Studio: Starz/Anchor Bay
Region: All
Video: MPEG-4/AVC - 1080p - 2.35:1 - (±29Mbps)
Audio: English LPCM 5.1 (4.6Mbps - 16-Bit/48kHz),
English Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 Kbps), English Dolby
2.0 (Original Mono) (192 Kbps)
Subtitles: English, English SDH
Special Features Subtitles: English
Disc: Dual-Layered Blu-Ray (50 GBs)
Runtime: 91 min.
Extras:
Making Of
Fast Facts (Shown during movie playback) Trailers TV
Spots Radio Spots Audio Commentary
Release Date: October 2nd, 2007
Package: Blu-Ray Standard case
Synopsis:
On a block and unholy Halloween night years ago,
little Michael Myers brutally slaughtered his sister
in cold blood. But for the last fifteen years, town
residents have rested easy, knowing that he was
safely locked away in a mental hospital... until
tonight. Tonight, Michael returns to the same quiet
neighborhood to relive his grisly murder again...
and again... and again. For this is a night of evil.
Tonight is Halloween!
The Film:
“Halloween” is an absolutely merciless thriller, a
movie so violent and scary that, yes, I would
compare it to “Psycho.” It's a terrifying and creepy
film about what one of the characters calls Evil
Personified. Right. And that leads us to the one
small piece of plot I'm going to describe. There's
this six-year-old kid who commits a murder right at
the beginning of the movie, and is sent away, and is
described by his psychiatrist as someone he spent
eight years trying to help, and then the next seven
years trying to keep locked up. But the guy escapes.
And he returns on Halloween to the same town and the
same street where he committed his first murder. And
while the local babysitters telephone their
boyfriends and watch “The Thing” on television, he
goes back into action.
Period: That's all I'm going to describe, because “Halloween” is a visceral experience -- we aren't seeing the movie, we're having it happen to us. It's frightening. Maybe you don't like movies that are really scary: Then don't see this one. Seeing it, I was reminded of the favorable review I gave a few years ago to “Last House of the Left,” another really terrifying thriller. Readers wrote to ask how I could possibly support such a movie. But it wasn't that I was supporting it so much as that I was describing it: You don't want to be scared? Don't see it. Credit must be paid to filmmakers who make the effort to really frighten us, to make a good thriller when quite possibly a bad one might have made as much money. Hitchcock is acknowledged as a master of suspense; it's hypocrisy to disapprove of other directors in the same genre who want to scare us too.
Excerpt from Roger Ebert's
review at the Chicago Sun Times located
HERE
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The Video:
This is a very personal view (obviously), but I am very
pleased with this particular edition - more than any
other I saw, including the strong 25th Anniversary
SD-DVD. Noise is very limited to just a few rare
instances where shadows get a bit agitated, but it is
far from being distractive. The image does look a bit
blurred, IMHO it contributes giving the movie a very
smooth texture. I don't see how a horror movie like this
would take advantage of over-sharpening and an
exaggerated level of detail. It would end up appearing
far too busy and distracting. Here it is simple film -
focused on the climax, the mood per se, as it
should be. I also found the colors beautifully caste,
the bluish low-temp tone is truly grabbing.
Shadows are strong, as intended, and very well utilized,
often valuing the foreground when needed. In general the
black levels behave quite well and I think the work done
in this transfer captures the original chilling aura
from the original film while presenting an enhanced HD
transfer. The purists may get annoyed b this transfer,
but I think the whole thing is sharp and saturated
enough and I felt like everything was well balanced. The
only thing that could offer some improvement is a higher
Bit Rate, but I was extremely satisfied with the end
result!
Luiz R.
Blu-ray Screen Captures
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Audio:
I also enjoyed the LPCM 5.1 a lot, which is probably the best Halloween
mix I have heard and goes many steps further in quality and range than
the DD 5.1 option. The soundtrack also sounds excellent and it is played
quite a few times during the movie so it should get a special attention
as it does here, but every detail is crystal clear. This is not a busy
movie, is quiet but it smartly takes use of the many channels. The LPCM
mix distributes everything precisely and with an enriching range. The DD
5.1 is also good, but I don't see any reason why one should use it
instead of the LPCM which is clearly better.
The only sad part of this Blu-Ray is the Mono option coming as a Stereo
mix. They should have just left it as a single high quality uncompressed
mono channel instead of duplicating it into a
low-192Kbps-bit-rate 2-channel mix. I think this is my only and big
disappointment with this edition.
Extras:
Not many supplements, but still a few are good enough to consider the
pack of extras satisfying. The Making Of... is long, about 70
minutes, and explores extensively many movie facts. Unfortunately there
isn't much new footage, most of it is a narrator describing the events
while the movie footage is being played. But the info present is good.
The Audio Commentary - by the director, actress, and producer - is also
nice and should be worth listening to most fans.
There is also an "Fast Facts" option that presents some data about the
movie during its normal playback, sort of an extra "subtitle". It is
nice and it doesn't come up too often, so it doesn't get disturbing.
Other than that, there are some trailers and spots.
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BOTTOM LINE: I am definitely pleased by the quality, content, and price and thus I consider this edition highly recommend to fans. If you never watched this movie this is also the perfect opportunity to do so, and will continue to be for a long time.
Luiz R.
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