Halloween 4K UHD (1978)

[Energy Crisis]

Originally Posted by LSK

So, Carpenter is not allowed to supervise a better sound mix for his film, if that's what he wants?

What you think sounds better, and what he thinks sounds better, are two completely different things.

What makes you think Carpenter had any involvement with the Atmos mix whatsoever, much less supervised it? I'll believe that when I see the cashed check, because that's the only way he'd be up for doing, well, anything really.

Originally Posted by LSK

If the original is a good one. Sure.

I've just seen Halloween 4 on UHD, and the Atmos track on that one is great. I switched between all the available tracks, and found the Atmos the best - impressive and very atmospheric. I don't need 21 channels and constant surround envelopment, especially not on the original, older, Halloween films; I would be fine with a nice stereo track on those, but I don't know if the original Halloween had one, or if it was mono only, up until it was mixed again for 5.1.

For the record, I love a good Atmos mix, but the Halloween 4 mix is just weird. It's got random low frequency noise in the sub channel throughout the whole movie. I found it unlistenable. None of the Shout Halloween remixes are worth hearing IMO. Even the best of the bunch (2 and 5) are too aggressive and the 2.0 tracks upmixed with Dolby Surround provide a much more immersive experience.

[steev210]

Originally Posted by Zombie Dude

To me Shouts 4K still has a desaturated look to it. I grew up watching the old more colourful transfer so I think that’s just what I’m used to seeing when it comes to the film. Whether that’s a more faithful colour palette I don’t know. Last few times I’ve watched the film is the new 4K, so I’ve gotten a bit more used to it. Just can’t help but feel it looks more dull than it should.

I remember the film having a more saturated look to it as well. One scene I noticed right away on Shout's 4K was when Loomis and nurse Marion are driving to Smith's Grove. There used to be a strong yellow hue emitted from car's dashboard that contrasted with the blue tones of their bodies/clothing, similar to how Cundey shot the police cruiser interior for Halloween II with Loomis and Brackett...only that instance the dash was giving off a strong green hue. That yellow push was present on the Starz 2007 blu-ray.

Shout's! new 4K mutes that strong yellow and replaces it mostly with white, with a slight hint of yellow. Still, their 4K is leagues better than Anchor Bay's 35th Anniversary release and Lionsgate's UHD. The color palette on those is so drained and desaturated that it felt like an entirely different viewing experience.

[Brian81]

Everyone shits on the appearance of the Divimax and original BD but that might be my second favorite looking presentation after the newest one as far as DVD era and later. Nothing to do with accuracy but what I think looks nice, I guess.

[Markgway]

Originally Posted by LSK

If the original is a good one. Sure.

No ifs.

[BobSimms]

Yeah let’s just leave the original theatrical mono off the definitive format release because it’s not “a good one”—whatever that might mean.

[brian9229]

Hmmmm...

https://halloweendailynews.com/2024/...theaters-2024/

[Energy Crisis]

Originally Posted by BobSimms

Yeah let’s just leave the original theatrical mono off the definitive format release because it’s not “a good one”—whatever that might mean.

Halloween's mono literally couldn't be any better than it is. Carpenter mixed at MGM. How many other low budget indie's of that era put that much money into the sound?

[Kyle15]

But guys. One channel. Channel equal fidelity. 1978 old bad not good audio too. Get with the program!

[gj217]

Halloween’s mono track has far more atmosphere in its one channel than the entire Atmos mix has.

[bobbyh64]

The music in the remix sounds like sh*t. Except for the opening titles. That sounded pretty good. But some of the music like Laurie’s theme when she’s walking around sounds terrible. It has this weird tinny effect. Sounds so much better in the mono. And the sound effect when Michael gets up from the back seat in Annie’s car was changed and doesn’t sound as gritty as it does in the mono. Monoween is superior.

[gj217]

Originally Posted by bobbyh64

The music in the remix sounds like sh*t. Except for the opening titles. That sounded pretty good. But some of the music like Laurie’s theme when she’s walking around sounds terrible. It has this weird tinny effect. Sounds so much better in the mono. And the sound effect when Michael gets up from the back seat in Annie’s car was changed and doesn’t sound as gritty as it does in the mono. Monoween is superior.

I don’t even like the opening titles in the remix, myself. The track is missing that creepy harshness that sets the scene.

[bobbyh64]

Originally Posted by gj217

I don’t even like the opening titles in the remix, myself. The track is missing that creepy harshness that sets the scene.

The mono does indeed sound creepier and harsher. But I also like the added string instruments in the remix. I wish Alan Howarth would make a stereo version of the mono tracks like he did with The Fog soundtrack. I think he just added some reverb to give the music a sort of stereo effect.

