A Few Words About A few words about...™ Halloween 4 & 5 -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[Robert Harris]

Halloween has been a favored series of my son since he was very young, which in some states could bring child abuse charges to the adult. He and throngs of other Halloween fans having been waiting for the continuing series to emerge on Blu-ray. I'm getting to them a bit late, as they have been available since August, but here's what I'm seeing, and it's all good.

Both films appear to have been transferred from interpositives, and both have basically the same look. They have just a bit of minus density and a negligible amount of dirt. This could have easily been dealt with to make them perfect, but I'm not complaining at the final result. Merely being informative.

Color and densities generally look superb. Blacks are solid. Shadow detail is fine. Everything is as shot.

Audio is representative of the productions, reflected here in Dolby True HD. One thing to keep in mind is that one is not viewing The Avengers or Sherlock Holmes. Subs will not be pumping. The audio reveals the budgetary limitations -- apparently in the 3 - 5 million dollar range per film. For those amounts, these films have a lot of bang for the buck.

As an example, one sequence has Donald Pleasance at a gasoline station, finding Michael, followed by the requisite gunshots and explosions. Not terribly sonically exciting, but the Dolby True HD does its job, replicating what is on the original magnetic tracks. That's all that one can ask.

There is a huge customer base for these films. I'm not one of them, although I'm a fan of the original. From what I'm seeing with these two Blu-rays, those fans will be thrilled.

There's no downside with these discs, especially at a $15 street price.

Image - 4.75

Audio - 5

Recommended.

RAH

 

[TravisR]

It's not even remotely as good as the first one but Halloween 4 is a pretty good little movie (though the less said about 5 the better). I haven't had a chance to watch these discs yet but I'm happy to hear that they're solid.

 

[JohnMor]

Originally Posted by TravisR /t/324103/a-few-words-about-halloween-4-5-in-blu-ray#post_3981682
It's not even remotely as good as the first one but Halloween 4 is a pretty good little movie (though the less said about 5 the better). I haven't had a chance to watch these discs yet but I'm happy to hear that they're solid.

I completely agree on both counts Travis. Will probably pick up 4 at some point.

 

[WadeM]

I was worried after reading another review regarding picture and sound. Worries are now gone. Thanks

 

[WillG]

It's not even remotely as good as the first one but Halloween 4 is a pretty good little movie (though the less said about 5 the better). I haven't had a chance to watch these discs yet but I'm happy to hear that they're solid.

Yeah, I always thought 4 was solid. Had very good autumn atmosphere, especially in the opening titles (this might be one area where 4 actually trumps the original). The two lead girls were likable and their performances generally good. Not excessively gory. And had a pretty good (if not entirely original) ending.
Unfortunately it loses a good deal of points with me because they couldn't get the mask right. This also brings what could have been great to "pretty good". Also, does anyone else find it a bit odd that Michael was able to re-acquire his mask from a local Haddonfield shop (as well as some other Haddonfield teens apparently)? You'd think it would be considered pretty bad taste for a store to sell that mask after the brutal murder spree of '78 in Haddonfield.
There are some lapses in logic as well. I still find it hard to believe that Michael could have single-handedly dispatched of virtually the entire Haddonfield Police force, or that the protagonists couldn't blast their way out of the front door of a house with a shotgun. I also would like to know how Michael survived being completely set on fire and allowed to burn (Loomis as well, but since we never actually saw him on fire, there's a little more leeway there). And considering that, why would Loomis assume Michael was dead after merely being shot a bunch of times (and if you go by Halloween 5, no body)?

 

[Richard--W]

Astute observations, WillG, but to impose logic on the Halloween franchise is to take the fun out of them. None of them hold up to story-telling logic. This series is such that if they relied on logic absolutely they'd never get out of development. Most of us accept the lapses and go with the flow.
I just pulled the trigger on the new blu-rays.