The Night He Came Home in 4K!
Yes indeed, as part of the celebrations for the 40th anniversary of John Carpenter's ground-breaking classic horror, Lionsgate are releasing his HALLOWEEN in the 4K Ultra HD format, with a package that also includes the film on Blu-ray.
Is there anything left to say about HALLOWEEN? Michael Myers escapes from a mental institution. Pursued by his psychiatrist he returns to the town where he committed murder on Halloween night when he was aged 5 with the intention of doing more of the same. Does it matter who he is, or where he comes from? Not according to Carpenter, who in interviews at the time said that none of that was important (are you listening, Rob Zombie?).
What did matter was the style, and HALLOWEEN has lashings of that, from Carpenter's widescreen compositions that are likely taught in film school now (if they aren't they should be), to Dean Cundey's gliding camerawork, to Carpenter's prickly theme music that's repetitive without ever becoming annoying (very clever, that).
HALLOWEEN has been sequelised (pretty painfully on the whole), remade (oh dear) and it's now up for a reboot, the trailer of which looks promising. We shall have to see. Meanwhile, here's the version I want to see, the version nobody has yet told. The version from Michael Myers' point of view. So when you watch the film again, here's a different take on what the film might be about:
Nervous, shy Michael Myers breaks out of the hospital where he was incarcerated just because when his parents came home one night he happened to be standing outside the house holding a large knife. He travels back to his home town of Haddonfield to prove his innocence. Once there he steals his sister's gravestone to prove how much his misses her and vows to help the teenagers of Haddonfield enjoy Halloween and feel safe.
He helps a young man get back on his feet but lifts him up a bit too high and kills him. Knowing the man's girlfriend will be distressed by this he tries to break the news gently to her by doing his famous 'ghost with specs' routine. It all goes a bit wrong and in the excitement he loses his voice so that when another girl calls all he can do is breathe heavily.
Meanwhile evil psychiatrist Dr Loomis has pursued him to Haddonfield. Dr Loomis isn't very good at psychiatry ("The evil is gone!" I mean what kind of psychiatrist says that?) but Michael wants him to feel good about himself so when Dr Loomis fills his gun with blanks by mistake Michael pretends to be shot. Fortunately his balcony plunge is onto a soft surface. He leaps up and thinks maybe a game of hide and seek might cheer Dr Loomis up but by then it's time for the film to finish. Never mind, maybe he can make it up to that scared girl who he was only trying to help by visiting her at the local hospital.
Lionsgate's 4K transfer looks terrific, with deeper blacks that make Michael's emergence from the shadows seem even more impressive. The Blu-ray disc is the 35th anniversary one, so you get the Carpenter / Jamie Lee Curtis commentary, two featurettes - 'The Night She Came Home' and 'On Location 25 Years Later', TV version footage, TV and radio spots and a trailer.
John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN is out from Lionsgate in
4K Ultra HD now.
No comments:
Post a Comment