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HALLOWEEN II & III ARE COMING TO BLU (There Is, However, Bad News)

post #1 of 71
5/21/11 at 8:47am
Thread Starter 

BLOODY DISGUSTING: Granted they're hardly candidates for the AFI Top 100 Horror Films Of All Time (well, I'd argue III is...), but it's painful how poorly the majority of the Halloween sequels have been treated on DVD, most of them given lousy transfers and/or bare-bones presentations. H20, for example, promises an audio commentary that doesn't actually appear on the disc, and the recent Blu-ray release from Echo Bridge isn't even at the right aspect ratio. Well, Universal owns the first two sequels, and this fall they will be released on Blu-ray - however they will once again be sans bonus material. The real crime, however, is that this time, brand new bonus material ALREADY EXISTS. Read on for details...

Last fall, A&E's Bio channel aired "Halloween: The Inside Story", which assembled pretty much every living principal from the original Halloween, plus some sequel personnel and experts like BadAssDigest's Devin Faraci and, er, me (billed as a "Film Historian"!). Director Phil Nobile intended to cover the sequels in a bit more depth than ended up in the final cut, and thus he got a lot of lengthy interviews SPECIFICALLY on Halloween II and III from Jamie Lee Curtis, John Carpenter, Dean Cundey, Rick Rosenthal and Tommy Lee Wallace. Not only is it rare to get these folks on camera discussing Halloween at all (especially Carpenter, who's just plain talked out on the subject after 30 years), but you have to go back to the time of their release to get ANY of them talking about the sequels in more than passing. So obviously, these interviews - which again, are already shot and edited - would be a true blessing for fans.

In addition to these interviews, there's a lot of footage of Wallace (and myself) doing a Q&A at the New Beverly Cinema at last fall's screening of Halloween III, as well as separate interviews with fans that were in attendance, talking about the film's unusual place in the Halloween series and how it's finally starting to gain appreciation. Plus, Wallace had also agreed to record a new audio commentary for the film. However, when Nobile brought all of this material to Universal for possible inclusion on their planned new Blu-ray discs, they gave him a polite "no thanks". According to Nobile, "their priority is upping picture and sound and 'carrying over' existing bonus features", even though there ARE no existing bonus features. These two films have been released on disc 2-3 times already and there's never been anything beyond some minor "production notes" and the trailers. Halloween II in fact has a different cut of the film that sometimes airs on television (it includes a happier ending in which Jimmy the ambulance driver survives), but none of that material has ever been included on a legitimate release of the film.

So once again, the fans lose out. Nobile says it best: "Though parts of these interviews turned up on Bio's website as 2-minute "webisodes," as a fan it's kind of heartbreaking to know that the full interviews won't be preserved with the films, let alone ever seen by fans." And Universal loses out too; with disc sales ever dwindling due to Netflix streaming and similar options, providing interesting and NEW bonus material is the only surefire way to sell a decent amount of discs. Granted, the improved picture and sound will be nice, but are the majority of fans going to drop 20-30 bucks on a new disc just for an improved transfer? Especially when they've probably already bought these films a couple times before? I know I sure as hell won't; I'll wait until the used DVD store is having a "Buy 2 get 1 free" sale, activity that doesn't put any coin into Universal's pockets.

Hopefully it won't come to that. October is a long way off, so maybe they will come to their senses and realize that including material that already exists (they don't even have to do anything!!! It's already there!) will translate into bigger sales for their discs. If you'd like, send a POLITE email HERE and tell them that you want to see proper special editions for Halloween II and III.

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post #2 of 71
5/21/11 at 5:21pm

I would hope that at least they'll be offered as a double feature disc.

 

I know Fangoria did a retrospective on Halloween II a little while back (sometime last year, perhaps) They interviewed Rick Rosenthal for the article and he "neither confirmed nor denied" that he was working on a brand new cut of the movie, supposedly with footage never seen before anywhere (although I don't know where that came from since a new cut was not actually confirmed) I also read something, which obviously turned out to be false, that claimed that Universal's distribution rights to Halloween II was set to expire by now and that Lionsgate was getting them.

 

But yeah, it's baffling that Universal seems to be actively trying not to do anything with these films. We know that there is significant deleted footage for Halloween II, as it has appeared it the old TV cut of the movie. Rumor also has it that a commentary by Rosenthal already exists but was never used because it was too critical of Carpenter (again though, you would think that Universal could have just edited out any content they were uncomfortable with).

