five people and survived a few gunshots (and a needle stabbing - I love that the mask has the hole in it), it doesn't seem strange at all - a character even points out that there are plenty of worse people out there in the here and now (any shooting spree perp you remember killed far more people, for example). It's hard to put aside Laurie's history as we've seen it over the years, but for whatever reason I quickly bought into the idea that this Myers is just another guy who went on one (1) killing spree and got locked up after.

And on that note, one of the things the movie never quite cracks is explaining how Myers got captured in 1978. Originally there was a plan to open the film then and show it (with some minor retconning of the original ending), but it was scrapped at some point, leaving only vague lines of dialogue here and there to sell the idea. Again, Halloween II didn't happen either, so there was no explosion - he was just GONE at the end of the original, and presumably didn't walk back into Smith's Grove himself. But through scattered lines of dialogue it seems he was apprehended shortly after going out the window, with one of the arresting officers being Hawkins, who is played by Will Patton in the film. He's a new character that's kind of treated as a fan favorite coming back to the fold (hell, he even gets a better introduction than Laurie), and even when the film is closer to the end than the beginning they feel the need to remind us that Hawkins was there that night. You gotta love a movie that not only tells us that six other films never happened, but seemingly made one up in between. Not that I want them to change the original's ending, but I wish they did have that flashback or something to not only reinforce the fact that Halloween II's events never happened (explosion aside, it's an easier launching off point since he was at least down for the count, not MIA) but to spare us the awkward dialogue later.

That said, Hawkins is a terrific new character; he's not a sheriff but he fills the Brackett/Meeker role admirably, without coming off as a pale retread of either. He's introduced playing a pinball game, clearly establishing the small-town boredom a veteran cop in that situation must be feeling, but he also knows not to dismiss the idea of Michael Myers running loose in the city. These films have never really found a way to make up for Dr. Loomis' absence in the wake of Donald Pleasence's death, but having a quirky character actor like Patton (who I've loved for over 20 years and was ecstatic to hear that he was cast in a Halloween film) chasing Myers through the town, sometimes alongside a crazed Laurie Strode, is about the best consolation option I can imagine. The "new Loomis", per Laurie, is Dr. Sartain, who we're told was a student of Loomis' (who has now just passed away, presumably of old age) and picked up where he left off in trying to reach Michael. Due to an injury he suffers during Michael's inevitable escape he is sidelined for a good chunk of the narrative, which is for the best since once he wakes up and joins the hunt it's hard not to think about the real Loomis.

OK here's the somewhat spoiler-y paragraph, so skip this one for sure if you want to be unsullied! Sartain is also involved in one of those aforementioned blunders; I'll refrain from getting into it but you'll know exactly what I'm talking about when it happens. In addition to being wholly unnecessary, it will also likely remind you of a bad call in one of the other sequels, which baffled me to no end - they were trying so hard and mostly succeeding in getting us to forget about those, why risk giving us the unpleasant flashback? Especially at the point it occurs in the film, which is roughly the end of act two. Some breathless editing aside, the film is working like gangbusters until then, and while this minor subplot is thankfully done and over with about ten minutes later (and, while not spelled out, we can assume explains something a little hokey in the film's setup), it's a shame that they have to kind of work to get us back on board when they were so close to finishing up with a home run. If the movie's a hit (and tracking suggests it very much will be), I hope they just agree once and for all that there's only one Loomis and we don't need any attempt at a substitute.

The other adults are Judy Greer and Toby Huss as Laurie's daughter and son-in-law, and to no one's surprise they are kind of sidelined. We're told that Karen (Greer) was taken away from Laurie when she was only 12 because the social service folks didn't care too much for how she was being raised (more or less the same way Sarah Connor raised John), so they're not on the best of terms as Karen thinks she's just wacko and of course will realize in the end that Laurie was right. But they don't do much beyond roll their eyes at Laurie and fret about their daughter Allyson, giving Greer yet another opportunity to make the most out of a role that, until the third act, may as well have been filled by Central Casting (see also: Jurassic World, Ant-Man, the new Apes films...). She gets one of the most crowd-pleasing moments in the franchise near the end, and Greer is one of those actresses who will always add a little flavor to her screentime (keep an eye on her at the dinner scene in particular; the focus is on Laurie but she's engaged), but I was hoping she'd get to do more throughout. The movie really could have used a one on one scene between the two women (perhaps there was one; when Karen says that Laurie came to see her earlier that day, it's unclear if she's lying), as we never quite get a glimpse of what their relationship was really like.

Luckily, we do get a bit of how Laurie is with her granddaughter, Allyson (Andi Matichak), as she takes the money she got from the podcast and gives it to the girl in secret. We get the idea that these two hang out more often than Karen knows, which is lovely and sweet (likewise, later on when Laurie has a bit of a breakdown she cries on the girl's shoulder, a reversal of what you'd expect from a granddaughter/grandmother relationship). Allyson and her friends are less prominent than you'd probably expect from a slasher movie, and in fact the other blunder I mentioned (vaguely spoilerish?) is that her boyfriend kind of disappears from the story after pissing her off, without a comeuppance and/or a Brady-style redemption moment. I know it's weird to be like "We need more time with the asshole boyfriend!" (in one of the Easter Egg moments, we are told his father is Lonnie Elam, of "Get your ass away from there!" fame), but it ties into the overall issue that Allyson kind of gets marginalized for a chunk of the film, even disappearing for a bit entirely and suffering a disconnect from the rest of the proceedings when they do cut back to her, as if to say "Don't worry, she's still out there!" It's fine to see Jamie Lee do her thing, but I almost felt kind of bad for Andi, getting to be cast as "the new Laurie Strode", essentially, and then watching the real one do all that stuff. She's practically never even in direct danger from Michael, when all is said and done - though if you ever yelled at Laurie for something she did in the first movie, the film's closing shot seems to be specifically for you, hinting that she'll get her moment down the road.

I do want to digress just for a moment here while I'm on the subject of Laurie and her relationship with Allyson and Karen - I think it's safe to say Laurie ended up going to that dance with Ben Tramer, and kept the party going in the back of his car later, if you catch my meaning. It's forty years later and Allyson is 17, so the earliest Karen could have gotten pregnant is when she was only 22 herself (factoring in both nine month periods), and even earlier if Laurie didn't go out and celebrate surviving the night by having some unprotected fun. It's one of those things no one was probably really thinking about too hard, but it's kind of amusing how everyone that came up with Laurie having a kid (the others being Jamie Lloyd and John Tate) decided that she would have them during college, if she even went at all. Girl forgets her chemistry book ONCE and it's a downhill slide into blowing off her studies forever...

Well it's been 2,600 words so maybe I should talk about the suspense and kills in this slasher movie. I'll just let you know straight up: there are perhaps a number, perhaps even too many off-screen kills in the film, so if you are the type of slasher fan who judges a film based on its death sequences first and foremost, you're going to go away displeased. Michael racks up a fairly high count (I want to say 16?) but we only actually see about half of them, which is in line with Halloween 4 but in a film that's 20 minutes longer, and without any larger scale "Michael kills x number of people in the ____" aftermath scenes like that one's police station and ambulance. I didn't mind it for the most part, but there's one in particular I feel we are really cheated out of seeing; I can't say WHO, obviously, but the character is being proactive when we last see them, and then later their corpse is found, in an awkward manner to boot, leaving us to wonder how exactly things went down and robbing us of our last moments with one of the film's more endearing characters.

But when we DO see Michael in action, oh man. It's a terrific mix of stalking and brutal violence; he gets his Dick Warlock on around the film's halfway point, making his way through a crowded Haddonfield street where residents just assume he's another trick r treater, but takes cues from (don't take the wrong way!) Tyler Mane on occasion as well, ramming heads into walls over and over and stomping on heads (hey, the man's been cooped up for 40 years, so he's got some shit to work out!). I wouldn't have minded a little more playfulness since they were going back to OG Michael (the guy who'd put a sheet on his head and knock plants over to scare people), but he's the scariest he's been since H4, easily. The climax in particular is pitch perfect; it's almost like a home invasion movie with Laurie trying to find Michael in the house, knowing he's hiding in one of her many closets - it's the first time I as an adult have been able to get tensed up watching one of these movies, and it felt GOOD. I also liked how quick and simple the kills were; David Gordon Green and Danny McBride seem to realize that "creative kills" are more of a Jason thing anyway, so his bare hands and kitchen knives serve his purposes 99% of the time, as they should. The mask looks great and new Michael actor James Jude Courtney is a good match for Nick Castle (who also returns for a key moment or two); whatever complaints the fans may have about the continuity and such, there's no way a true fan could dismiss how Michael is depicted this time around.

Speaking of continuity, obviously they had to keep any sort of callbacks to the others to the barest minimum, so there aren't a lot. The most prominent is the Halloween III masks, which are seen in the trailer and messes with nothing since that movie existed in a different universe anyway, but there's a quick nod to Halloween II in the form of one of its briefly seen characters. And it's hard not to think about H20 (or RZ H1) during a gas station bathroom scene, but otherwise they keep their more overt winking confined to the original. I mentioned Lonnie earlier, but there's an even better deep cut for the hardcore; I won't tell you what it is, only to pay attention to radios whenever they're used (also, pay close attention to the set decor in Karen's old bedroom). And near the end, they put a spin on one of the original's iconic moments that had the crowd cheering. Indeed, one thing I noticed about this one compared to others (and other slasher movies in general) is that the crowd-pleasing moments involved the protagonists, not the villain. No one cheers for Michael the way they might for Jason, and I think it's a big part of why the movie works.

