Then, of course, we've got the Lions Gate UHD, which also includes the 2007 Anchor Bay blu-ray packaged with it. it's just the special features that are different. I've got the boxed set version (and specifically, I have the 10 box set, not the 15), but all 35th Anniversary editions feature the same transfer. Then we've got Anchor Bay's first blu-ray, also from 2007, which essentially doubled down on the 2003 DVD's timing, followed by the 35th Anniversary blu (also supervised by Cundy), which was released separately in 2013, and slightly adjusted for Scream Factory's big Halloween collection boxed sets. So first up we've got the 1999/ 2007 DVD, which includes both full and widescreen versions, then the 2003 DVD. Therefore, in 2007, they re-issued the 1999 THX version. the Divimax edition) with different timing that a lot of people objected to. Then, in 2003, they made a new version for their 25th Anniversary edition (a.k.a. the THX edition) featured a new transfer, timed and supervised by Dean Cundy himself. I'll get into all big debate of the alternate color timings in a bit, but in brief, Anchor Bay's 1999 DVD (a.k.a. And I'm showing the first two a little out of order here, because the first DVD in my collection is a repressing. Now, the five cases along the top of this post may seem like I'm coming up a little shy of "definitive " but actually, except for the oldest, 1997 Anchor Bay DVD - which wasn't even anamorphic - I believe I'm about to represent every significant transfer on the market. Rather than pushing the entire alternate cut, the 35th Anniversary blu-ray and Lions Gate's UHD just include the TV footage as an extra, like deleted scenes and honestly, I'm perfectly happy with that. It's basically just one of many extras on the bonus disc, and they didn't bother to create subtitles for it or anything. But even there, while the bulk of the TV cut is in HD for the first time, it's still a composite cut with all the added TV footage in SD. Scream Factory has given it the best edition to date as part of their massive, 2014 15-BD boxed set (also included in their 2021 3-disc set). Anchor Bay UK also put out a version of the 2-disc set in 2001, and it was included as a standard def bonus in AB's original, 2008 blu-ray boxed set of the franchise. I put limited edition in quotes because they released 40,000 copies of that set, so even today, it's not exactly super rare. So, Anchor Bay released it as part of a "limited edition" 2-disc set with the THX version (more on that in a minute) in 1999, and as a stand-alone DVD in 2001. Sure, films have done these things before and particularly since but even to this day, I can't think of a more slickly performed collection of inventive suspense moments in such an expert, single package. But really, I think it comes down to Carpenter's clever direction each new scare is like a fresh pull from a Hitchcockian bag of tricks, like: 1) the killer's infamous POV tracking shot as he stalks his victims, 2) the moment where he's clearly standing there in an open shot then vanishes after a quick cut, 3) having a character in the foreground move to reveal the killer had been in the background all along, or 4) slowly dialing up a soft light to reveal the killer had been hidden in the darkness of a single shot all along. And Halloween can certainly point to a lot of positive points it has going in its favor: the performances are universally strong across the board (a real sinking point for a gross number of slasher clones), Dean Cundy's 'scope panagliding is positively haunting and Carpenter's iconic score is absolutely perfect. 5 percent better than the original, right? So what makes Halloween better than, say, Halloween 4 that tells virtually the identical story including the returning Loomis character and everything? It has updated special effects, so that one should be even be, like. But still, lots of knock offs were able to replicate that to one degree or another. But apart from having staked that little flag in the ground, what makes Halloween better than the bajillion and one other slasher films that tell nearly the exact same story in the exact same way? Okay, Donald Pleasance's character provided an exciting and original twist to the formula: a hero character who's almost as mad as the villain. Okay, Halloween came "first" (again it's complicated). A flat, faceless character walks around and kills a bunch of horny teenagers until he's stopped by the virginal one. Essentially, it's a very basic, unenlightening color-by-number plot. But the interesting point I was getting at is what's not interesting about it.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |