Halloween - Complete Collection on Blu-Ray from Scream Factory/Starz/Anchor Bay

A blurb concerning a "complete" boxed set coming with all the films (original run and, uggh, Rob Zombie flicks as well):

http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/s...complete-collection-bluray-preorders-up/15093

It figures that after finally completing collecting all of them on blu-ray last year (and I'm a bigger fan of the holiday itself than all of the films in the series! ), they put this humungous thing out.

It's a bit unclear whether all the "alternate" versions will be in HD (the "TV Version" of "Halloween II" from Scream Factory before was only in full frame on DVD), but it sounds like they're finally putting out the early/director's cut/alternate, etc. version of "Halloween 6."

I guess I can sell off some of the other BD's if I pick this set up, and I don't have the Zombie films on BD.

 

I pre-ordered the deluxe yesterday. I like the Rob Zombie films and am glad that both cuts will be in this.

 

I prefer the Rob Zombie directed versions, but its an odd set, as most fans of the old ones hate the re-makes. I won't be buying this as I already have the individual re-make titles on Blu-ray and don't have interest in the old ones, which beyond part II or III are pretty awful.

 

I appreciate the viewing experience in Zombie's versions when referencing them against the originals (for instance, I think it's interesting to give a lot more backstory details to Michael Myers; although ultimately I think it hinders more than helps the effectiveness of the story/film), but I certainly hope they provide theatrical cuts for Zombie's films, especially the first one, because the "unrated" version had a few really awful things, even within the modern horror/Rob Zombie genre.

I recall the commentary tracks from Zombie being entertaining in that he seemed pretty freaking disinterested (maybe that's just his voice tone?), and he kind of complains a lot (weather, delays on set, etc.), and hilariously kind of implies the kid playing Michael Myers really actually was weird and creepy.

 

I love the original Carpenter Halloween and feel the same way about both of the Rob Zombie theatrical cuts of his two films. The director's cut of the first one is impossible to watch because of the rape scene and other little changes that were made I don't care for. The other films are horrible but the kind of horrible that is awesome. Kind of like all of the Friday the 13th and A Nightmare On Elm Street films where you know what you are watching is terrible but they revel in their terribleness.

 

Gosh. There are only 2 Halloween films I even like. And that is the original and Season of the Witch. It would be interesting to watch a good copy of the producers cut though.

 

Anchor Bay/Scream recently announced the specs for the 15-disc "Limited" deluxe set. Here's a link to the specs rather than posting them all here: http://halloweenmovies.com/2014/07/21/halloween-box-set-collection-bonus-features-details/

Reading comments from the uber-Halloween fans online, it's not surprising that, just like every other movie/band/TV show/franchise, they are complaining. I think there are definitely some valid complaints, although the fans seem to feel Anchor Bay/Scream are being "lazy" by not including this or that when clearly it's a budgetary thing going on in most cases.

They evidently are not going to include the theatrical cuts of the two Zombie films. I'm not that into those films, but the weird completist in me is bothered a bit that they aren't there in the "complete" set. More importantly, as mentioned above, there is a particular scene in the "unrated" cut of the first Zombie film that makes it unwatchable for some, and that's saying something for a Zombie film.

I think some of the uber fans are analyzing it too much. It's pretty clear Anchor Bay and Starz are trying to piece together the set from existing in-print discs as much as possible. It appears they have only re-authored one of the two versions of the original film (to include a new commentary and original mono soundtrack), and have possibly re-authored some or all of parts 6, 7, and 8, and of course the bonus disc.

There are some weird things going on based on the specs. Two separate discs for the first film seems redundant. Yes, I know they are different transfers and have different bonus features. But neither of those two discs attempt to replicate the "TV Cut" or the "Extended Cut" (which is simply the TV scenes added to the theatrical version) via seamless branching. Rather, we get a *third* version of the first film on the 15th "bonus" disc which inserts the TV scenes in SD within the main film itself which is HD. I'm pretty sure they have the original, anamorphic widescreen film elements for those TV scenes, as that was hyped when they first put them out in DVD some years back. Apparently they didn't have a budget to do HD transfers for those few minutes of TV scenes.

Fans also seem to be annoyed as many of them simply want the new "Producer's Cut" of Part 6. Indeed, that discs does seem to be where most of the budget and effort went, with a full, new HD transfer and many bonus features.

I would imagine Scream may well issue individual BD's for both versions of Part 6 as well as 7 and 8 perhaps next year.

Some of the existing standalone discs, well Scream's II and III mainly, have nice artwork. So I'm holding off on selling my standalone discs until I know the firm specs on this new set.

 

I canceled my order since the theatrical cuts of the Rob Zombie films aren't included after all. I already have the 35th anniversary of Halloween and both Unrated Zombie films. The rest of the films are crap, imo. A producer's cut can't save part 6.

 

I suppose that makes sense. If you only like the first film and perhaps the Zombie films, a box set with 10 films and 15 discs total doesn't make much sense.

There is a Canadian "double feature" blu-ray that has the theatrical cuts of both Zombie films.

 

Looks very nice... Is the box set "region free"?

 

Looks to be Region A locked.

 

Often, that's a condition of the independent company (Anchor Bay, in this case) given to them by the contracts of the original distributors. "You want the North American rights? That's X dollars. But world rights? That's 5X dollars."

 

Very sad.

 

I have the original first two on blu-ray. To me it begins and ends there (and II wasn't even originally supposed to happen!), that's all I treat as canon in the Halloween universe, so I'm good.

After the 2nd film, the series is about as illogical and disjointed as it possibly get. I can admire them for trying something different with III, which wasn't a great film, but I'd rather they have intended it as an anthology series of different stories. Anything past that has been scraping the bottom of the barrel. What to do after that? You put out a box set, I guess.

I'm really surprised to read of the enthusiasm for the Rob Zombie remakes. I didn't care for the unnecessary backstory at all and the obvious "looking for an excuse to stick the wifey" in the film.

 

For me, a bunch of the Halloween movies are more about an atmospheric sort of vibe. If you’re into the Halloween season, just the vibe of it, then these movies are good for that (not so much the Zombie films for me though), especially the non-Myers “Halloween III.”

As films, I’d say the original is the only truly good “film.” Truly a great example of someone who, if one is inclined to do a “horror” movie, is able to get it right and make it truly suspenseful and atmospheric, but still engaging and not the “nothing ever happens” type of “atmospheric.”

Random aside: One epic film from the last decade or so is called “Mr. Halloween.” The DVD of that one is awe-inspiring. It makes the production values on “Birdemic” seem like a Christopher Nolan movie. It literally looks like they shot the film on a camcorder for no budget, with non-actors, then uploaded the video with bad cropping and compression onto YouTube, then ripped the YouTube file back to the DVD with more compression and put that out.

 

Ok, I have a few question regarding this set. Regarding the original H1, I have the DVD extended version of it that has the additional TV scenes included. Is that included in this BD set? The other problem I have with the DVD version I have is that the beginning scene where kid Micheal stabs his sister was out of sync on the audio. Was that fixed in the BD version?

Also, I have read many times about the elusive Producer's Cut for Halloween 6 that had the different ending with Loomis and the story was slightly different compared to the version that commonly out there, is the alternate cut included in this set as well? I agree the quality went severely downhill after H2 (and never saw H3), but I would like to see the alternate cut to H6...that would complete it for me.

And as for the RZ remakes....have no desire to even view those.

 

All the goodies are on the 15-disc deluxe boxed set (they also put out a 10-disc set).

Regarding the “extended” version of the first film (essentially the theatrical version with the three TV scenes added in), it is on the 15th disc, the “Bonus Disc.” While everything is in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen, the “TV version” scenes are included in SD only (or, more accurately, the entire thing is in HD on the disc, but the TV scenes have been upconverted from an SD source). The jump out of HD into SD and then back isn’t actually as jarring as one would think. It’s about as good as such a thing could be. It appears they did the best they could with the budget on the set in this case. It would have made more sense to simply put the TV scenes back into one of the *two* other versions of the first film via seamless branching, but it appears they tried to use as many previously-mastered discs for this set as possible. Simply throwing a third version of the film on the bonus disc and adding in the TV scenes may have been cheaper than re-authoring one of the other discs and doing seamless branching. Apparently, some feel the editing to get the TV scenes back into the film was a bit ham-fisted, not quite as clean as the old DVD version with the TV scenes. As for why the TV scenes are in SD even though they clearly finally found the original film elements for the scenes back in the late 90’s, I’m guessing again it was perhaps a money issue to re-license the footage from whomever owns it, not to mention do a new transfer. No doubt, at some point they will scan those scenes in HD for the first time and repackage the movie again.

