Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.0

Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later Blu-ray Movie Review

"It's Halloween. I guess everyone's entitled to one good scare."

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown September 20, 2014

My colleague, Martin Liebman, covered the 2011 Echo Bridge Blu-ray release of Halloween H20. I've included his movie review below. For my part, I'll be evaluating the new Anchor Bay/Scream Factory edition's video presentation, lossless audio track and special features.

Liebman responded very favorably to the film, writing: "Halloween H20 is a bold and fresh resurrection of a fledgling franchise that had long since lost its way. A lean and mean Horror picture that sticks to formula and respects the franchise's roots, director Steve Miner's (My Father the Hero) honest-to-goodness "conclusion" to the Halloween franchise is long-overdue, but with the long wait came a film worthy of closing out what most will probably see as the true successor to the earliest and best films in the series. Indeed, Halloween H20 is a fantastic closing chapter on what might be considered the "Laurie Strode Trilogy" that began way back in 1978 with Director John Carpenter's seminal, genre-defining classic Halloween, followed up soon thereafter by a sequel that picked up immediately where the original left off. The series lost its stride and became something of a hodgepodge of films of varying degrees of success, but H20 returns to the series' bread-and-butter storyline and indeed serves as a fitting finale, regardless of what came before it and what has and may since come after.

It's been twenty years since Michael Meyers terrorized Laurie Strode, murdered her friends, and was temporarily stopped by Dr. Loomis. Now, Michael is back and looking to finish what he started. He ransacks the Haddonfield, Illinois home of Loomis's nurse and discovers Laurie's new whereabouts. Laurie has since moved from the Prairie State, changed her name to Keri Tate (Jamie Lee Curtis), and is now headmistress at the prestigious and posh Hillcrest Academy, nestled in a serene little corner of California. She's still plagued by nightmares of Michael's killing spree, but she's making an honest go of regaining her life, even dating -- and trusting -- one of the school's faculty. She has a 17-year-old son named John (Josh Hartnett) who's mature for his age but still something of a rebel. He's never properly celebrated Halloween for respect of his mother's trauma, but he and his girlfriend Molly (Michelle Williams) have plans to spend this Halloween on campus, alone with another young couple, when the rest of the school is on vacation to Yosemite. Unfortunately, Michael Meyers has tracked Laurie down, and just as she's starting to cope with the terrors of twenty years past, the unstoppable killer has plans to make this a Halloween she'll never forget.

Halloween has never been about copious amounts of bloodletting. It's always been about murder, yes, but the hallmark pictures within the series have smartly settled on emphasizing tone and style over gratuitous violence. Michael Myers is often called "The Shape," an adequate description because the hulking symbol of unstoppable terror seems always lurking in the shadows, seen only briefly or through some skewed perspective until he's ready to strike. John Carpenter's first films and now Steve Miner's excellent followup allow the terror to build through sudden reveals of the character appearing in the background, in essence forcing the shape of the killer and the mere threat of what's to come to settle into the audience's collective subconscious but never really appear in full-on fear mode until the killings begin. Miner does right by the series in terms of retaining the style that made Halloween so effective. H20 is incredibly moody and intense. It's a no-nonsense picture that re-establishes its primary character and introduces a few more who may just be fodder, but such are necessary in a movie such as this. H20 gets down to business early enough, never timidly lingering around the periphery or wasting time with needless visual or structural nonsense. This is a Halloween film as it should be: to-the-point, tough-minded, no-frills, and bringing the franchise back full circle with a finale that's simple but highly effective and the perfect "end" to a wonderful "trilogy" of some of the best Horror to every grace the silver screen.

Halloween: H20 isn't just a success because of its smart direction, lean story, or retention of John Carpenter's seminal theme music. It works so well because it reunites the film's core antagonist with its core protagonist. Perhaps lost throughout the lengthy series is the wonderful dynamic between Laurie Strode Michael Myers; theirs is a relationship -- literally and figuratively -- quite unlike anything else the Horror genre has ever seen. The simplicity through which it all works out -- which is, oddly enough, through complex psychological underpinnings that seem to boil down to nothing but "madness," no more, no less -- is a great strength, and H20 carries on the series' tradition of the inhuman stalking the human, but the film comes back full circle and in its triumphant ending offers a glimmer of something beyond the mask and counter to everything that's come before it, but is it enough to alter one's perception of Michael Meyers? Chris Durand plays Michael in this go-round, and for a performance where not a single word is spoken, he gives an incredible effort at film's end that puts the character into a completely different perspective and challenges the finale to a degree that even Carpenter's films could not achieve. Jamie Lee Curtis is seamlessly strong in her return to the character that put her on the map, playing the part of a traumatized but functional adult in whom fear is always foremost in her mind and soul but not physically manifesting itself to the point of making her a de facto victim of emotional paralysis as if she truly had been suffering for twenty agonizing years. The Michael/Laurie relationship has always been the foundation of the series, and H20 proves a capable resurgence and a fitting "end" to their relationship by closing at least the most important chapter in the Halloween legacy with smarts and style.

Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

First things first. At 2.34:1, Halloween H20 is, for all intents and purposes, presented in its original theatrical aspect ratio (2.39:1), and that's a boon for cinephiles and really anyone who cares about filmmakers intent. Echo Bridge's 2011 Blu-ray release is framed at 1.78:1, so if nothing else, the new 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer gets one very important thing right. Not that it's that simple. Is it ever? The Echo Bridge encode doesn't crop the sides of the original image; its 1.78:1 image is an open matte presentation of the Super 35 film, offering additional information at the top and bottom (where the black bars rest in the 2.39:1 image). Compare this shot from the Echo Bridge release to this shot from the Anchor Bay/Scream Factory version and take note of the differences.

Beyond the triumph of viewing the film in its original, intended aspect ratio, though, there isn't a lot here to get overly excited about. Like the Echo Bridge version -- a bit too much like the Echo Bridge version in some ways -- the image is dull and muddy, as clarity is often diluted by dim, problematic contrast leveling. Colors underwhelm throughout, black depth isn't all that remarkable, and delineation is rather limited too, while minor crush is a factor and faint, almost negligible macroblocking creeps in from time to time. Fortunately, that doesn't translate into a complete loss. Not by any means. Keep in mind the Echo Bridge version scored a 1.5, and for reasons this release mostly avoids. Detail is still quite good, with cleaner, more natural edge definition, more carefully resolved textures and a finer, more filmic veneer of grain. And there isn't much in the way of other problems, aside from some easily overlooked print damage. All told, I considered pushing my score as high as a 3.5, but settled on a 3.0; my conclusion being that a more thorough remaster utilizing the original elements could have produced a more rewarding image. Should information surface suggesting otherwise, I'll of course reevaluate and update my review accordingly.

Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Halloween H20 carves up its latest victims with a fierce DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track. Dialogue is clear, intelligible and smartly prioritized, with some rather obvious ADR being the only exception. LFE output ratchets up the scares nicely too, with jarring jolts of low-end power perfectly suited to Myers' reign of terror. Rear speaker activity is a tad sparse at times, leaving a bit too much to the imagination in quieter scenes, but eerie ambience is used to build effective tension, directionality is competently employed, pans are smooth and the soundfield is fairly immersive (particularly when Michael begins stalking from shadow to shadow). None of it is revelatory per se (canned genre sound design and all), but I also doubt the film could sound much better than it does here.

Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary: Moderator Sean Clark hosts director Steve Miner and actress Jamie Lee Curtis in a spirited commentary. Once again, Curtis' enthusiasm elevates the entire track, which is home to a nice mix of production tidbits, anecdotes, insight and fun. There are a few too many times where the duo play the role of chatty audience members, particularly during kill scenes, but Clark does a good job of springing questions to re-focus them.
• Blood is Thicker than Water: The Making of Halloween H20 (HD, 59 minutes): Producer Malek Akkad, producer Paul Freeman, writer Robert Zappia, cinematographer Daryn Okada, editor Patrick Lussier, composer John Ottman, stunt coordinator Donna Keegan, make-up artist Brad Hardin and actors Jamie Lee Curtis, Josh Hartnett, Jodi Lyn O'Keefe, Nancy Stephens, Adam Hann-Byrd, Tom Kane and Chris Durand discuss all things H20 in this sprawling HD retrospective. Missing, though, is Miner.
• Scenes with John Ottman's Original Score (HD, 24 minutes): Six scenes from Halloween H20 are presented with composer John Ottman's original score via an isolated music DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track.
• Vintage Interviews and Behind-the-Scenes Footage (HD/SD, 46 minutes): This lengthy collection of interviews features Miner, Curtis and other key members of the cast and crew dissecting the film, their performances, the look and tone of the then-new sequel, and more.
• Still Gallery (HD, 8 minutes): A montage of photos and production images.
• TV Spot (SD, 1 minutes)
• Theatrical Trailer (SD, 2 minutes)

Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Halloween H20 isn't the best entry in the series, but it is one of the better sequels to John Carpenter's original. The true connection between Laurie and Michael will continue to divide fans, but if you buy the sibling angle, the seventh film will prove much more enjoyable. The new Anchor Bay/Scream Factory Blu-ray release isn't without its own problems -- a murky presentation chief among them -- but it still outclasses its 2011 Echo Bridge predecessor. Its video encode nevertheless represents an upgrade (particularly in that it presents the film in its theatrical aspect ratio), its DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track is strong, and its supplemental package is stuffed with goodies.