Previous:
1.
Predator 2 
2.
Deep Blue Sea 
3.
Razorback
4.
Revenge
5.
The Nun
6.
Halloween 6: The Curse of Micheal Myers (Producer's Cut)
7.
Slither
8.
Raising Cain (Director's Cut)
9.
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
10.
Detention
11.
The Predator
12.
Mandy
13.
Christine
14.
The Exorcist III
15.
Assassination Nation
16.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)
17.
The House With a Clock in its Walls
Current:
18. Halloween (1978)
While the film excels mostly in its context of time, it is still perhaps the most quintessential slasher in the history if cinema. Halloween revolutionized the horror genre, basically creating the new sub-genre which is still alive today. Even the franchise itself has kept going, to the extent that both its director (for the score) and main actor have come back for the new upcoming sequel.
While the film itself is not deep in story or characters, it overcomes both thanks to its many other overachieving elements, like the camerawork, cinematography, score, acting from Jamie Lee Curtis and Donald Pleasence, and just its atmosphere and tension in general, making the suburbs one of the scariest settings in a horror movie. All this is done with minimal violence, which is actually quite tame, especially by today's standards. There are really no words that can accurately describe just how perfectly the film creates such a deeply scary atmosphere which combines terror, despair, and darkness without really being brutal or graphic. Perhaps the most attributing element to this, other than its impressive artistic and technical work, is the character of Michael Myers. The boogeyman in human form. Donald Pleasence does such a good job as the doctor trying to prevent a tragedy, that even though Michael himself does not have any lines of dialogue, his actions, combined with the picture which Dr. Loomis paints of him, are enough to be terrified of him even in the comfort of your own home. Seemingly unstoppable with no sense of morality or value for human life. That combined with the atmosphere makes Halloween the film to watch every year around this time.
Jamie Lee Curtis does a phenomenal job as the victim in this senseless act of violence. Even in her acting debut, she has enough gravitas and acting skills that we see how smart but vulnerable the young Laurie can be. Scared of something as simple as going to the dance with the guy she likes, but wise and brave enough to still protect the little kids under her care even as a serial killer is going after her. It is really the performance of a lifetime, making Laurie
The final girl we all enjoy seeing escape from Michael's frenzy.
Even though there are arguably scarier films, none can quite match the artistic level of craft, enjoyment, and palpable sense of suburban terror that Halloween portrays with such confidence and skill. The film is really defined by the 'relationship' between serial killer/boogeyman Micheal Myers and survivor/final girl Laurie as they confront each other in one terrifying night during Halloween. Making this slasher a timeless film and perhaps
the scary movie to end all scary movies.
PQ:
4 / 5
Lionsgate has remastered the film in 4K/HDR with a Dolby Vision encode for its 40th year anniversary. While the transfer is not demo material, and could arguably look better, the new HDR transfer still impresses, especially given not only the age, but also the budget the film was made with. The most impressive elements here are fine detail and added sense of depth thanks to the higher dynamic range. The picture is pretty dark, especially during its second and third acts, but nonetheless the picture looks great. Black levels are deep and inky. Not the deepest I've seen but still quite impressive, again, especially considering its age. Even then, shadow detail impresses throughout, never getting crushed even in the blackest and darkest scenes. That, combined with the outdoor and indoor lights from the suburb give the image some punch. This is quite apparent in scenes in which Michael is stalking his next victim, both during the opening scene and later in the film once Laurie is babysitting. Outside everything is really dark, but nonetheless you can still make out the different leaves of the bushes and grass as well as when he goes inside a dark house, with the textures from the dark cabinets in the kitchen looking perfectly defined despite the minimal brightness. The combination of brights and darks isn't as crazy as something like Alien: Covenant, but nonetheless the new transfer does provide the image with some impressive depth that SDR simply cannot capture. The transfer also benefits with HDR in specular highlights such as from lights reflecting off cars and other surfaces.
Fine detail is also impressive. Textures in long shots like the designs on the houses and textures on the tree trunks really catch the eye. They look very convincing and natural. Other textures inside houses like curtains and clothing on characters also receive a very nice uptick in detail. The transfer seems to have used the same color scheme as the 35th anniversary edition, that, while it makes the image somewhat drained of deep colors, the new HDR/WCG transfer still provides some benefit, such as the red tone of the car when Laurie and Linda are driving around town before babysitting. Another element that benefits from this are the different whites throughout the film. While these are not colorful, the 12-bit encode does provide them with more gradations which give them more detail and make them look very realistic. The curtains blowing in the wind outside Laurie's house as Michael looks up through her window in that infamous shot look especially vivid, making the shot even creepier than before.
As far as compression goes, it is overall good but not the best. Grain could have been handled better and that is really the only complaint I have about this transfer. In some areas of the picture it looks great, almost Sony-like. In other, it can look a bit noisy, and in others still, it can look a bit chunky. It does not ruin the transfer, but given that this is a 4K transfer with a more advanced compression codec, grain should look better. Lionsgate seems to have re-used the restoration that was used for the 35th anniversary edition. While the picture could arguably benefit from a brand-new scan, and definitely a better handling of film grain, this transfer is nonetheless quite impressive. The picture has lots of depth and nuance thanks to the HDR transfer. The picture is not very colorful, but the depth combined with the impressive amount of fine detail on display makes the picture look quite good, definitely better than the standard blu-ray even if it is not overall perfect.
AQ:
4 / 5
Unfortunately, Lionsgate has not provided the disc with the original sound of the film, lossy or lossless. Thankfully, the 7.1 Dolby TrueHD track sounds quite good. It does have different effects than the original design, but at least imo, they do not ruin the film at all. Lightning, wind, and rain impress while Dr. Loomis and the nurse go for Michael. The mix creates a really nice sense of immersion thanks to nice support from the surrounds. Throughout the movie, the score nicely bleeds from the front to the rears and backs, and upmixed with Dolby Surround, it creates a really nice bubble of sound for the viewer. Later in the film atmospherics like the wind once again travel to the rears as Laurie and her friends walk home from school, nicely opening up the soundstage and expanding it further than what a mono mix can accomplish. Dialogue is clear and intelligible. The low-end is used modestly, but given the age and budget of the production that is not really a surprise. Same with the dynamic range; it is not broad but it is enough to provide a nice listening experience. Overall it is a modest track but it is still capable of immersing its viewers in the terror of the story.
Overall:
While the picture impresses, it is disappointing that the original mono track was not included. Even though the 7.1 lossless mix can't quite replace the mono track, especially since it has changes in terms of its effects and cues, it is still a good mix that supports the film quite well. With a nice upgrade in picture quality, this 4K edition is very much worth getting. Could it look better? Yeah a little. But at least for now, this is the version to own, at least until the original mono is included in the next one, and perhaps with a new transfer that can fix the slight grain management deficits in the picture. Until then, this one is very recommended, especially considering the current low price (~$15 @ Target).
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It's impossible to like the main character -- she's obnoxious -- and it's really, really far-fetched. Unless, of course, she imagined the whole thing (which I tend to believe. She's obviously nuts.) I like the ambiguity of the ending, but this was pretty "meh.". The most impressive thing was that the whole movie was shot on an iPhone! Looked pretty good too.
Linear Mode
