Fanedit of Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later, A

H20 is one of the best Halloween movies IMO. It was also the very first one I saw, I was 12 years old. And when Michael was laying on the broken table after Ronny had dragged Laurie away, I was like "please don't cut to credits, please don't cut to credits" that would have meant that Michael could still be out there and he could find me...

The fanedit is very solid with a few surprises. I only have one things to really complain about, and that is the weird stabbing-Michael-when-he-is-lying-on-the-table that other reviewers have mentioned. Just cutting to the crane shot would have worked just fine.

Being nick-picky I don't think the added footage of Michael at the rest-stop helped. It's more suspenseful as it was originally. Just seeing the car that Michael drove earlier but not knowing were he is. Also one more thing; getting to know about Will's past is great from a hardcore fan's point of view but from a story perspective I think it was good that they cut it out originally. Will opening up to Laurie so that she might do the same only to minutes later only think about sex and Laurie having to remind him "you promised you'd listen" doesn't make much sense but I'm glad The Butcher added that scene here (I haven't seen the TV version) but I prefer the original cut.

I give Audio/Video quality 10 out of 10. The footage from the TV-version doesn't have the same quality as the dvd footage but that's the source material, The Butcher didn't f**k it up, so therefore 10 out of 10.

I don't know if I think this is a better version of the original cut but it's like some theatrical/director's/extended cuts of certain films; I got to have them all...and I'm glad I have this one.

this was an awesome edit of a good movie
i love the new score and and al the newly added tv footage
there is not much more i can say yes the tv footage was lower quality but it was never destracting,
it just showed how well he edited them in to the movie and the music makes it more menacing

i highly recommended it

Halloween H20 was a surprisingly solid slasher for an era, the late 90s, in which the genre was at its lowest ever, dominated by juvenile Scream knock-offs. Still, there was room for improvement, and improvement is what's provided by The Butcher's edit. This version is more suspenseful and has more character development, my favorite added bit being Will telling Laurie about his past, which adds warmth to him and makes it more smooth and believable when she subsequently opens up to him about her true self.

Editing itself is very well done. The TV scenes are of way lower quality, but that's unavoidable. The only thing that bothers me a bit is that the TV scenes show some ghosting, like they come from an interlaced source that was badly removed with a filter. Not having seen ThrowgnCpr's preservation, I don't know if the problem was avoidable or not, though. Audio editing was fine, and the new score was phenomenal.

Cut-wise, I agree with other reviewers about Laurie stabbing Michael, it felt "huh?" and I would have preferred the solution proposed by roswell422. I might have also removed a couple of distracting things like Laurie's way too wink-wink-nudge-nudge "Oh, f..." when opening the closet's door, and her later kicking Michael in the balls and him making a cross-eyed face for a moment.

Also I shall point out, while audio/video quality was fine as far as the TV footage allows, I feel a 5.47GB DVD9 was not needed for an edit that's 91 minutes long and would perfectly fit on a DVD5 with fine quality.

A great ending for the "Laurie Strode trilogy" overall, and one I'd recommend to any horror fan.

A/V Quality: Very good quality video on the whole. The deleted scenes are noticeably bad in quality but there’s not much you can really do about it. It wasn’t distracting to me though. Audio quality sounded fine. 9/10

Visual Editing: Great quality. Only quibble would be the added footage from The Thing stood out a little too much, not terrible though. 9/10

Audio Editing: Really impressed with the audio editing, especially in the segments with deleted footage. The mixed score sounds a little off at times, but mostly it worked well. 9/10

Narrative: The intention of the edit is to “make H20 closer in style, tone and execution to its predecessors (Halloween and Halloween II)”. This is pulled off well. The movie is much less lame (it was pretty damn good to begin with though) and feels more like a proper The End to the Halloween films. 9/10

(Aside: I highly suggest, if you haven’t already, seek out Kevin Williamson’s original treatment for the film. Even though it’s quite a different story, his love of Halloween 1 clearly shows in the way he structures it.)

Enjoyment: I thought it was good, I enjoyed it about as much as I enjoy the original version. 8/10

Halloween has always been my favorite horror franchise, and frankly, H20 is probably my favorite in the series (behind the first film). That being said, I have always had some issues with it, thanks to the mostly temp track score and lack of halloween "mood". Thankfully, The Butcher has fixed both of these issues. By inserting some halloween-themed shots from other films and giving the film a more autumnal color grade. The Ottman score is a massive improvement over the Beltrami mash-up in the theatrical version, but it is certainly a "big" score so be aware. Another really cool addition is the selection of deleted scenes, there are some nice tension building moments as well as great character ones. Overall, I highly recommend this edit to fans of Halloween. I'm looking forward to the HD version on the horizon.