Halloween-Reviews

HALLOWEEN: H2O- TWENTY YEARS LATER DVD (Region 2)
It's twenty years after the initial events in Haddonfield where Laurie Strode fought for her life against the psychotic killer Michael Myers.Now Laurie is a school teacher with a son of her own and a drink problem that helps keep the nightmares away. For twenty years she has dreaded October 31st, the night Michael Myers originally came home, she sees him in ever shop window, every mirror and in every dark shadow. He always disappears when she closes her eyes, except of course tonight he won't go away and he won't be stopped until the innocent and guilty alike are dead.
Jamie Lee Curtis revives her role as Laurie Strode, the only person who can stop the evil Michael Myers. H2O is a brave attempt to revive the traditional stalker slasher movie, not an easy task in the post "Scream" era and for the most part it works well. Quite rightly the movie is kept short at just over 80 minutes and uses the first half to nicely develop the characters, set the scene and start the to build the tension.Once Myers gets inside the school where Laurie, her son and an assorted collection of victims are hiding all hell breaks lose.Myers has lost none of his creepiness with his deep black unblinking eyes and almost android dismissive despatching of his victims.This is top stuff that is guaranteed to make you jump, at least once !

In terms of picture this is a 2.35:1 anamorphic transfer which is good but not perfect. Certainly it has a lot of detail but I found the contrast levels a little lacking. The Black level is good and deep but shadow detail is not quite as good as it could be. Colours though are bright and sharp and well held in place. View it in a dark room for best results. Soundwise this is 384 Kbs DD 5.1 mix with good clean dialog and exceptional music quality. The surround mix though is a little flat with little discrete action. However the end effect is enveloping with the sub woofer being used to great effect to heighten the tension.Extras wise lets start with the trivial.First there is the end music theme video by "Creed" presented 4:3. A trivia game provides a few minutes entertainment, play it with a friend for maximum enjoyment. However much more important is the 18 minute featurette "Halloween: Unmasking the Horror" which takes a long look at the "Halloween" phenomenon.This is a well made piece that includes interviews with Jamie Lee Curtis, John Carpenter, Steve Miner and even small contributions from Scream Trilogy director Wes Craven.This is not a behind the scenes featurette but rather a series of interviews that really get behind the mask of Michael Myers."Halloween: H2O" starts off from the assumption that only the first two movies existed and perhaps this is the best assumption that the film makers could have made. "Halloween: H2O" really only really successor to the original movie.
Distributor- Buena Vista
Released- Monday 22nd October 2001

HALLOWEEN 4 ANCHOR BAY UK SPECIAL EDITION DVD
Halloween 4: The Return of MIchael Myers is a fair stab at reviving the franchise, as it all seemed final after Halloween II, well seeing as though Michael had his eyes shot out and was burnt to death I thought it was pretty final! The screenplay from Alan B McElroy has some nice twists and a great ending that shows that at least some thought has gone in to the movie and its not just a rehash. It's also great to see Donald Plesaence giving his all as the tired old doctor, as well as seeing the fantastic acting of young Danielle Harris. Her performance is very moving and incredibly mature for one so young (she was ten at the time). The rest of the cast go through the motions, as you'd expect, many just hanging around to be slaughtered. I should also mention George P Wilbur's performance as The Shape; he gives the character some sinister, silent menace and replicates some of Nick Castle's movements from the first movie.Alan Howarth's fantastic score takes John Carpenters theme up a gear, to great effect. The first time you hear it is five minutes in and it makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end.

The disc is presented with a 1.85:1 anamorphic print that is a bit of a disappointment. It suffers from slight smearing and grain. Colours are bold at times but night scenes seem to lack detail. Sound is also varied. The new DD 5.1 mix is flat and lacks any sort of punch. Only when the theme kicks in are we treated to any atmosphere. Dialogue also suffers from an echo, as if people are talking in caves. Explosions lack any sort of bass and spoils the effect. The sleeve states that there's the original mono track included but instead I found it was a Dolby Stereo track. This is much clearer than the DD 5.1, but again lacks punch and atmosphere.There's a couple of extras, the first being the original theatrical trailer. But the main one is the retrospective documentary on the making of the movie. This excellent twenty-minute featurette holds masses of information and interviews all the main players and cast. A great piece that could easily have been double the length.The DVD's menus are animated and have some great pieces of Halloween 4music playing over them.Summing up, Halloween 4 is a better than average sequel delivering what you'd expect with a nice twisted ending. It's a shame the encoding isn't the best I've seen, but at Ł9.99 I wasn't expecting a THX transfer.
Distributor- Anchor Bay UK
Released- Monday 28th January 2002

HALLOWEEN 5 ANCHOR BAY UK SPECIAL EDITION DVD
Halloween 5 is a terrible sequel, mainly because the characters involved have no redeeming features so when they get picked off we have no feelings or sympathy for them. Saying that, there's one guy who's like an eighties version of the Fonz and delivers some of the worst acting I've seen in years. I cheered when he died. Only Pleasence and Harris perform with any type of conviction. The direction from Dominique Othenin-Girard is sloppy and heavy handed dwelling too long on scenes such as those in the barn half way through. Special effects are well executed and realistic but can't save the picture. The script introduces a few new things, the aforementioned tattoo and mysterious man in black. These ideas are just left dangling at the end and no attempt is made at explaining them leaving you feeling slightly cheated when the credits roll.

Picture is 1.85:1 anamorphic and suffers from pixilation throughout. The image is slightly soft and some colours bleed around the edges. Night scenes suffer the most and the woodland chase section looks terrible. Sound is DD5.1 and not bad. It's not the greatest mix I've heard but it does have some nice clarity to it and the dialogue is sharp throughout. Rear channels are hardly used and explosions sometime lack that oomph you'd expect in this sort of mix. You also have the choice of a DD Stereo version; whilst this is clear it is incredibly flat. Extras wise, wells there's the original theatrical trailer to start you off with. Then there's an excellent fifteen-minute making of. This contains loads of behind the scenes footage and is well worth a look. The interview part with Executive Producer Moustapha Akkad is the most revealing, as he seems to admit that Halloween 5 was rushed. Unfortunately the image seems to be formatted incorrectly and if viewed on a 4:3 TV then the picture will looked stretched. The sleeve states the disc has a full frame presentation and Original Mono Soundtrack but I've yet to find them.Summing up Halloween 5 is the worst so far to the Halloween franchise, on a disc that only has a featurette to recommend it.
Distributor- Anchor Bay UK
Released- Monday 28th January 2002