Review Detail

9.7 6 10
halloween_boogeyman_front
FanMix October 16, 2022 2060
Overall rating
 
9.6
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0
Audio Editing
 
9.0
Visual Editing
 
10.0
Narrative
 
9.0
Enjoyment
 
10.0
As a huge fan of the Halloween series and someone who has edited a ton of them myself, there's always a certain excitement to a new Halloween edit from LastSurvivor. I think that he always manages to put a unique stamp on the Halloween franchise (I'm looking at you, Night of Samhain) and he makes some really well calculated decisions. This edit is certainly no different.

This edit is in no way beholden to the movies its borrowing from and that's genuinely why I love it. It's what makes this probably the most unique of the Halloween 1 and 2 combo edits out there. There are cuts that would seem downright blasphemous to Halloween fans (most of the deaths from the original Halloween happen off-screen now for instance) but ya know what, that's fine! No famous head tilt while staring at Bob? No "see anything you like?" It doesn't matter. Those scenes are in no way necessary to the story LS is trying to tell. When he told me early on he was aiming for a runtime around 90 minutes I thought he was out of his mind. Surely he'd soon realize that was impossible, right? Nope. He got it to right where he needed it to be and it works. The pacing is smooth all the way through and you do genuinely feel like you're watching a single movie. I honestly loved how fast we cut to credits in the end. Michael Myers was dead and there was no more story that needed to be told..... credits. Perfectly suited this edit.

The music changes. Seriously, chef's kiss to all the music changes. The first major change is a big one and it happens very early. The aftermath of Michael killing Judith and the lead up to the new, custom opening credits (great job with that by the way!) is now rescored with Halloween II Theme from, you guessed it, Halloween II. Can't even really put into words how much I enjoyed this change. It maintains the same emotion as the original piece of music but gives it an even more eerie feel. I actually prefer this to the original. By a lot. The other standout moment for me is using "Hey, Boom!" from the Halloween III soundtrack as the music that springboards us from Halloween into Halloween II. I've always been a huge fan of this track and its utilized perfectly here. I believe LastSurvivor used music from 5 different Halloween films but he did it in such a way that it still feel like a consistent score. Not always the easiest thing to do and I applaud his efforts here.

I really only have a few minor criticisms that certainly don't overshadow all of the good in this edit. Halloween II narratively is kind of a mess. Editing your way around that mess isn't great and there's really no good way to do it. Cutting out most of the death scenes in the sequel just made me wonder where those characters were and why they all just disappeared. I wondered why no characters came running when Loomis fired six shots inside the hospital. I obviously know the actual answer to this but still wanted to treat this edit as its own thing. Its a narrative hit but only a minor one. The pace is so brisk that by the time you're really starting to ask these questions, Michael Myers is on fire and we're about to roll credits. Lastly, as someone who lives and breathes Halloween, I noticed gaps in the music during two pivotal chase scenes (Michael chasing Laurie in Halloween and then Michael chasing Laurie again in Halloween II). I know these gaps existed because of cuts but it felt noticeable to me. Just a minor distraction and I was quickly on my way to enjoying the show again.

Of all the Halloween edits I've seen, this one easily ranks near the top. As i said earlier, I do think this is the most unique of the 1 and 2 combo edits. A must watch for casual and die-hard fans alike! Congrats to LastSurvivor on putting together another really fun, ridiculously intelligent edit!
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