Halloween Special Edition
James Taylor ( Halloweenfan2k2)
Picture ? A
Sound ? A
Extras ? B
Movie Rating ? A+
Overall ? A
HalloweeN started the craze which spawned films like Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, ect. On a budget of $300,000 HalloweeN had nothing really going for it sure it featured Jamie Lee Curtis (daughter of Janet Leigh from Psycho), but the filmmakers were young and the movie was being shot at an incredibly fast pace. Little did they know;  HalloweeN would be a phenomenal success.
October 30th 1978 Michael Audrey Myers escapes from Smith Groves sanitarium, in which he was held for the brutal stabbing and murder of his sister 15 years earlier on Halloween night. Michael goes back to his home town of  Haddonfield, Illinois. Dr. Loomis is wonderfully played by the late Donald Pleasance, Loomis is in hot pursuit of Michael and follows him home to try and capture or kill Michael once and for all. The next night of course is Halloween night, Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) is a shy, virgin character who baby sits little Tommy Doyle (Brian Andrews) while his parents go gallivanting. The night progresses and Laurie has little girl talk phone chats with her friend Annie (Nancy Loomis Keyes) who is babysitting Lindsay Wallace (Kyle Richards) who?s parents also went out that night. Michael lurks in the background outside during the night of mischief ready to attack at any moment. Michael finally starts his reign of terror, and it is quite scary and Michaels relentlessness makes this film even more scary. Full of suspense Halloween is a movie that doesn?t skimp with the scares. One word describes this movie ?Magic?.
HalloweeN is in the original Panavision widescreen aspect ration of 2.35:1 and it looks marvelous! Congrats to Anchor Bay for doing such a nice job on the transfer. The movie used to be in horrible pan and scan versions with awful picture quality but now HalloweeN is THX Digitally Mastered. The picture has no real noticeable grain, and at times when you zoom in its mostly clear. A few speckles creep in but nothing that?s distracting it is a 20+ year old film. But it looks great, and if you don?t like widescreen (poor soul you are) there is also a nice (if that?s possible) pan and scan version of the film.  The sound is finally remixed and redone in a wonderful dobly 5.1 mix. It makes good use from what I heard from every speaker and during the intense times it brings you right into the film. There is also a nice stereo mix on here for our friends with out surround sound its nice but I?d rather have the 5.1 because its just that good.

As far a extras there?s quite a few. We have a nice little ?Halloween Unmasked? featurette, its nice and informative but only about 25 minutes long. Two theatrical trailers are available and they look horrible. But it?s a trailer, it would be nice if anchor bay had cleaned them up a bit but, oh well they?re there. It also features several radio spots and one TV spot. Pretty interesting stuff. Cast and crew filmographies are present if you?d like to see where the stars went after this movie,  a nice still photo galley is nestled in here too and has some pretty cool behind the scenes stuff, and lastly a little trivia option, where it tells your various things about HalloweeN. All and all good, but a commentary would have been nice.

So if you?re a casual horror fan or a diehard one HalloweeN is something that should not be missed. With the great chills and wonderful new picture and sound, and in the digital format you can go wrong. Its got a cheap price tag too $16-19. Pick it up today, because if you?re really a fan of horror you?d already own, the one, the classic, HalloweeN.