In addition to those moments and the expected screams (Green may not be known for horror, but the man can craft a jump scare), the crowd was also laughing a lot, and it was intentional. Perhaps it's not too shocking since the script was co-written by Danny McBride, but there's a lot of genuine humor here, and it's only very rarely ill-placed (a long scene between two cops rambling about Banh Mi sandwiches comes to mind). The two kid characters in particular are hilarious (don't worry, kid haters - they're not in it much; their combined time is probably still less than Lindsey's in the original), and Ray is pretty funny in that hapless dad kind of way (if Breaking Bad never happened you might see Bryan "Malcolm in the Middle" Cranston playing him). Even Laurie gets a couple of chuckles; she's no Keri Tate here, so when she sees a glass of wine she'll happily slurp it down instead of hiding it from her boyfriend. One thing that always bugged me about H20 is that Jamie Lee was basically just playing herself for the most part, but this seems more in line with the Laurie we remember, except now she has a perfectly good reason to be so cautious.

Finally, we come to the music. Oh man. If you've listened to John Carpenter's Lost Themes albums as well as the recent Anthology release (where they redid a bunch of themes, including Halloween's) you'll get a pretty good idea of what it sounds like, and it's just as good as you probably imagine. Occasionally it sounds pretty much identical to the original cues (at least to my ears, which I fully admit are not particularly musically inclined, which is why I rarely discuss music but I figure it's probably sacrilege to not even try for this particular film), but for the most part it sounds familiar enough to recognize the standard themes (though I'm not sure if the slower "Myers House" one ever showed up) but not so much that you'd get the idea Carpenter (along with his usual bandmates, his son Cody and also Daniel Davies) just collected a paycheck. It's gonna get spun a lot by fans of the series and those who just love JC's particular style independent of the films - I wish to hell I had it already so I could have it playing while I wrote this review (I went with Lost Themes for the zillionth time - most of my book was written to that, so it's fitting, heh).

To sum up: it works. No, it's not perfect, but most of what keeps it from that status (besides, you know, the fact that few films ARE) have nothing to do with what the filmmakers did or didn't do - it's just that this material is so well traveled by now, it's just hard to avoid deja vu. But that's the thing about sequels, which gets exponentially harder as the series goes on: you want to give people something new while also retaining the things that make people like it (which will vary - some folks LOVE that Laurie is Michael's sister and are upset that this movie dismisses the idea), and I don't envy anyone who gets hired to find that balance. Everyone here gave it their all, but despite what the script says the movie is still "Halloween 11", ultimately, and can't fully escape the baggage - good or bad - that's on the table with it. But under those circumstances, beyond a few editing choices I fail to see how this could have been any better than it is, and it's pretty damn good. For the first time in the nearly 30 years I've been a fan of this series, I've walked out of a theater happy with the new Halloween film I just saw. Thanks to everyone who finally made that possible.

What say you?

P.S. Someone will ask, so fine, and if there's no space between entries that means it's REALLY close: 1, 4,3, H40,2, 5, RZ H2 (d cut), H20/Curse(either cut), RZ H1,Resurrection.

*After writing this review I watched the movies back to back at the Beyond Fest screening, and it WAS easier to ignore the others without any breaks in between. I recommend a viewing of the original immediately before heading out to the theater!

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Blu-Ray Review: Halloween (1978)

SEPTEMBER 26, 2013

GENRE: SLASHER
SOURCE: BLU-RAY (OWN COLLECTION)

I often joke to my superiors at BadassDigest that all I write are Halloween-related articles - between this site and theirs (plus my time at Bloody D) I've probably amassed enough for a small book on the series (and that's not counting my appearances in things like Halloween: The Inside Story). But the funny thing is, I've never actually reviewed the original Halloween in a serious manner - I did the April Fool's joke review a couple years back, and my running commentary take for the first batch of "October Extras" in 2007, but never once have I given it the proper review treatment (I may have even said I never would, now that I think about it).

But it's been a couple years since the film was last re-released on disc with new bonus features (for a movie that was made before the idea of "special editions", it sure has enough of them), and so here we are with a new release of the film from Anchor Bay for its 35th (!) anniversary. Sure, one could make the not-that-big-of-a-stretch joke that it's also the 35th release of the film from AB, and what I'm about to say isn't the first time you've heard it, but I stress - THIS is the edition you want to have in your collection. Throw the previous Blu-ray away if you own it, this one blows it out of the water with its new, Dean Cundey supervised transfer, and apart from the occasional defect (the shot of Loomis outside of the Myers house, right before discovering his own car across the street, is noticeably blurred), is the best home video presentation of the film yet. You know I've seen this movie a lot and scrutinize it more carefully than any other, so I assure you you can take my word for it.

The biggest improvement is the color timing, which was the source of much controversy and aggravation for a decade now. Beginning with the 2003 (25th anniversary!) release, a new transfer has always been used, one that was done WITHOUT Cundey and given a much brighter, "oranger" look. I know on paper that sounds fine and even appropriate (orange = Halloween, no?), but what it actually did was have the rather ironic side effect of making the film look exactly like the setting it was shot: spring in sunny Southern California. The orange tinted look on those wonderful daytime scenes and reduced blues for the nighttime scenes looked "great" to the untrained eye who wasn't considering the source material, but the flatter, colder look is what it's SUPPOSED to look like - it may be shot in California, but it's supposed to be Illinois on October 31st, when it is indeed cold and drab outside. Cundey and Carpenter weren't trying to make their film look "ugly" - they were trying to make it look REAL, and hide the Los Angeles-ness of the image (save for the occasional palm tree). If my memory serves, the last release to look correct was the 1999 one (which originally came with the TV cut on a second disc), which was anamorphic but not high def, obviously - so this is the first time we've gotten a release that resembles how wonderful the film looks on a proper 35mm print.

