HALLOWEEN: 4K Blu-ray (Compass International/Moustapha Akkad, 1978) Shout!/Scream Factory

As we bid a fond farewell to another sun-kissed summer season, the autumn leaves beginning to turn and wither, let us raise a glass and toast John Carpenter and Debra Hill. They took a seemingly innocuous pagan festival, diluted over the centuries into a silly excuse for masquerades and the kiddies overdosing on cheap, tooth-rotting candy, and transformed it into, quite possibly, the most terrifying night of the year. There is no getting around it: John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978) remains a cut above the rest – not only when compared to its mostly inconsequential sequels, but also when pitted against virtually any other horror film franchise yet attempted in Hollywood. The difference is obvious to anyone who has seen more than one or two ‘slasher’ movies in their lifetime. Carpenter’s meticulous plying of suspense and chills is done mostly through Dean Cundey’s brilliant manipulation of light and shadows, predicated on the fact Carpenter had little money to make a flashier/gorier film. As they say, necessity proved the mother of invention, resulting in a scare-fest unlike any other before or since; Halloween’s blinkered serial killer, Michael Meyers dogmatically slicing his way through some prime teenage flesh for no apparent reason other than his demonic obsession with Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis); alas – the one lass his Ginsu never could touch. I am certain, Sigmund Freud could make much of Michael’s sexual frustrations, though none of the films ever debate the point.

The original Halloween is not a slasher movie; not really – the murderous motivation of its antagonist, obscuring the fact Carpenter has carefully concocted a superior thriller that serves up all the fixin’s of a traditional horror flick with masterfully reconstituted Hitchcockian touches. What Carpenter and his producer, the late Debra Hill, implicitly understood was the power in not showing the audience everything. Alas, after Michael Meyers was blown to bits by Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence) inside Haddonfield’s Memorial Hospital in Part II, subsequent Halloween sequels (with the exception of part III…season of the ‘whatever’) played to an unlikely ‘supernatural’ quality, not in keeping with Carpenter’s original intent; Michael’s merely obsessive impulses, now reincarnated as something from a seemingly darker than anticipated netherworld. It has become something of a joke, actually. Rob Zombie’s reboot of the franchise in 2007 seemed so promising…at first; starting over at ground zero, as it were, so we could finally expunge the pall of Halloween III: Season of the Witch from our collective memories, along with the incongruous narrative misfires perpetually plaguing the franchise thereafter (Michael’s dead. No! He’s alive! No, he’s dead. We cut off his head! You get the picture). Except that Zombie’s penchant for ghastly carnage effectively deprived us of the last vestiges of spookiness the original movie and Rick Rosenthal’s brilliantly conceived first sequel had in spades. Trading nail-biting anxiety for an obscene SFX laden chop-shop menagerie of brutal dismemberment has not only devalued the franchise and insulted Carpenter, but in hindsight, has severed (pun intended) all ties with the original concept, making Halloween – the franchise - just another run-of-the-mill gore-fest and something Carpenter never would have approved. 

I have to be honest. Only the first two movies hold my interest with the deepest admiration for Carpenter, Hill and Rosenthal. Even with the obvious passage of time and changing audience tastes, their work really does hold up under the closest scrutiny - Carpenter, eschewing even the notion of doing any sequels, and, handing off Halloween II to Rick Rosenthal who miraculously achieved a momentous coup in the horror genre, recapturing the essential flavor of the original, while cleverly anteing up the body count in inventive new ways.  There is an integrity to these frights being exorcised in both Halloween and Halloween II (1981) – each, in its own way, undeniably meant to titillate and terrorize. Both movies prey upon our innate fear of the unstoppable unknown. Yet neither talks down to the audience and, in hindsight, Halloween – Carpenter’s original – remains the Citizen Kane of all contemporary horror pictures.  

