UHD Review A Few Words About A few words about...™ Halloween (1978 - Scream Factory) -- in 4k UHD (1 Viewer)

[Will Krupp]

Ironically, the original Myers’ house has been relocated up the street to just at that railroad crossing, which is at the intersection containing the hardware store that was robbed and where Laurie, Annie and Loomis all stop to talk to Sherrif Brackett.

I knew it had been relocated but did NOT realize "where" it was relocated to! Thanks

 

[Kaskade1309]

Hey thank you for your response. Welp.....from what I've read I have no desire to upgrade this title to Bluray. I do not have a 4K Monitor or player so that's irrelevant for me. I'll stick with THX 1999. Looks like I'd be happier with that anyway.

Hey, no problem -- yeah, I didn't upgrade, either; maybe next year if these are still available I'll take a stab at em (one, two, four and five, as we already bought three).

 

[Duke23]

Yeah, that seems like the way the movie has always looked and given the time of year that it was shot, there's no avoiding it.

While it may appear there's no avoiding it, I don't buy it. Fall here in Illinois where I've lived all my life doesn't look like that. The THX 99 version is the best representation of the mood of fall in Illinois. When the divimax version came out in 2003 I noticed right away something was off which was unfortunate in my view. I'm sure for these newest versions, they could have used some filtering to really make the look appropriate for its fall setting in Illinois. THX 99 got it right. Nothing else has since imho.

 

[Duke23]

And that's because the THX coloring was just someone making fairly dramatic changes to the color of the movie at their own whims. Once again, I liked the look of that disc alot but it's not indicative of what the movie ever looked previously and why no transfer has ever looked like it again.

And Cundey approved the 99 disc too along with 3 others apparently. It's all a personal subjective choice now. There is no correct choice but I think it looks best coloring wise on the 99 version.

 

[Duke23]

As a final note from me the THX 1999 version is the end all be all and should be considered the definitive version! All others are wrong! JK Seriously though it's a great film. Enjoy whichever version you prefer which is the whole point anyway. So many options to choose from.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

And Cundey approved the 99 disc too along with 3 others apparently. It's all a personal subjective choice now. There is no correct choice but I think it looks best coloring wise on the 99 version.

As a final note from me the THX 1999 version is the end all be all and should be considered the definitive version! All others are wrong! JK Seriously though it's a great film. Enjoy whichever version you prefer which is the whole point anyway. So many options to choose from.

Somethings are not merely subjective though... like the much lower res/details (and likely compression artifacts) of an old DVD vs the better BDs and 4K discs, especially on a larger screen. You're not gonna come all that close to the original intended presentation via any old DVD because of that.

IF you want the whole movie color biased somewhat differently, you could probably try adjusting your display's settings just for watching this movie (and then switch back for everything else). Not exactly the same of course, but could well get you closer to your ideal (between both resolution/details and color scheme)...

_Man_

 

[Kaskade1309]

 

[crowe-t]

It didn't. That being said, I don't need my 35th Anniversary anymore. If someone wants it, I'm happy to send it for free to a good home.

Do you still have the 35th Anniversary Blu-Ray?

 

[Will Krupp]

Do you still have the 35th Anniversary Blu-Ray?

Sure, just check your PM's!

 

[yamato72]

I screened this disc just in time for the holiday (watched it twice this season actually). I spun up both the THX DVD, the 2007 BD, and the previous UHD first to get a sense of the coloring. The colors (bright daytime outdoors and the blue-tinted nights) on the DVD looked "correct" to me as always but on a 4K TV at 6' it was not watchable. 2007 BD looked sharper but the daytime scenes looked de-saturated to me. Nighttime scenes were bright white as I've always remembered and disliked. The previous UHD showed superior PQ to the BD but still looked monochromatic.

Comparing the same scenes on this new disc, nighttime scenes looked great and for the daytime, scenes, yeah the grass is bright green and the trees are green but I live in MI and it looks like the same right outside my window.

I might keep the THX DVD for the special features but I'm wholly satisfied with this edition. I got a kick out of seeing the "added for TV" scenes for the first time but they're mostly pointless, plus they are the seed of the "Laurie is Michael's sister" continuity. We watched the Halloween 2 BD this year and even though it is shot so similarly and comes closest to the original sound and cinematrography, it's just so different in tone that I lose interest part way through.

 

[Will Krupp]

yeah the grass is bright green and the trees are green but I live in MI and it looks like the same right outside my window.

It's funny you say that, I live in Northeastern PA and was paying special attention to the bright green grass and full trees this Halloween, too! Great minds and all that!

 

[TravisR]

I've gone through all of these Halloween discs now and I have to say that Shout has done a really great job with them. The movies have always looked pretty good through the years and these releases are no different and I love that they default to the original audio track.

The trip down memory lane with the TV-edited version of the original movie was wonderfully nostalgic as I still remember most of the edits or odd changes (why did they change it so the music keeps going after the opening credits finish and the panning shot starts?). Some of the edits that they made are hilariously overzealous even for 1981 standards (like cutting Annie saying "Now let's not stand here talking about them and get down to doing them.") However, the biggest thing I appreciated from the TV version was FINALLY getting the title cards back for the Loomis/hearing TV scene ("Smith's Grove, Illinois" and "May 1, 1964"). As far as I know, they haven't been included on any release since the 1994 Criterion laserdisc.


For the hardcore fans, there's a couple of easter eggs on the first two movies:

Halloween- Blu-ray disc 1: In the Bonus, press Right from "TV Version Additional Footage" highlighting the eyes, press Enter and you'll see a Sci-Fi Channel (?) commercial for the original movie.
Blu-ray disc 2: In the Bonus, press Right from "Vintage Interview with Producer Moustapha Akkad" highlighting the eyes, press Enter and you'll see a commercial for the 1981 NBC TV airing.

Halloween II- Blu-ray: In the Bonus, press Up from "The Nightmare Isn't Over! the making of Halloween II" highlighting the pumpkin, press Enter and you'll see a commercial for a TV airing of Halloween and Halloween II. Again, I think it's from the Sci-Fi Channel but I'm not sure.