But detail is also improved over the previous Blu-ray; again, this is a movie I've pored over several times, and the new transfer was sharp and clear enough for me to make out new, completely superfluous things (like a fingerprint on the windshield in front of Laurie during the "I'd rather go out with Ben Tramer" scene, or a few more signs in the background that can now be read). Of course, no one buys a movie to look at the backgrounds, but if the new image is good enough for me to spot things I never noticed before despite 50+ viewings, then it's pretty obvious how great the actual IMPORTANT stuff looks. And again, with the proper color timing, it combines to make a spectacular image that you'd have to be a goon to look down upon (I've seen a few complaints that the new color is "wrong", it's sad).

Of course, a new transfer wouldn't be enough to get folks to shell out another 30 bucks when they probably all have at least two copies by now (I believe this is my 6th, and that's with me recently parting ways with one of my VHS copies), so Anchor Bay has put together some nice supplements to sweeten the deal. The most extensive is an hour-long documentary about Jamie Lee Curtis' first (and last, she says) appearance at a convention. Put together by Sean Clark for a Horrorhound convention, the goal was for her to make this one-time appearance and raise money for the Los Angeles Children's Hospital by donating some portion of the proceeds (the specifics aren't mentioned) from her autograph and photo op fees. Of course, at the time of the 25th anniversary release, this would have been a bit weird, since paying stars for their autograph or for a photo at these things was rather unusual (I know, because I've never paid for one in my life but I have several Fangorias and DVDs that would seem to suggest otherwise), but I guess that's just the reality now. Sad, but at least it was going to charity, and while the photo sessions seem pretty rushed, we see plenty of video footage of her engaging with the fans who had stuff for her to sign, even posing for a few candid shots and leading at least two renditions of "Happy Birthday" for fans who were celebrating more than just meeting Laurie Strode. It's a bit long overall, and poorly edited (Tom Atkins' appearance is completely left to our imagination) with a lot of unnecessary "reel change" type graphics thrown around (to show the passage of time I guess) and truly terrible titles, but it's great to see Ms. Curtis interacting with fans and being so candid (a shame only a snippet of her hour long Q&A is shown, as it's more exciting than seeing her sign the 406th Halloween poster).

The other big "get" is a new commentary by Carpenter and Curtis - this time recorded together, unlike the previous commentary (featuring Debra Hill as well) where the they were recorded separately. As you know, ANY Carpenter commentary is much more fun when he's bouncing off someone, and it's clear that the two still have great affection for each other. Plus, Carpenter doesn't exactly jump to talk about this movie much anymore (like me, he's pretty much talked out about it), but he's having fun reminiscing with Jamie and thus doesn't come across as a grump like he might in an interview or Q&A (though he seems to (rightfully) get a bit exasperated with Curtis' constant narration of the plot and fixation on the film's continuity errors). Of course, some of their comments mirror the ones they made on the last track, but it's vastly more interesting to hear them share such anecdotes and laugh about them, so it's not a big deal. And it's not "new" of course since she died in 2005, but there's a little piece on Debra Hill where she talks about the film and its locations (with some extra input from PJ Soles) that I've never seen before, so if I'm not mistaken it's "new" to an Anchor Bay DVD (UPDATE - I was mistaken - this featurette was on the 2003 Divimax DVD). The TV footage is also present; I guess we will have to wait for the 40th anniversary set (or some unceremonious one in between) for a Blu-ray version of the TV version in its entirety. An essay by Stef Hutchison is also packaged inside the digibook case, which will stick out on your shelf (OCD alert!) but is otherwise quite lovely.

And then the usual trailers and TV spots are there; they might be different than the last one, they might not - I honestly can't tell anymore. Someone on Twitter was bemoaning the lack of the old commentary track, and the various other retrospective pieces (and that behind the scenes material) that appeared on previous releases are also MIA. Anchor Bay seemingly has a real phobia of doing any sort of "ultimate" release with this film - every time around they seemingly create new stuff but port almost nothing over from the last one (unlike Scream Factory's "Everything you had and more!" approach). I don't particularly care about the old commentary since it's not like I listen to them multiple times anyway (in fact I think I HAVE listened to that one twice, so I almost assuredly won't be doing so again), but it would be nice to reclaim some shelf space as I'd like to have the other making of/retrospective material. But you can definitely ditch the 2007 Blu-ray if you have the 2003 Divimax DVD (of which it was basically a port), as it doesn't have anything else on it you won't have elsewhere beyond an incorrectly colored high def image.

(Heh. Still didn't review the movie itself.)

(What say you?