Even the name Michael Myers has since entered the popular lexicon as a horror icon. It is important to recall the character never began this way. Carpenter’s movie was just a B-budgeted programmer, meant to get his name out there in the Hollywood community. Indeed - it did just that. Halloween proved its primeval ability to get under our collective skin – like a bad dream we cannot awaken from even after the houselights have come up. Unlike so many horror/slasher flicks that followed it, Halloween never coarsened the audience with buckets of blood. Carpenter was, of course, blessed by kismet in his aspirations to make a good movie, the casting of the legendary Donald Pleasance as Dr. Sam Loomis (who never quite understood what he was doing in the movie, but nevertheless gave it his all, and, to bone-chilling effect), Jamie Lee Curtis, fresh from film school as Laurie Strode (daughter of Hollywood royalty and only just begun her acting career), Nick Castle as Michael ‘the shape’ Myers (a curiously ‘eloquent’ menace as no other before or since) and finally, master cameraman, Dean Cundey (establishing the template for all the imitators yet to follow and badly mangle his template).

Halloween is an ironically ‘blessed’ project on a very cursed subject. The Carpenter/Hill screenplay is capped off by Carpenter’s own skin-crawling score, elemental in its three-bar structure, but utterly effective and immediately recognizable. In hindsight, Halloween was a happy accident for all concerned. The shoot in California established a familial and ever-lasting camaraderie among cast and crew. Even Donald Pleasance enjoyed himself, his scenes shot together to keep production costs down. In many ways, Halloween is the ultimate exemplar of the ‘grassroots’ popcorn movie of the 1970's, a decade overshadowed by the steep, steady decline of the film industry and the rise of independent film makers stirred by their passions to make movie art on a shoestring. At the time, Carpenter never had any notion what he had created was a pop cultural blueprint for a decades-long obsession with stalker movies. No - then he was merely interested in creative control - a request willingly granted him by producer, Irwin Yablans who convinced producer, Moustapha Akkad to put up $300,000 to make it. Today, a thirty-second TV commercial cannot be done for this money. But even in 1978, Carpenter was working under very stringent budgetary constraints. From the outset, he assumed a daunting task - to shoot, edit and score a film in under four months, working primarily with a cast and crew who had never made a movie before. Try doing that today – much less, do it as well as Carpenter did!

The screenplay by Carpenter and collaborator, Debra Hill opens in the small hamlet of Haddonfield, Illinois (homage to Hill's upbringing, although actually shot in and around Hollywood). On Halloween night, Michael Myers (Will Sandin), a child with an unhealthy Freudian sexual appetite, murders his half-naked babysitter in her upstairs bedroom. Discovered by his parents on the front lawn with the infamous bloody knife still clutched in his hand, Michael is locked away in a minimum-security sanitarium where psychiatrist, Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasance) struggles for a decade to reach him. Realizing Michael is evil incarnate, Loomis secures the state’s complicity to move him to a maximum-security institution for the criminally insane. Unfortunately, on the rainy eve of his transfer, Michael (now played by Nick Castle in a modified Capt. Kirk mask and briefly glimpsed as Tony Moran without it in the film’s final moments) escapes from hospital by attacking a nurse, then using Loomis' car for a getaway. Arriving in Haddonfield, Loomis attempts to warn Sheriff Leigh Brackett (Charles Cyphers) of the impending slaughter. “Death has come to your town, sheriff.” No one takes Loomis seriously. Meanwhile, Michael becomes fixated on shy introvert, Laurie Strode (Curtis) and her oversexed friends; Annie Bracket (Nancy Kyes) and Lynda Van der Klok (P.J Soles).

Laurie is the first to see Michael, eerily lurking behind bushes and looming in between backyard clothes lines and fences. Yet, she still manages to start for the Doyle's house. After all, there is safety in numbers. Annie and Laurie will be babysitting across the street from one another. Meanwhile, Lynda and her boyfriend, Bob Simms (John Michael Graham) just want to have some fun, hoping Annie will let them use the upstairs for…well. After Annie convinces Laurie to watch her young charge, Lindsey Wallace (Kyle Richards), she inadvertently becomes the first victim. The fates of Lynda and Bob are quickly dispatched by Michael, whom Laurie’s charge, Tommy Doyle (Brian Andrews) first witnesses carrying Annie’s lifeless corpse back into the house from the garage. No one, least of all Laurie, believes him. However, Laurie becomes disturbed when a call from Lynda is interrupted; Laurie, listening on the line while Lynda is being strangled by Michael with the telephone cord. Assuming this to be a prank, Laurie decides to walk across the street and confront her pranksters. Discovering the bodies of her friends in an upstairs bedroom, Laurie is brutally attacked by Michael, but manages her escape; sending Lindsay and Tommy down the street for help. Michael is thwarted by Dr. Loomis who, having heard Tommy and Lindsay’s screams, has rightfully assumed evil is near. However, pumping six bullets into Michael’s chest is hardly enough to end the nightmare. Halloween concludes on an ambiguous note: death, ever-present and continuing its hunt for human prey.