 

However, if it is any consolation, you can just get the Halloween: 25 Years of Terror documentary, which covers all the films in the series (that existed at the time)

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post #3 of 71
6/30/11 at 1:30pm
Over at the Digital Bits they announced 30th anniversary HALLOWEEN II for Blu-ray on 9/13. The best part is that as an extra, TERROR IN THE AISLES will be included. smile.gif
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post #4 of 71
6/30/11 at 3:17pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ahollis View Post

Over at the Digital Bits they announced 30th anniversary HALLOWEEN II for Blu-ray on 9/13. The best part is that as an extra, TERROR IN THE AISLES will be included. smile.gif

That's awesome, I love Terror In The Aisles (even though it's just a bunch of movie clips). Looks like we just might get a decent Halloween II release after all.
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post #5 of 71
6/30/11 at 3:28pm

I'm glad the alternate ending is included in the extras as well.

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post #6 of 71
6/30/11 at 4:04pm
Thread Starter 
Here's the artwork:

500
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post #7 of 71
6/30/11 at 4:15pm
I freaked when I read this this morning. To have Terror in the Aisles in any format is awesome as it was never released to my knowledge on dvd. A must purchase just for that. Although, I am now saddened to read about the "loss" of the bonus material. Lets hope they come up with something.
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post #8 of 71
6/30/11 at 4:41pm
Thread Starter 
Not sure which artwork is the correct one, now. Here's what Amazon is running:

500
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post #9 of 71
6/30/11 at 9:36pm
How did Universal get clearance to release Terror in The Aisles?
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post #10 of 71
7/1/11 at 6:31am
Good that this release seems to be getting at least some bonus material. The "Terror in the Aisles" would be a neat extra even though it's not really related to the film itself (Over at the Bits they are saying they are trying to confirm for sure the inclusion of the "Terror in the Aisles" doc). Still though there's so much more that could be done other than the alternate ending. There's a lot more deleted footage that exists. A commentary would be nice as well. Rosenthal seems perfectly happy to participate in other Halloween related docs. (namely the "25 Years of Terror"). As I indicated above the "25 Years of Terror" is a good companion, but we still need all the deleted scenes and a commentary for a Halloween II release to be definitive.

How do you guys feel about the artwork. I guess it was too much to ask for the original poster art. But I guess this isn't too bad for a photoshop job. I like the first one better as it's less polished and the title is more in the original "Halloween" font. But I'm betting the 2nd one is the final version.
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post #11 of 71
7/1/11 at 6:35am
Quote:
Originally Posted by darkrock17 View Post

How did Universal get clearance to release Terror in The Aisles?
Is it possible that they had the foresight to license the clips forever back when the movie was made? I know that the common wisdom has always been that licensing was why it wouldn't come to DVD but was that ever officially acknowledged by Universal?
Quote:
Originally Posted by WillG View Post

How do you guys feel about the artwork. I guess it was too much to ask for the original poster art. But I guess this isn't too bad for a photoshop job. I like the first one better as it's less polished and the title is more in the original "Halloween" font. But I'm betting the 2nd one is the final version.
It's better than the DVD. Since they never used the one sheet on the DVD releases, I wish they'd bring it back for the Blu-ray but I'm sure they need Michael's mask on the cover rather than a skull Jack-O-Lantern.
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post #12 of 71
7/1/11 at 6:50am
Quote:
Is it possible that they had the foresight to license the clips forever back when the movie was made? I know that the common wisdom has always been that licensing was why it wouldn't come to DVD but was that ever officially acknowledged by Universal?

This was a Theatrical film, correct? Isn't it common practice for licensing for theatrical features to generally last indefinitely? And, this is why music licensing generally isn't a problem for movie releases on Home video? (Although, I know that isolated cases do exist where music needs to replaced) Or, for example why the 60's Batman movie can be released but the TV show can't?
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post #13 of 71
7/1/11 at 9:53am
Quote:
Originally Posted by WillG View Post

Quote:
Is it possible that they had the foresight to license the clips forever back when the movie was made? I know that the common wisdom has always been that licensing was why it wouldn't come to DVD but was that ever officially acknowledged by Universal?