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Blu-Ray Review: Halloween II Special Edition

SEPTEMBER 18, 2012

GENRE: SLASHER
SOURCE: BLU-RAY (OWN COLLECTION)

Universal really screwed over Michael Myers fans last year when they put out the first Blu-ray of Halloween II, opting not to include several already available bonus features nor commission any new ones, and pouring salt in the wound by replacing Moustapha Akkad's credit on the top of the film (it was later corrected, but the insult was never satisfyingly explained). Thankfully, Shout! Factory has managed to right the wrongs just a year later, providing a real special edition that has pretty much everything we've been asking for.

And that includes the "Television Cut" of the film, which is sometimes mistakenly referred to as the "Rick Rosenthal Cut". However this moniker is inaccurate (why would his cut have one of the scenes John Carpenter directed?), his original cut remains lost, though I'm sure this one is close enough to get the idea of how his version went. Either way, I prefer the theatrical version - while there are some nice character moments here and there, and it's great to have the explanation for the hospital's darkened state (Myers cuts the power - a subplot excised entirely from the theatrical version) and Laurie's sudden comatose state (they drug her up again during the blackout scene), most of the changes are not for the better.

For starters, it's missing way too much footage - whatever television station this was prepared for was more irrational than the MPAA, as some of the excised material renders certain scenes incoherent, such as when Michael gets the knife from the Elrods - Mrs. Elrod just turns around, a shot of Michael (from the hospital!) is randomly inserted, and then she screams - we have no idea what actually happened. Hell, they didn't even allow the closeup of the blood-scrawled "SAMHAIN" on the blackboard at the school, making this already extraneous scene even more worthless. All but one of the scenes featuring the kid with a razor blade in his mouth (one of the film's few nods to its namesake holiday) are gone, as is the death of Janet, which means her character (along with Dr. Mixter and Nurse Alves, who always died off-screen but at least had their bodies discovered) just completely disappears from the film without explanation. The only missing death that helps is the pointless killing of the Elrod's neighbor (another Carpenter shoot), but all of the above, plus some strange alternate takes, makes this version nearly worthless to anyone but the insanely curious. Plus, unlike the original film's TV version (which had new scenes specifically shot for it), it's only available cropped, which kills some of Dean Cundey's trademark widescreen scares (like Michael wandering around the nursery behind Alves and Karen). This version also has a bunch of nonsensical voiceovers and dubs, including the unforgivable reworking of Bud's "Amazing Grace" parody.

So, stick with the theatrical version, which has its own problems but is easily the superior of the two. While I'm not crazy about the fact that it's more of a typical 1981 generic slasher than the original Halloween deserved for a followup, it certainly delivers on that lesser level. Donald Pleasence's role is greatly expanded, and it's probably his most out-there incarnation of Loomis - I love when Marion is trying to tell him about Laurie and he interrupts her to tell her about pagan rituals for no real reason. Plus it has one of his all time weirdest lines: "It's a TRIBE! One of their number was butchered, this is a WAKE!" (to which Officer Hunt just sort of nods and carries on as he would had Loomis not said anything to begin with), and I've always loved his weird murmuring during the climax.

However, I still can't get past how Laurie is used here. She was such a great heroine in the original, and while I don't expect or need her to become Ripley this time around, anything would be better than having her lay in bed for an hour before crawling around and whimpering for the rest of the film - apart from shooting him in the face (which, according to the sequels, did absolutely nothing), she does NOTHING in this entire movie! Add in the hideous wig (all the more apparent in this high def transfer) and the silly dream sequences (which are expanded in the TV cut, another red mark), and her role in Halloween: Resurrection almost looks good in comparison. At least she was proactive there.

But after 30 years, any fan of the film is bound to own a copy already, so who cares about all that? The real question here is whether or not this is worth the upgrade, and that is a definite YES. Unless Terror In The Aisles is your favorite movie of all time, there is nothing about last year's Universal release that surpasses what you get here. For starters, it retains the deleted scenes and alternate ending footage that was available on that one, but this time it adds optional commentary from Rick Rosenthal, explaining why each scene was cut and other little tidbits of info not previously available. And I'm not sure if this is a new transfer or not (I never actually got last year's release, finding the Akkad credit issue too insulting for my money), but it's certainly a huge step up from the previous DVD, with the high def transfer providing a much needed boost in contrast during the darker scenes. The color timing isn't much different; I did notice that this one is a bit cooler (bluish) than the DVD I have, though to me that just makes it look more like the original film - perfect for double features!

Then we have two all new commentaries, one with Rosenthal and Leo "Bud" Rossi, the other with Dick Warlock, moderated by Icons Of Fright's Rob G. The Rosenthal commentary is a bit of a snoozer; it seems neither of them have watched the movie in a while, so there's a lot of silence as they just watch it, occasionally chuckling or offering a brief comment. But when they're actually talking, it's fun to listen to - they have some great stories and plenty of kind words for just about everyone else in the film. Warlock's track is much better, however - there isn't a lot of silence, and Rob keeps the questions coming so things never get too far off track (unlike Tom Atkins' commentary on H3). Warlock's memory isn't always completely accurate (or at least, doesn't always match what we've heard elsewhere), but he's got a fun blue collar attitude about it that I much enjoyed, and speaks highly of the other guys to play The Shape.

