Halloween: The Night of The Boogeyman

This is a bold take on a Halloween and Halloween II mash-up. Easy for the story, since they're both set on the same night, but where other edits feel bloated and overly long for a stand-alone movie, Last Survivor has not just trimmed the fat, but expertly carved chunks out to tighten the pacing and improve the overall story. The result being that this truly feels like a stand alone movie!

Ryantology and etherbot have said pretty much everything that I could say. It's by no means a replacement for either of the two movies it mixes, nor is it a definitive version, but it still works very well as a sharp and fast paced horror thriller!

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!

This edit honestly squeezes blood from a stone trying to take the fullest advantage of both movies different pacing styles. What you get is a tight, very very well structured horror movie with a breathless buildup to its midpoint climax followed by the entire hospital storyline as a sort of third act, which appropriately feels like a finale rather than an epilogue.

I tend to be turned off by the mono soundtrack which many Halloween fans champion (it just feels somewhat too speech heavy for me? kind of uncanny to listen to at times), but I also recognize that that's a matter of personal preference. The mixing doesn't feel jarring at all when you transition from one film to the next which I thought was a minor feat.

The whole first couple acts of Halloween II are repurposed as the valley in between the two major peaks of this film's intensity. It's very well put together. And the buildup towards the reveal of Laurie's dead friends is much, much eerier without seeing the kills. Certain shots like Myers princess-carrying the body to the front door now play as inexplicable, mysterious, disquieting foreshadowing. And then it all goes to hell in a hand basket when Laurie ventures to the house across the street.

The third act somewhat struggles to bear the weight of the sloppier elements of Halloween II, like Samhain and Laurie Myers, but this was unavoidable and the third act still moves along at an urgent pace. My biggest gripe is the lead-in to Laurie's fakeout/getaway with the pillows under the blanket. It seems a bit inexplicable in this cut, but it's a bit hard to reconcile even in the source material. Kind of a cheap fakeout which is exacerbated by this very lean cut (basically 40 minutes) of Halloween II.

The music and SFX changes are also very welcome. The experience is fresh the whole way through.

Overall this is a major feat and highly recommended viewing. It's a creepier experience than the original, with very few onscreen kills and a lot of anticipation. It rearranges the source material to delicately form the stakes and manages to pull the whole thing off basically seamlessly

This was a great edit combining the first two Halloween movies. If I had never seen them before, I would have believed this was always how it played out. I didn't miss any of the material removed from the first movie, and it helped to tighten up the pacing quite a bit. I did notice more of the material that was cut from the second movie, but it was all of the worst parts, so the removal was a huge improvement! Because the cuts were so drastic it really did help keep the focus on Laurie, and without Michael's side of the story being told, Loomis' frantic search feels all the more hopeless. To me, Halloween's ending has always felt a bit anti-climactic, and Halloween II has always felt like an unnecessary epilogue to the original. LastSurvivor has upgraded both movies to feel like the more cohesive single movie they always should have been.

After watching Last Survivor's latest Halloween reimagining, and I can say with confidence, this is the DEFINITIVE 2 in 1 combination.

Why?

Because this is the FIRST ONE EVER that has a proper THREE ACT MOVIE STRUCTURE.

There have been many, many, MANY 1978 Halloween and 1980 Halloween II fan edit combos over the years, all of which had their own strengths and their own entertainment factor, but at the end of the day, they all mostly still played like fan edits, like two movies glued together. And that is fine. Nothing wrong with that. Especially if you want to enjoy all the Kills. But if you wanted to watch one that genuinely played out like a horror movie of the period, then none quite cracked the needed Three Act Structure Story Code.

Until now.

This fan edit is bold and radical. And may not be to every hardcore Halloween fans' taste.

Most of the legendary kills are gone. This movie is laser focused on following the point of views of Laurie and Loomis. The audience discovers the bloody devastation of Michael only when Loomis or Laurie do. We experience the terror of Michael coming home through their eyes. This creates a much more intimate and mature film. In fact, I would dare say, this is no longer a Slasher Movie at all but is now a Suspense Mystery Thriller.

The onscreen kills now only occur in the the Third Act, only after the mystery unravels and the tension has masterfully escalated over the first Two Acts. This, for me, makes the final kills less about thrills but more about genuine horror. In other words, the final kills are narratively earned and thus have more impact. As I said before, this is structurally and tonally, a VERY DIFFERENT movie from the originals.

Along with massive cut work (more than an hour of material is gone), the tone of the originals has been extensively altered by Last Survivor's signature music replacement. New variations of classic Halloween music themes have been used in most of the iconic scenes we all know so well, giving the scenes new life and energy. And for me, the best music replacement is the joining scene of Halloween and Halloween II. Instead of using the recognizable franchise theme like most fan edits, LS goes with something completely different and now it no longer plays like one movie ending and another beginning, but as just a single scene seamlessly transitioning from Act Two into Act Three. It is for me, a brilliant piece of editing.

I will say again, this is not the Halloween you remember.
Last Survivor has crafted something new, something different.
Less Kill-centric and more character focused.

A very refreshing Halloween fan edit.
Thumbs Up for me.