USHE Announcement: Halloween II 30th Anniversary (Blu-ray)

Kinda disappointing looking. Not sure if I'll bite.

There were additional extras listed for this on another forum - I guess they were dropped. This is still good and I will definitely purchase. Wasn't Halloween III also listed as getiing a Blu-ray?

Such as?

There was a list on horrordvds.com, don't remember everything but, besides the alternate ending, there were going to be deleted scenes included.

I know! And the worse part; the DVD release isn't going to be the same. It's basically a re-release of the 2001 Universal DVD.

Has anyone taken a look at this?  As bad as I want it, it is from Universal and I am always leery of their Blu-ray releases.  I passed on several of their Blu-ray titles due to poor feedback. 

I'd expect it to be on par with other Universal releases. My copy is coming today but I had no major problems with the criticized Fast Times At Ridgemont High or American Graffiti discs so I wouldn't pay attention to anything I say.

The reality is that Halloween II will probably never be released on a disc again so I'm stuck with what they give me. And for a mere $13, I expect to be relatively happy with the disc anyway.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that the deleted scenes are on the disc. There's 7 scenes running 8:06 and they're only presented in 1.33:1. The scenes are:

1. the nurses starting to undress Laurie in the ER
2. Jimmy asking Janet about Laurie in a hallway
3. Dr. Mixter somewhat drunkenly talking to Mrs. Alves about Laurie's prognosis
4. Mrs. Alves not being able to get a hold of Laruie's parents
5. Laurie freaking & getting sedated and the power getting shut down
6. Loomis and Hunt talking in the morgue hallway
7. Janet telling Karen that the store room was broken into

It's been a long time since I've watched it but there are a couple scenes that are in the TV version and not on this disc. Off the top of my head, the MIA scenes/extensions are Mr. Garrett blaming teenagers on drugs for the murders and a drugged Laurie picking up the phone and trying to talk to her mother.

The alternate ending runs 1:29 and is 1.33:1 also.

Terror In The Aisles is 1.78:1 and runs 1:22:36 but I'm not digging out my VHS copy to see if it runs the same length.

The trailer (which was on the DVD) is missing here and, unsurprisingly, the production notes aren't ported over either.

Picked this up for $15.99 at Hastings today. Holy crap, Universal put some genuine effort into this! It has all the deleted/TV scenes, and the deleted ending (in 4:3, which I assume were the best quality versions they could find), and they even have subtitles. Terror In The Aisles is the full doc, and not just some ported over video transfer either, but a full, very nice looking new HD transfer, with a Dolby Digital stereo soundtrack. The movie itself looks and sounds better than it ever has (there is the original stereo track in 768k DTS 2.0, and a 5.1 "Processed" track in 768k DTS - no lossless, which is a shame, but this is still much better than it has ever sounded before. I would suspect even those who own a 35mm print of this movie from it's original run will be watching the Blu version from now on.

It's all on one disc, but the disc is a BD-50, so everything fits nicely without any compromise in quality. Sure, they could have possibly fit in a lossless 5.1 DTS-MA audio track if they had yanked Terror In The Aisles, but in a day and age where studios don't bother releasing catalog movies on BD, and when they do, they are barebones with ancient made for HDTV broadcast transfers, this disc is a steal. The fact that they spent time and money making a new HD transfer of Terror In The Aisles alone deserves your meager $13-15.

At $12.99 on Amazon, and $15 at Best Buy, this is a steal.

 

Damn, when I asked about the film, I had forgotten about Terror In The Aisles.  This was to be a no-brainier to pick up.  The running time was 1 hr. 24 min. but that approximately so if anything was cut it was minimal. 
 

 

I just watched the movie and an oddity that I noticed is that the first title card in the opening credits is changed from 'Moustapha Akkad Presents' to 'Universal An MCA Company Presents'. Since they're citing MCA, I assume that's the way it was back in 1981 (and the Akkad card was added for video?).