All of the above, and more, take part in a new retrospective documentary from Michael Felsher, which runs a little over 40 minutes and covers the usual bases with an impressive amount of candidness. It's a shame Carpenter couldn't have been roped in to offer his side of the story on certain aspects, but no one seems particularly bitter about anything that was changed; Lance Guest even graciously points out that his character's apparent demise is fine as "the movie's about Jamie Lee, not me" (the original ending had him riding in the ambulance with her at the end; now it appears he died from his head wound after making his way to the car). There's also another edition of Horror's Hallowed Grounds, where we see most of the important shooting locations as they look today, though sadly the hospital where most of the film was shot has been torn down, though the building used for the exteriors is still there and seen briefly (they weren't allowed on the property itself so they just film it from the car). The trailer, some typically over-enthusiastic TV spots, and a stills gallery round things out...

...on disc 1, that is. Disc 2 houses the television cut, a nice move as it allowed more disc space for the film and the more exciting supplements on Disc 1. While 2nd disc is actually a DVD, not a Blu-ray, it's great that they opted to do it this way, and it also means it'll be easier for most folks to get at disc 2's other item: a PDF of the shooting script, which you can access by popping the disc in your PC's DVD drive. There isn't much here that isn't in either version of the film (it mostly follows the TV cut version, though it includes the violence that it lacked such as Janet's death), but it DOES have the rest of the reporter subplot (the one who instructs her assistant (Dana Carvey!) to get a statement from some kids), which was excised at some point - perhaps it was never even shot as it has never appeared in any form. Also, it has a lot of directorial instructions from Carpenter, which is funny considering he didn't direct it.

Obviously if you just bought the release last year then it's probably pretty frustrating to be presented with another one already, but I assure you that it's worth the re-upgrade (if you only have one of the previous, featureless DVD incarnations, there's no question that you should double dip). The bonus features are superior and worth your time, the transfer is terrific, and it gives you an alternate version of the film, which even though its inferior, still has some merit thanks to the added scenes (some of which aren't in the separate deleted scenes section) in addition to the curiosity factor. At 20 bucks or less, the new bonus features alone make it worth the cost if you're a fan, and Shout! has done you another solid - the cover is reversible, so you can have it on your shelf with the original artwork (the skull inside the pumpkin) for the first time EVER on disc format as every single release - from the 1999 Goodtimes disc to Universal's original release from the early 00s to last year's Blu-ray - has had some (typically terrible) new art. They designed their own cover as well, but they give you the option of using the original - THAT is how you do a special edition for us nutty Halloween fans!

Film score: 7/10
A/V score: 8/10
Extras score: 8/10

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DVD Review: Halloween III Special Edition

SEPTEMBER 17, 2012

GENRE: CULT, TECHNOLOGY
SOURCE: DVD (OWN COLLECTION)

When I hosted a screening of Halloween III back in 2010 and moderated the Q&A with director Tommy Lee Wallace, it was filmed for what was originally going to be a special edition DVD from Universal, who owned the rights to it and the 2nd film. However, last October saw only Halloween II released by Uni (poorly at that), with Season of the Witch once again getting screwed over. Luckily, Shout! Factory has shown to be the smarter of the two companies, giving this underrated sequel the special edition DVD and Blu-ray it has always deserved, just in time for its 30th anniversary.

As any fan of the film will tell you, the biggest problem is the title - people wanted another Michael Myers adventure, because that's what a Halloween movie promised. I'm sure if they hadn't done H2 it wouldn't have been as big of an issue, as there would be no precedent that a sequel had to be about Myers (after all, no one minded that Friday the 13th Part 2 wasn't about Mrs. Voorhees, right?), so it's just another reason to reconsider Halloween II's slightly OVERrated legacy. It's taken literally decades for H3 to get its due, probably partially due to the later sequels being so bad that it was just starting to look better by comparison regardless of who it was about - same as I asked the audience: Would you really rather watch a movie with Busta Rhymes kung-fu fighting Myers? I would certainly hope not.

Now, it's not that Halloween III is a masterpiece. It's laughably cheap-looking at times (that orange sky effect when Challis and Ellie run out of the factory is just pitiful), the pacing can be a little slow at times, and yes, the plot holes are aplenty. One could point out that not a single thing about Cochran's plan makes the slightest bit of sense, and it'd be hard to argue beyond "Well yeah, he's insane!". But you have to look past that and see that the film is just a really creepy, blackly comic take on a Body Snatchers type film, where the only folks who see the truth are looked at as insane and thus not believed. This movie wouldn't work if it was a whole team of folks trying to stop Cochran, but when you have just the two (and one of them is Tom Atkins), it plays great.

