Halloween: The Doctor’s Cut

I have to confess as a fan of the horror genre that I'm not that familiar with the Halloween franchise. Oh, I've seen the first movie. It's one of the greats. And I did see the 2018 movie of the same name. But unlike the Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, or even the Chucky franchises, I haven't gone through the effort to watch every movie revolving around infamous slasher movie villain Michael Myers. I only just bought (and saw) Halloween II in preparation for this edit of the first two films. So I can't really tell you whether it stacks up as a worthy edit for the Halloween fanatic. But as a casual observer, I thought this was a mostly well done effort. A few hiccups, but not too bad.

This mashup of Halloween (1978) and Halloween II (Although the first one takes up a little more running time for the first 80 minutes of this 138-minute cut) is pretty much what you expect it to be. And if you're not a big fan of the padding that Halloween II suffers from, you can rejoice over how much faster paced the second half is. I still think the Halloween section is better than the Halloween II section, and I still don't think the twist revolving around Michael Myers' sister is growing on me. Still, this edit is a nice, complete recreation of the first two, and they complement each other well enough that I can't complain beyond a few of the shortcomings of Halloween II.

If I have any criticisms to give towards the editor, I do think there is an overuse of the most popular theme songs at the beginning of the edit. I think I heard the main theme 3 times in the span of 15-20 minutes. And yes, it kind of annoyed me. So, points off in the audio department for that one. Otherwise, this is a pretty good mashup. It's not one of my favorites, but it's close enough to being one that I'd recommend it.

For me, John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN is perfection. Not just as a horror genre movie but as piece of cinematic master craftsmanship.
Halloween II? Not so much. It is a fun cash-in sequel that amps up the blood and gore factor over depth or subtly.

Over the years, there have been many, many fan edits that have combined these two "Night He Came Home" chapters into one movie. They all had different strengths and weakness, but the greatest challenge they all faced was trying to make it "feel" or "play" like it was meant to be one single narrative movie. Most, I must admit, for me, do not succeed in this editing aspect.

However, the Doctor's Cut is perhaps the best one yet. And the reason this one succeeds better than many others, is the strong editing hand taken to H2, in particular the various Hospital plots. For this type of edit to be successful, the Halloween II portion needs to play like Act Three of a story and this the closest I have thus seen a fan edit achieve this. Though to be honest, I think even more could have been cut, since by this point of a movie, the narrative focus should be narrowing on Loomis, Michael and Laurie and not spending any unnecessary time on new sets of characters. But with that said, what JNisch has done with H2 portion is very tight and engaging. The actual transition scene from Halloween to H2 is nicely done, not lingering too long on Loomis and efficiently moving the story forward.

The "Don't Fear The Reaper" bookends I liked immensely. It immediately give this fan edit it's own distinct flavour and identity. If anything, I would have have liked to have seen more of this sprinkled throughout the edit, just to make it even more unique from other Halloween fan edits. Though I do think the opening sequence could have benefited from some mild sound foley work and you can hear the original soundtrack spill through when Judith cries out Michael's name (I wonder if Vocal Remover could have cleaned that up?). And while I loved the Black & White, I thought the contrast, blacks and white balance could have been adjusted slightly to eliminate the off grey teal colouring.

There is some mild video quality and colour grading variations between the different source materials but nothing too distracting. There are some fluctuations in audio levels, particularly where new music is added. But sound editing is a very special skill that takes time to master (I know I still struggle with it lol) and is also subjective based on the viewer. All the new title cards look good and are well placed. All the cut work is great. I did not notice any flash frames or poor jump cuts.

For me, there is one big continuity error in the film. The movie opens with the Myers' house murder, with a title card of 1963. It then cuts to the psychiatric hearing with a title card dated May 1978, only months before Michael's escape. This is a mistake. I believe the scene is supposed to be also in the 1960s. Definitely not 78. As Loomis clearly has a much darker dyed beard and hair, and we see Michael, and he is clearly no more than 10 or 12 years old. So from a creative editing perspective, I found this to be an odd choice.

Overall, this is a very good firstling project. While I was I engaged and entertained, I think I found myself wishing the editor has pushed the envelope a wee bit further to help differentiate this fan edit even more from the very large pack of pervious Halloween 1 and 2 projects. And while it still does not quite feel like "one movie", it comes very darn close.

There are some nice moments of fresh brilliance here, and I am very much looking forward to seeing what this editor will do next.

Thumbs Up. :)