It's a new title card. The background of the title sequence is slightly grey but for that one title (Universal Presents) it goes completely black and then back to a slight grey after it ends. I don't know what Universal has against Moustapha Akkad.

^ Thanks for the info. What's even weirder about is that MCA was bought around 2 decades ago so why are they crediting them at all?

In Terror In The Aisles, the clip of Chrissy swimming at the beginning of Jaws is bright enough that you can see nudity that would have garnered an X rating back in 1975.

Sounds pretty good. Glad they got most of the significant deleted scenes in there (although the TV cut included a myriad of scene extensions, alternate takes, alternate music cues and scene re-sequencing. If you've never seen the TV cut, it really is quite a different version of the film) Too bad the deleted scenes seem to be P&S, but yeah, the chances of going back to the original elements for that stuff (if they even still exist) were practically nil.

Yeah, that is also weird about the title card. Why change it after all these years? Unless, as someone suggested, that was how it originally appeared in theaters, but isn't Akkad's name on all the other films (that were made while he was alive). Does Dino de Laurentiis's name still appear on the film?

Yep. After the new Uni card, it then says Dino De Laurentis Presents (or something along those lines) as it always has.

Looking at the end credits, they list Dawn Of The Dead but I don't recall seeing any clips from it so MAYBE that's been edited. Since I'm a huge nerd, I'll probably go back through it and report back later today.

Thanks for commenting on this one guys, I'll be sure to snatch it up the next time I'm in the shops. I loved Terror In Aisles when I was a kid.

 

Anyone have an idea of a decent version of the first film on Blu? I never did buy a DVD copy since it seemed that every version had some other issue with it between colours or framing. I've been holding onto a VHS limited edition thing from Anchor Bay.

I took a look and Dawn Of The Dead is not in Terror In The Aisles on this Blu-ray. The other 61 movies listed in the end credits are all featured so I assume that the only edit is the Dawn clips.

Another weird thing is that the credits on the back of the case credits Akkad.

My guess is that there are probably variant cuts with the different credits that were created for legal reasons 30 years ago, and that for some reason that was the source of this particular HD transfer. I just don't see Universal doing it out of spite. There's definitely some legal reasoning at some point along the line for this credit variation.

I don't remember ever seeing clips from Dawn of the Dead in Terror In The Aisles.

I can't say whether it originally was or wasn't there but it's definitely listed in the end credits.

The Dawn of the Dead clip was a blink-and-you-miss-it type of clip if I recall correctly.  I have both the VHS tape and Japanese import laserdisc so maybe I'll give one a look and see if I can find where it was placed.

Cool. If you can post the approximate time it is, I'll take a look at that point on the Blu-ray.

OK - I can confirm that the Terror in the Aisles version on the Blu Ray is the same version that was released on the VHS and Japanese laserdisc.  The laserdisc had liner notes which listed out the film clips appearance order and Dawn of the Dead was not listed.  So I watched the VHS and that clocked in at approximately 1:22:22.  No Dawn clip.

 

So either the home video releases were always missing that clip or the clip was removed from the film before its release without an update to the end credits.  I did see the film way back in 1984 in theater but I do not remember if there was a Dawn clip in there or not.

Thanks for taking a look, John. Good to know that it's complete (or as complete as the other video releases).

Has anyone received their replacement Blu-ray disc from Universal? I'm curious to know if they corrected the missing Akkad credit using original film elements, or if they simply "dubbed over" video-generated titles. The "MCA" credit on the initial Blu-ray release was done using video-generated text, which is why it appeared in a different font and color. It also lacked the "gate weave" inherent in film based material. It really annoyed me when I first saw it, not just because of the alteration in the credit, but also for how poorly it was accomplished.

The replacement seems to be film based, It definitely has gate weave and seems authentic. I cranked up the brightness to check the black level and it matches.

Thanks Jason. That's exactly what I wanted to know before I sent mine back for exchange. I figured if the "corrected" disc was the same video cut-and-paste job, I'd just keep the original release, since it might be more of a "collectible" with the MCA credit.