And it's drenched in enough Halloween atmosphere for TWO movies, and believe me, if you watch them all you'd realize that the others could use it. While they all have pumpkins and usually some trick or treating or party, this one is the only one (except maybe Curse, sort of, and that one scene in Halloween II) that really ties into the holiday's origins, which are spelled out wonderfully by Dan O'Herlihy in his 3rd act speeches. It's also the only one with a lot of build-up to the night itself - most of them start on the 30th (Halloween II, obviously, starts at around 9pm on Halloween itself!), but we start a full eight days before here, giving Wallace and co. time to build up the characters and the season itself, not to mention a lot of spooky daytime scenes that the others barely ever have time for. I love the bit where Challis and Ellie drive into Santa Mira for the first time and everyone is just kind of watching them, not to mention the slowly building mystery of the autopsy for the guy who blew up in the parking lot in the film's opening reel.

However, if you're still in the "it sucks" camp, there's probably nothing here that will change your mind. The commentary by Tommy Lee Wallace is mostly fan service information - I'd say half the track was devoted simply to pointing out shooting locations (since Horror's Hallowed Grounds host Sean Clark is a co-moderator, that isn't surprising), with lots of admiration for Atkins' seeming irresistability to every female character. Nigel Kneale's original script, the film's initial backlash, etc - none of these things are discussed in detail, making the track a bit of a letdown (especially since Clark and Wallace also provide a 20 minute episode of HHG that repeats the shooting location information anyway). The track with Tom Atkins, moderated by Michael Felsher, is much more interesting, but only if you're an Atkins fan. The two don't talk much about this particular film, but Atkins tells stories about working with Sinatra, Carpenter, William Peter Blatty... even his recent work on My Bloody Valentine 3D comes up. Sort of like the AV Club's "Random Roles" feature but in audio commentary form - it's great if you love Atkins (and why wouldn't you?) but again, if you're looking for someone to convince you that you should like this movie after all, it won't be of any use.

In addition to the Hallowed Grounds episode, the other big supplement of note is the new retrospective piece, featuring new interviews with Wallace, Atkins, Dean Cundey, Stacey Nelkin, and others. Running just over a half hour, it covers the usual bases, but with a nice coda, ending on that New Beverly screening (I pop up for all of 12 seconds), showing Wallace meeting fans as he talks in interview about how much the screening meant to him. As a huge fan of this particular entry who has had to defend it several times over the years, I can't tell you how proud I am to have played a tiny part in this moment (and please don't see my appearance as some sort of bias on the DVD as a whole - it's literally less than half a percent of the runtime of one bonus feature). The film's nutty trailer (which makes no effort to explain that this is a new story) and some fun behind the scenes stills round things out. The transfer is also much improved from the previous DVD; they didn't send me a Blu-ray but based on how it looks in standard def, and how good their new H2 transfer is, I have no doubt that the Blu looks terrific as well.

For fans of the film, you really can't ask for a better special edition. The commentaries might be a little underwhelming, but they're with the people you want them to be with (Atkins and Wallace, as opposed to someone who was in 2 scenes and the film's costume designer or something), and the updated transfer and retrospective doc alone make it worthwhile (and according to Wallace, nothing besides "shoe leather" and similar elements was edited from the film, so like the original there aren't any "deleted scenes" of note, if you were wondering). I also like the new box art, but if you don't - Shout! has put the original art on the flipside, so you can have your cake and eat it too. At long last, Halloween III has been given the treatment it deserves!

Film score: 8/10
A/V: 8/10
Extras: 8/10 (since the moderators were barely asking anything, I wish they just had Wallace and Atkins do one commentary together - probably would have been akin to Carpenter/Russell tracks, albeit on a smaller scale).

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Blu-Ray Review: Halloween 4/5

AUGUST 25, 2012

GENRE: SLASHER
SOURCE: BLU-RAY (OWN COLLECTION)

As I've already written up reviews of both Halloween 4: The Return Of Michael Myers and Halloween 5: The Revenge Of Michael Myers, you can check those out for my in-depth thoughts on the films. This review is mainly for the new Blu-ray releases from Anchor Bay, which are getting us that much closer to having the entire series available in the format (the last of the series to hit Blu, Halloween II and III, are being released next month courtesy of Shout! Factory). Please note - if you've somehow still missed these films, there are spoilers ahead (particularly for H5)

Halloween 4, of course, is the superior of the two entries. The seasonal atmosphere, brilliantly established in the opening titles, has rarely been better in the series, and even though the mask is a source of debate, I've always liked how blank it was. Later entries gave it too much character, so even though the hair is all wrong I think they're the only post-Carpenter sequel to get the purposely expressionless look right. And it's certainly better than 5's curiosity, with the giant neck flap and oversized eyeholes - I will never understand why they made such efforts to completely redesign the mask considering that the film picks up where 4 left off. At least in 4 the changes are explained in the story - it's a new mask!

But Halloween 5 gets a bum rap, and while some is justified (the dumb cops especially), I think naysayers simply forget or ignore the fact that there's a lot to admire here, such as the Psycho-like killing of Rachel early on, Loomis' transition into full blown loon, Danielle Harris' terrific performance (she plays more than half the film in a pained muted state), and the stalking set-pieces, which have never been topped since (H20 has a couple of OK ones, the others barely even bother). And even some of its lapses have silver linings - Tina is quite annoying for the first hour, but she becomes an unwavering protector for Jamie in the 3rd act, and doesn't hesitate when jumping into the "line of stabbing" to save her life at the expense of her own. More than any other slasher series (save maybe Scream), you really sense the bond between these people; hell, even though he's a nut you can see early on that Rachel and Loomis are still fairly close.

