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Review : Halloween 25th Anniversary Edition DVD
Oh man I do love October. One of the things that I love about October is the huge array of scary movies made readily and easily available. I mean you can go to a Safeway that they have copies of Evil Dead 2 on DVD for sale. On Friday I picked up a couple classic scarry movies for the season for about ten bucks a DVD. I love that you can get a good carry movie on DVD for less than the price of a movie ticket and popcorn. I have said it before that DVDs are the new cinema.
Last year there was a new DVD edition of the classic horror movie Halloween released. In 1978 director John Carpenter and producer and girlfriend Debra Hill made a very important and well done film on a shoestring budget and a extremely brief deadline.
The story seems like a basic horror movie stock but since it was heavily ripped off it gets mixed up with the lackluster sequels and poorly done cheap splatter films. I do love a good cheap splatter movie but I think that Halloween deserves more credits. There is actually not a lot of blood or gore in this movie. Most of the violence takes place off camera but the framing and pacing make one hell of a scary show.
This DVD contains a new high definition transfer of the original theatrical cut of the film with a really good commentary track with the director, producer, and Jamie Lee Curtis. The second disk is full of a documentary about the movie, trailers, photos and the script in PDF.
The story is pretty basic tale of good and evil. Michael Myers (no relation to the SNL comedian. ha ha) is a escaped psycho killer who is obsessed with killing a group of high school girls as they babysit on Halloween. Michael Myers does not say a word and wears a freaky blank mask. He moves slowly and deliberately and he can take a beating. Dr Loomis acted by the great Donald Pleasence is out to stop him but no one seems to heed his warnings. Laurie Strode is acted by Jamie Lee Curtis who has to fight of the psycho killer after he kills all her friends.
This is one of the first horror movies where you find the audience shouting at the actor's on the screen. The horror movie cliches and rules made sort of started here. Laurie is a straight laced responsible young woman and her more promiscuous, pot-smoking, beer drinking are the first to be slaughtered by the killer. The director and producers brush off the theory that 80's horror movies are a moral puritanism or reaction to feminism. They claim that they wrote the film and they had absolutely no idea to put anything like that in their film.
Not only did John Carpenter write, direct and shoot the movie he also composed the memorable freaky score. Halloween was a true independent movie and it is the work of a very dedicated writer/director/composer and team. John Carpenter is a big fan of Hitchcock and it shows. There are several character names that are straight from classic Hitchcock movies. This was the first film for Jamie Lee Curtis and I can't think of anyone else who could have done it. Of course having her have famous Hollywood parents and her mother starring in Hitchcock's Psycho probably might have helped her after her screen test.
This is a great DVD and a really good version of a classic horror movie. There probably would not have been the whole generation of 80's horror movies if it were not for this movie. It is more scary than bloody and I think that it deserves more respect from the movie going public. It is worth the ten bucks it cost me and it is a damn good movie to watch with a bowl of Halloween candy.
Jake at October 11, 2004 
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Comments
I tell you Michael Myers is here, in this town, and he is going to kill that girl, and anyone else who gets in his way! You must listen to me! We've got to stop him Sheriff!
Posted by: Dr. Loomis at October 12, 2004 12:21 AM
Enough of your babble, you old quack. You may have been right about Michael Myers the last dozen times, but that doesn't mean there's any credibility to your ramblings. Michael Myers is DEAD and the last thing we need is an old fogey like you running around spouting off ghost stories!
Posted by: Sheriff Brackett at October 12, 2004 12:27 AM