Wisely recognizing that what can only be seen in half shadow is infinitely more terrifying, Dean Cundey’s cinematography comes across today as slicker and more stylish than it actually is. Although only the latter third of the movie really concentrates on Michael's methodical stalking of his victims, his presence is everywhere from the onset. Owing to the immediate, overwhelming, and frankly unexpected success of Halloween, producer, Mustapha Akkad had to have a sequel. Alas, John Carpenter wanted no part of it. He also harbored a minor grudge over royalties never paid to him. So, Akkad went ahead with his plans to continue the story, hiring Rick Rosenthal to helm the sequel. Viewed today, and in spite of all its gorier imitators, Halloween has lost none of its foreboding charm.  Even as the arc of flamboyant bell-bottoms and fly-away hair are dead and gone with the seventies, the spirit of Halloween is brutally alive and well. The visceral chills exuded in 1978 have not diminished in 2021 and, thanks to Carpenter’s meticulous layering and restrained audacity, Halloween will likely always be a cut above the rest. 

Halloween was shot in 35mm Panavision and for this new/new/redo to Blu, via Shout! Factory’s Scream offshoot, the picture has been scanned at full 4K with both HDR10 and Dolby Vision gently applied to an original camera negative. The previous 4K release used an IP. This one also has Dean Cundey’s participation and seal of approval. So, how different is it from the previous 4K release? Very – proving an OCN is always best. The most impressive aspect of this 4K disc is in bringing forth even the minutest detail. Film grain has been amplified – though not exaggerated. Remember, we are dealing with film stock from 1978. So, grainier is truer to the source. An optical softness is present, indigenous of the anamorphic lenses used to shoot the movie.  We also get subtler bumps in black levels and more naturalistic highlights. Color timing has shifted from the previous 4K release which favored a far cooler palette. It’s warmer here, and looking more indigenous to its source. Flesh tones are spot on and the steely-blue filters used for night sequences sparkle with a morgue-like freshness. Shout!’s 4K reissue gets a Dolby Atmos upgrade too, that is wonderfully immersive, and also retains the original DTS mix. But I think best of all here is the due diligence Shout! has applied in securing virtually all of the extras ever made available on this title before. The 4K disc offers two separate audio commentaries - the first, from Carpenter and Jamie Lee Curtis, and a second, co-starring Dean Cundey, editor, Tommy Lee Wallace, and Nick Castle. Both tracks are well worth a listen. Disc 2 offers a remastered Blu-ray, using the same 4K upgraded elements, includes both aforementioned audio commentaries, and, from the 35^th Anniversary Blu-ray, ‘The Night She Came Home’ – a documentary about Jamie Lee Curtis’ lifelong association with the movie, plus, TV version footage, outtakes, and a theatrical trailer. Shout! includes a third Blu-ray, containing the original color-timed release, with all the goodies that were on that disc, vintage interviews with Moustapha Akkad, the comprehensive documentary, ‘Halloween: A Cut Above the Rest’ and ‘Halloween Unmasked 2000’, plus the extended TV cut of Halloween, another theatrical trailer, TV and radio spots. Bottom line: I think Shout! has done the definitive job here on Carpenter’s classic. You can officially retire all your other editions today, and prepare for one comprehensive collector’s set, further complimented by Shout!’s absolutely classy and stylish packaging, featuring original and newly designed art work. Very highly recommended!

FILM RATING (out of 5 – 5 being the best)

5+

VIDEO/AUDIO

5+

EXTRAS

5+