Halloween 4, on the other hand, needs no defending. If you don't like then you're either blinded by the fact that Carpenter was no longer involved, or simply prefer body count slashers where nothing matters except when the next kill comes along. It's suspenseful, the characters are likable, and the pacing is nearly perfect. It may ape the original's structure a bit too closely at times, but look what happens when they do their own thing? You get Halloween Resurrection.

These new Blu-rays look terrific, and I would expect no less from Anchor Bay, who have consistently delivered solid transfers for their catalog titles. And unlike the original Halloween, they didn't use some misguided color re-timing - they look like they should, just with more detail and contrast. H5 in particular benefits greatly from the boosted clarity, as director Dominique Othenin-Girard favored natural lighting and shadow, keeping Michael in the shadows as often as possible. There's a shot in the barn scene where I literally never noticed Michael until now, and other moments are enhanced from the improved detail (I can now report, sadly, that Meeker is among the dead during the police siege, whereas earlier releases were too murky to tell). The True HD 5.1 sound mixes are fine as well - other than the score and some occasional screams or whatever, there isn't a lot of surround activity (the films were originally released in stereo), but it's clear and crisp and thus there's nothing to complain about, other than the fact that purists may like to have the original mixes.

I can piss and moan about the bonus features, however. We all love to joke about the Bay re-re-re-releasing titles seemingly on an annual basis, but as they've moved further into acquiring original properties (and distributing bigger titles, like newer Weinstein Company releases), they've slowed down a bit on the double/triple dipping. However, both of these releases are missing bonus features available on previous versions, which suggests that an "Ultimate Edition" of some sort may be on the way (next year IS the 25th anniversary of Halloween 4, mind you). For 4, gone is the commentary by screenwriter Alan McElroy and the "Final Cut" retrospective documentary that was released on the previous incarnation; H5 lacks "Inside Halloween 5" (another retrospective) and, of no real use to anyone but worth mentioning, the introduction by Harris and Ellie Cornell.

Some are carried over, however. In addition to the trailers, the H4 commentary by Harris and Cornell is still present, as is the Girard/Harris/Jeffrey Landman (Billy) track for 5. "Halloween 5: On The Set" is also ported over from the last release, which was a promo created in 1989 that shows some on-set interviews and behind the scenes footage (including a near fatal accident where the actress playing Tina tripped in front of the speeding car chasing her). Halloween 4 also still has the panel discussion where 4 and 5 are covered; a curious thing to bring back since it's completely outdated (it's from 2003) and their recollections are often completely wrong (Harris says the Man in Black was just some weird guy hanging out on set?).

So what's new? For Return, we have (finally!) an audio commentary by director Dwight Little, moderated by Justin Beahm, who is behind an upcoming book about the franchise. It's not the best track in the world; Little's recollections aren't as vivid as you might hope - for starters he seems to think Halloween III took place in the same universe, making his comment that he chose to ignore its characters and just pick up from part 2 a little odd. It's also marred by silence, as if Beahm was afraid to offer his own insight (or that he was unprepared for short answers from Little). But it's still better than the new track on Revenge with Beahm and Don Shanks (that film's Michael), which is even MORE silence-heavy. Sure, it's to be expected - why would he have much to say about scenes he wasn't even in? But again, Beahm doesn't really say anything on his own to cover the gaps - for someone who clearly loves the series I don't see why he didn't opt to offer up insight or even basic trivia to keep the conversation going. Shanks' recollections of who the Man In Black was also contradict everything that's been said before (including Shanks' own explanation on the last DVD), and he quite bizarrely claims the Man In Black in Halloween 6 was, well, a black man.

The only other "new" feature is another promo from 1989 about H5's production, which doesn't really distinguish itself from the sort of stuff on the "On The Set" one. Shanks speaks about shooting a scene depicting the carnage at the children's hospital, and at the police station, but none of that footage is seen here, nor is the legendary "Doctor Death" scene that we've only seen brief clips of over the years. So it seems to me that Anchor Bay is doing the same thing they did with their original DVD (and even VHS!) releases of these titles - doing a skimpy first release, and then going for the deluxe edition for a second go around. If you don't care about extras and haven't upgraded since their initial DVD releases (the ones in the collectible tins), then by all means upgrade to high def in time for the Halloween season if you like them enough, but otherwise, I have a sneaking suspicion you'll be seeing more expansive releases in another year. Of course, if you're like me and just blindly buy every release of these movies anyway, who cares? It's like your car registration - it's just something you have to pay for every year.

Halloween 4:
Film - 8/10
A/V - 9/10 (the original soundtrack mixes should be included)
Extras - 5/10

Halloween 5:
Film - 7/10
A/V - 9/10 (same reason as above)
Extras - 6/10

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