HALLOWEEN 4 and 5 Double Feature

Last year was a blast when I went to see John Carpenter’s HALLOWEEN on the big screen for its two-day re-release in theaters. It wasn’t the first time I had seen my all-time favorite film on the big screen, but it was still an amazing experience. The auditorium was packed with both true long-time fans and first timers, and all of us were treated to a nice brand new ten-minute featurette on the original HALLOWEEN where we also saw one of the first on-camera interviews with Rob Zombie talking about his then yet-to-be-shot "re-imagining" (this was back when there was actually some hope the remake would be better than average, but I’m not getting into that now).

This year, I was very pleased to hear that Anchor Bay was doing the same thing this year, only this time it was going to be a double-feature (GRINDHOUSE inspiration perhaps?) of the best and one of the worst sequels of the franchise: HALLOWEEN 4: THE RETURN OF MICHAEL MYERS and HALLOWEEN 5: THE REVENGE OF MICHAEL MYERS. Being a twenty-one-year-old die hard HALLOWEEN fan (that puts me two years out of the womb when 4 was released and three for 5), I missed out on seeing them on the big screen during their original releases so the thought of getting a second chance was amazing… even if it is HALLOWEEN 5. However, I have to express complete disappointment in the experience.

For one, there was only about fifteen people other than my fiance and myself in the 300+ seat auditorium. Where were all of the fans that showed up last year? After having recently endured a less-than-satisfying remake of the classic original, wouldn’t they love to revisit the film’s best sequel on the big screen? I guess not.

Two other complaints I had were both related to the "new" featurette they showed before the films: HALLOWEEN: FACES OF FEAR. My first complaint was that it was nothing more than the old 2000 and 2001 interviews with the casts and crew that were filmed for the original HALLOWEEN 4 and 5 DVDs recut with a MONSTERS HD theme (I don’t have that channel, but I LOVE their website!). Sure there was a few extra bits of those interviews not seen on the DVD, plus one or two brief new snippets with Danielle Harris (always easy on the eye), George Wilbur and Brad Loree (I thought he was the only good thing in HALLOWEEN: RESURRECTION, but he was shown so briefly I don’t know why they even bothered to include him at all). They even reused some of the John Carpenter, Debra Hill, and Nick Castle interviews from the original 1999 HALLOWEEN DVD featurette, HALLOWEEN: UNMASKED. The whole thing just felt half-assed. Secondly, the featurette made no effort in concealing the events of either film, revealing huge plot points (like Rachel’s death in HALLOWEEN 5). Not everyone in the theater had seen the films (like my fiancee for example) and I was pissed to see so much of it get spoiled for them. I hate fucking spoilers! This half-assed thing should have been tacked on at the end. If people left without seeing it, they wouldn’t have missed much. At least they would’ve been able to go in fresh.

As for the movies (don’t worry I’m not going to review them, as we all know H4 is awesome and H5 is putrid), HALLOWEEN 4 was a joy to see on the big screen, and for the most part it seemed the other dozen people in the theater were enjoying it. Unfortunately right when the film is at the peak of its intensity as Michael chases Rachel and Jamie into the attic of the Meeker house, the film stopped and a screen came on reading: "Intermission: HALLOWEEN 5 will begin in five minutes." Thankfully an usher came in right away to tell us there was a glitch with the film that the company called the theater to warn them ahead of time about (nice to know everybody in the country’s experience got interrupted).

All in all, I hate to be a constant bitcher, but this was ridiculous. Sure, I got to see HALLOWEEN 4 and 5 on the big screen, but where were all the other fans? I wanted a huge crowd to cheer with me when Tina finally takes that butcher knife to the chest! I wonder what Anchor Bay will have in store for us next year. I just hope they put some more heart in it this time. At least the digital projection was beautiful.

Did you get the feeling I hate HALLOWEEN 5? At least it’s got a bad ass poster and a killer opening title sequence. Other than that…yeah…

But hey! While it may not have much talent behind it, it ain’t HALLOWEEN: RESURRECTION!