These days I am not sure that there is anyone alive, whether a horror fan or not, that has not seen John Carpenter's original 1978 masterpiece Halloween in some shape, way, or form. Halloween is known for launching the slasher sub-genre (and making it a genre nearly exclusive in itself) that riddled the entirety of the 1980s horror scene. Halloween is also known for its numerous catalog entries in home video and has been released on basically every platform from Betamax to Laserdisc and VHS to DVD and Blu-ray, this title has taken them all and it's not hard to understand why. Halloween was a seminal film that owes a great deal of its success to Alfred Hitchcock's classic 1960 hit Psycho. Now, without the release and success of Halloween, we know that there would never have been films such as Friday the 13th, and Scream and the 1980s would have suffered a great loneliness in the horror department, but why was it so good? Some people say it has to do with John Carpenter's timing. Mr. Carpenter creates a very distinct atmosphere for his films and it isn't hard to point out a Carpenter directed flick just by how it looks and plays out. Carpenter is well known for his slow moving, tension building pace and he is not exactly an "in your face" kind of filmmaker. Carpenter's style is much wiser and allows the audience to sweat up some nervousness before going in for the kill. That being said, many people get it partly right as to why Halloween works so well. To look at the movie on the surface, by today's standards it is very cliche with a deranged, almost inhuman madman escaping an insane asylum and murdering teenagers, mostly young women with what was considered loose morals at the time, but in 1978 this cliche did not exist and while the original Halloween's story was rather simplistic, it was brought to life by some very ingenious filmmakers.
Halloween was shot on a shoe-string budget of approximately $325,000 (equal to about $1.1 million in 2016), but it brought back $70 million in revenue (equal to about $216 million by 2016 standards). For those who think that $1.1 million dollars is a lot of money, in the movie biz this is chump change. This budget forced the creators to be clever about how they shot their film and because no one thought it would amount to much more than a moderate success at best, it was a labor of love and not created simply to make a buck. Because this film meant something to the creators this pushed them to make a stylish, thought-out film project rather than something simply thrown together by someone who had very little interest in anything other than dollar symbols. So, while the story may have lacked in some ways due to budgeting limitations, the acting, direction, and photography did not.
The film was shot in widescreen in the spring of 1978, which is evident when watching the film as one notices that all the trees, grass, and other foliage are full and lush; not at all the scene of autumn in the mid-western United States where the story takes place. Because of this, the director of photography (DOP) Dean Cundy intentionally muted the film's color palette to give the audience the illusion of autumn. Unfortunately, Anchor Bay's initial 2006 Blu-ray release of Halloween did not use the DOP approved film and the colors, while bright and fantastic, did not set the stage for a film that is supposed to take place in late October. Thankfully, however, Anchor Bay justified this years later in 2013 with the 35th anniversary release of this film which was overseen and approved by the DOP Dean Cundy. For this release the bright colors were toned down and muted to give the appearance of late October; the blue sky is now gray, the bright green trees are now murky and dull. While this may seem like the opposite direction Blu-ray should go, let's remember that Blu-ray is supposed to present us with the film in the way that it was shown when it was originally released and how it was intended to be seen. Halloween was meant to be shadowy with gray tinted daytime scenes and blue tinted night time scenes, and this is how the 35th anniversary Blu-ray presents the film. This is a very faithful representation of how the film was originally seen by audiences in 1978 and because of Dean Cundy's involvement it can be assumed that this is the closest anyone will ever get on any format. The image on this release has left the film's grain structure intact and because of that the fine detail is sublime. Every detail, from the minute to the important, seems to be present from the foliage of the setting, the facial features on the actors, clothing, and the likes. Even in dark scenes, detail never seems to become murky. This is truly a testament to the capabilities of Blu-ray, even for a film shot very cheaply during a time when details were hard to grasp in picture quality. This tells me that nearly any film can be presented in an almost immaculate way if the studio puts the time and effort into it. The video quality of this release gets a 5/5 rating from me.
This is another Blu-ray that does nothing but impress in the sound department. When Halloween was shot the sound was recorded in mono, which was a standard in 1978. Anchor Bay released Halloween on a 35th anniversary Blu-ray with a Dolby Digital True HD 7.1 channel mix and an option to listen to the original mono track. The only way this could possibly be better is if it was an uncompressed master audio track. However, even the track on this release is in a lossless format, giving the listener an immersive experience that should leave any fan very pleased. The overall sound was fantastic, with clear dialog, ambiance, unhindered background sounds, and John Carpenter's score coming through in frightening clarity. I would give the audio on this release a 4.5/5 rating. A master audio track would have made this a solid 5.
The disc comes with a plethora of special features, some of them new to this release, but unfortunately it also leaves out some of the special features present in previous releases. So, unless you either hold onto the original Blu-ray release or buy the Scream Factory boxed set which includes both the original release and the 35th anniversary release, you won't have all the bonus features that this title has to offer. This release also includes the TV version footage, but it is not integrated into the film in any form and is presented to the consumer more like deleted scenes in a bonus feature. This may not be a problem to some people, but those who want to watch the film with the TV version scenes integrated will want to hang onto their old TV version DVD or buy the Scream Factory Deluxe Edition boxed set which includes the film with the TV version footage intact on a bonus disc. Overall, I'd give the bonus features on this release a 4/5 rating.
If you want my advice, this is the version of Halloween to own. It is presented as it was intended to be seen, offers an immersive soundtrack, and gives any fan enough special features to die for. However, if you are a fan of all the installments of the series (or at least most of them) getting the Scream Factory Deluxe Edition boxed set (which includes this release and the original 2006 Blu-ray release) is the way to go. The special features on the boxed set are much more immersive and more viewing choices are offered. Overall, the standalone 35th anniversary Blu-ray release of Halloween gets a 4.5/5 rating from this horror fan.