This was a Theatrical film, correct? Isn't it common practice for licensing for theatrical features to generally last indefinitely? And, this is why music licensing generally isn't a problem for movie releases on Home video?
Yeah, that's basically what I'm thinking. That must be the case because if they didn't already have the rights, I think it's nearly impossible that they would spend the money to license all the clips again for something that is being relegated to a bonus feature.
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post #14 of 71
7/5/11 at 5:10pm
Thread Starter 

CONFIRMED BY DIGITAL BITS: Anyway, first up today... we've have officially confirmed with Universal that the Terror in the Aisles documentary to be included on their forthcoming Halloween II: 30th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray (due 9/13) is indeed the 1984 trailer/clips film hosted by Donald Pleasence and Nancy Allen. We're not sure if any changes have been made to the theatrical version (given that some of the films referenced in the piece are owned by other studios), but just know that, yes, it IS the same film. Which I know will be good news to many of you. Dr. Jahnke was certainly excited about it. 
 

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post #15 of 71
7/7/11 at 9:38am

You'll have to excuse my lack of Blu-ray knowledge, but will Universal's Blu-ray release of Halloween II be region locked?

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post #16 of 71
7/7/11 at 11:01am
All of Universal's Blu-rays are region-free (http://blurayregioncodes.com/), so I imagine these would follow suit.
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post #17 of 71
7/7/11 at 2:59pm

Great stuff. Thanks for answering my question. thumbsup.gif

 

I preferred the first version of the front cover artwork, but the second version is fine.

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post #18 of 71
7/7/11 at 4:42pm
Anyone seen Halloween III art work yet?
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post #19 of 71
7/7/11 at 6:54pm

If they stick the Myers mask on that one, watch the online furor begin.........

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post #20 of 71
7/8/11 at 5:30am

damn right , it should be the witch face dropping, above the children, havent seen an anouncement for III yet

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post #21 of 71
7/11/11 at 10:09am

I'll probably buy this just for "Terror In The Aisles". a childhood fave of mine, be nice to revisit and dump my worn out VHS taped off superchannel back in the 80's.

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post #22 of 71
7/11/11 at 10:45am



 

Quote:
Originally Posted by Russell G View Post

I'll probably buy this just for "Terror In The Aisles". a childhood fave of mine, be nice to revisit and dump my worn out VHS taped off superchannel back in the 80's.

Yep, my VHS copy of TERROR IN THE AISLES had bitten the dust six years ago.  Can't wait to see it again and hope it is not played with and all excerpts are there.

 

 

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post #23 of 71
7/11/11 at 3:19pm

Just in case anyone else here didn't know, a CD soundtrack of Terror in the Aisles is available to buy. I recommend it. And with the documentary/film being included on the Halloween II Blu-ray disc, it's a bonus the soundtrack.

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post #24 of 71
8/3/11 at 4:45pm

Has the Blu-ray release of Halloween III been pushed back?

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post #25 of 71
8/3/11 at 6:28pm
Thread Starter 

Have no idea. Feels like, though, doesn't it?

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post #26 of 71
8/6/11 at 2:52pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by SWFF View Post

Have no idea. Feels like, though, doesn't it?



It does feel like Halloween III has been pushed back, yes.

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post #27 of 71
8/21/11 at 10:07am

Has the list of extras for Halloween II been finalised?

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post #28 of 71
9/15/11 at 3:34pm

Anyone here got their copy of Halloween II (1981)? Has anything been altered with the title sequence and end credits?

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post #29 of 71
9/15/11 at 3:57pm

Just saw this and it is FANTASTIC.  Pleasantly surprised by the A/V quality.  Shame about no lossless audio, but this was just a joy to watch after all these years...

 

And the Terror In The Aisles docu is in HD!  It was something watching all those film clips (including those not yet on Blu-ray) in 1080p, even if they were a little worse for wear.  What a treat!  Makes for a great double feature (maybe watch first as an aperitif).

 

There's also an alternate ending and deleted scenes, albeit in 4:3.  Forgot if they were in 1080p or not...

 

Yes, the title card in the beginning which usually says, "Moustapha Akkad Presents" is now "Universal An MCA Company Presents."  There is a LOT of controversy about this, but here are my $.02...

 

"An MCA Company" to me seems like this title card change occurred during the early 80s and was already on the film element used for the transfer.  I don't believe it was a malicious move by Universal Home Video when producing the HD master for the Blu-ray to remove and replace the card.  If so, then why not put "A GE Company"?  As to why it was done in the first place - perhaps this film element was to be used in certain territories where the agreement was to have the MCA credit...?

Looks like we may have a collector's edition in our hands if a new pressing is done...

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post #30 of 71
9/15/11 at 4:01pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by WaveCrest View Post

Anyone here got their copy of Halloween II (1981)? Has anything been altered with the title sequence and end credits?


The conversation migrated to this thread: http://www.hometheaterforum.com/t/312696/ushe-announcement-halloween-ii-30th-anniversary-blu-ray
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