Halloween 2 TV Cut (1 Viewer)

[Kelvin DP]

I heard that the Halloween 2 TV cut has been released on DVD in the UK. Does anyone know which release it is or if this is even true?

....

 

[WillG]

I don't know about that, but there were rumors that Anchor Bay was trying to license Halloween II from Universal for a Special Edition which would likely have included the TV material in some form. There is an R2 Boxed set of many of the Halloween Films via Anchor Bay, it has some special features (commentary) but there was nothing to indicate that there was a tv cut. Unfortunately, since Universal recently announced that they would be releasing Halloween III, it does not seem likely that they have licenced Halloween II to A.B. as they seem to be holding on to their "Halloween" Titles in the U.S. It's too bad as the T.V. version is in reality a very different Recut of the film. Although it has many problems, it is interesting to see.

 

[Ric Bagoly]

The most obvious change in the TV cut is at the end when...

Lance Guest's character sits up in the ambulance with his head bandaged and comforts Laurie.

 

[WillG]

Actually the most obvious changes are right at the beginning as the TV cut goes straight into the credits and puts what was once the prologue after the credits. This also brings up quite an odd music gaffe later on where the scene that originally came after the credits is re-shuffled to later on into the movie (It goes back into the trailing off theme as the credits ended and went back into the movie). There are also several other reshuffled scenes, added footage, alternate music cues and dialogue loops and at least one alternate death scene. Although the TV cut is intersting for fans of the movie, it think it is pretty unacceptble for a DVD presentation. I think the way to go would have to be some kind of Hybrid between the Theatrical Cut and the TV cut. For example, like I said alot of the scene re-shuffling leaves some pretty large seams, virtually all sights of blood are edited out, and at least one character's death is completly removed making that character's disappearence completly unexplained (Not that it takes a genius to figure it out, but still....)

And the most ridiculous thing of all...

When Michael goes into the elderly couple's home and takes the knife, the shots of the woman finding the blood and getting it on her fingers are replaced with a STILL FRAME of Michael's Mask


I think that for DVD they would need to reinstate most of the parts that were cut for violence and language (much like the "TV Cut" that was made for the original.) The extra footage, alternate ending would be left in. Alternate music cues could be left in and even some of the
re-sequences could be left intact, if some of the seams that caused could be fixed such as that sudden occurance of the training off theme music which shows up later in the movie for no apparent reason in the T.V. cut.

I also hope that the negative for the alternate footage is still available so that it can be shown in Widescreen as well