[BobSimms]

Originally Posted by brian9229

Hmmmm...

https://halloweendailynews.com/2024/...theaters-2024/

They curiously don’t state whether it’s a new restoration/remaster.

[gj217]

Originally Posted by BobSimms

They curiously don’t state whether it’s a new restoration/remaster.

I wouldn’t really consider it curious.

Trancas is extremely sloppy with theatrical and digital releases of Halloween. They license it out for physical releases (and fortunately the distributors do their own transfers), but they handle all digital and theatrical releases themselves.

Just to put into perspective how sloppy they are, until October 2021, the digital versions have exclusively been the 2007 Blu-ray transfer. They replaced it with a 4K SDR version on iTunes, but it’s a weak SDR conversion of the Lionsgate remaster. I wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest if it was a quick and dirty UHD-rip encoded in the wrong color space. It suffers from many of the same issues that Friday the 13th’s UHD release does. Blinding, clipped whites; blacks crushed almost to being unintelligible, etc. Granted, these bits are few and far between, but they look rough.

There is virtually no way the theatrical re-release uses a new master. At BEST, it’ll be a rip of the Shout or Lionsgate discs. But I wouldn’t be surprised if it was either the 2007 or 2013 transfer. As much as I hate to say it, that’d be better than the garbage “4K” version they put on iTunes.


EDIT: I just looked at it again. It looks different from how it looked upon the initial 4K release. Doesn’t look at all like the Lionsgate master anymore.

[yukito]

I watched the French 4K which uses the lionsgate restoration. I think the colour looks fine but I must agree the mono track is terrible... I ended up just listening to the 7.1 track.

[LSK]

Originally Posted by gj217

Halloween was indeed mono until 1999, when it was restored for DVD after the backlash on the initial 1997 disc. That disc was a doozy. Very, very murky and blocky.

It was remixed for the 1999 THX DVD by Chace Studios, with a wildly different sound for much of the score and some of the sound effects and stingers. Every remix since (TrueHD and Atmos) has been based on this mix. The only stereo track was a fold-down on said DVD.

I have this DVD and seem to remember it sounded pretty good.

[gj217]

But the point is that it sounds completely *different*.

The music doesn't even sound like it's the same recording.

[jstxanothrxstory]

Originally Posted by LSK

I have this DVD and seem to remember it sounded pretty good.

https://i.ibb.co/CJfN3yY/IMG-6273.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/Zgq9QFm/IMG-6275.jpg

That's the 1999 DVD. The 1997 DVD was pretty much barebones:

[Matt89]

Yeah, this is a bit of a pick your poison scenario on 4K. The SF has a clearly gorgeous underlying restoration but they mucked it up during the last stage when they encoded it to disc. The 4K has a truly dogshit encode but is otherwise the best restoration of the film to date. Would've liked for them to have used the Criterion mono (or at least a better quality version) since it doesn't have all the filtering of the lossy track that's been making the rounds since the late '90s. If someone were to re-do it with a better encode and a higher quality mono I'd be all over that.

The Lionsgate 4K certainly has the better encode but the transfer came from an IP (the SF 4K has more detail and came from the OCN) and the LG UHD only contains the remixed 7.1, the "mono" on that disc is not original, it's a mixdown of the surround track. The movie itself looks a bit desaturated but honestly it wasn't something that particularly bothered me about that disc. Very close to the colour timing of the 2013 BD. Oh and the aspect ratio changes slightly (I think from 2.35-2.39) part way through the movie so there's also that.

But yeah the SF UHD is probably the closest thing to the film's original colour timing, the 1999 THX DVD from Anchor Bay is one of the most revisionist transfers I've ever seen. I still held onto mine all these years as Halloween is my favourite horror film and that was the first DVD of the film I ever owned but the movie never looked all orangey and fall-looking until that disc came out. Eventually people just assumed that was accurate to the film's intended look, but couldn't be further from the truth -- and after Anchor Bay's 25th anniversary DVD came out in 2003 which got rid of both the fall colours and the blue gels during many of the nighttime scenes, even more people took the 1999 transfer as being more accurate, despite not being so. That 1999 DVD was also the introduction of the noise-reduced mono track that sounds muffled compared to the range on the Criterion mono from their laserdisc. Unfortunately, on every release since then whenever the mono is included it's that noise-reduced track from 1999. It's original, but it doesn't sound great, especially when you compare it directly to the Criterion.

The colour timing on the 2007 Anchor Bay BD is also a whole ass mess and isn't accurate in any sense, I don't know why SF continues to include it. It is actually very close to the colour timing of Anchor Bay's 2003 DVD (same master perhaps??) which was also a total mess.

I just hope someone does the movie justice with another UHD. Arrow??

[Telemachus]

Just that scene with Annie in the garage and hearing all those added bug sound effects after she closes the car door is enough for me to write that track off as a cruel joke.