As far as sync issues, I’m not well-versed in all the films. But as far as I know, there’s nothing different on the new set other than some sort of mastering glitch on “Halloween 4” that the studio is already offering replacement discs for. Most other “sync” issues are apparently/allegedly just vintage issues with looping/overdubbing.

The “Producer’s Cut” of “Halloween 6” is indeed in the set. Whether you like any version of the film or not, this cut is *very* different from the standard/theatrical version. They re-shot a ton of stuff for the theatrical version. The “Producer’s Cut” has far less violence/gore. Neither version of the film makes a lot of sense in terms of logic. But the “Producer’s Cut” is at least somewhat less convoluted simply because it’s a bit less cluttered. It also has a lot more Loomis in it. If you like the “thorn” stuff, the “Producer’s Cut” for better or worse embraces that storyline much more.

The set also has some really great bonus features. Even if you find some if not most of the sequels rather wonky, the “making of” documentaries on parts 4, 5, and 6 are quite interesting just from the point of view of filmmaking. The interviewees are all pretty candid about the films and the people who worked on them. Many of the cast and crew and refreshingly aware of some of the criticisms viewers have had for the films for all these years.

 

I would also add that the "Horror's Hallowed Grounds" segments on the bonus disc are pretty interesting. I was hesitant at first; I'm not so much a horror film fan as a Halloween (the holiday) fan. But once you get past the annoying opening theme music, the "Hallowed Grounds" episodes are cool. I thought the host dude would be a total tool, but he's actually just *really* into these movies and knows them and the locations so well. It's almost comical the lengths he goes to on some of the locations to try to actually find something that still connects it to the film in question. "Okay, so they completely gutted this house and renovated everything, but look here! See this overhead beam? This is the actual beam you see in the film!"

As with the "making of" features, the "Hallowed Grounds" episodes are interesting even if you don't like some of the films. It's an interesting exercise in monitoring urban decay, and seeing what structures and locations survive and where, and for how long.

 

I recorded Halloween III off of AMC last week. I've never seen it but always been curious about it. I know it has nothing to do with Michael Myers, which doesn't bother me at all. I've seen a few of the later Halloween's and didn't care for them at all. But I'm wondering how much of the movie I'll miss due to the inevitable editiging AMC has done on it. Should I even bother watching it in this form?

 

I watched it on AMC sometime last week just because it happened to be on, but I'd say you're fine with this version. The movie doesn't have much in the way of blood-n-gore to start with so it seemed pretty much intact to me save for trimming a few seconds of nudity and muting a couple instances of profanity.

EDIT: Though of course, AMC did run it in 1.78:1 instead of the proper 2.35:1 ratio, so there's that. But yeah, the basic movie is still intact enough to tell if it's your kinda thing or not.

 

Thanks. I see its available to stream in HD through Amazon for $4 and Vudu for $5, but I can't see any aspect ratio listed for either one. Does anyone know of a site that would have this info or know if they are showing the correct AR?

Edit: the 2 minute preview on Vudu was helpful. Looks like 2:35 to me there. Maybe I'll watch a little of what I recorded and if I like it, I'll stream it proper. I hate editing in movies, and the gratuitous nudity in 80's horror movies is part of the fun. Don't want to miss that.

 

Amen. ****ing terrible.

 

Reading some fans of the series on the blu-ray forum, there sometime seems to be little apparent internal logic involved in rating the different films. Obviously, we all have our own favorites for sometimes arbitrary reasons. But some folks there will say they love Halloween 5 and the second Zombie film, but hate Halloween 4 and the first Zombie film.

I can't imagine utterly detesting one of the Zombie films but loving the other one.