HALLOWEEN 1 (DVD/25TH ANNIVERSARY/2 DISC/WS/5.1/COMMENTARY/TRAILER/ETC) DVD

Halloween
It was "The Night HE Came Home," warned the posters for John Carpenter's career-making horror smash. In Haddonfield, Ilinois, on Halloween night 1963, 6-year-old Michael Myers inexplicably slaughters his teenage sister. His psychiatrist Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasence) can't penetrate Michael's psyche after years of institutionalization, but he knows that, when Myers escapes before Halloween in 1978, there is going to be hell to pay in Haddonfield. While Loomis heads to Haddonfield to alert police, Myers spots bookish teenager Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) and follows her, constantly appearing and vanishing as Laurie and her looser friends Lynda (P.J. Soles) and Annie (Nancy Loomis) make their Halloween plans. By nightfall, the responsible Laurie is doing her own and Annie's babysitting jobs, while Annie and Lynda frolic in the parent-free house across the street. But Annie and Lynda are not answering the phone, and suspicious Laurie heads across the street to the darkened house to see what is going on ... . ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

Cast Donald Pleasence as Doctor Loomis Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Nancy Loomis as Annie P.J. Soles as Lynda Charles Cyphers as Brackett Kyle Richards as Lindsay Brian Andrews as Tommy John Michael Graham as Bob Nancy Stephens as Marion

Crew Rick Wallace - First Assistant Director John Carpenter - Director Tommy Lee Wallace - Editor Charles Burnstein - Editor Irwin Yablans - Executive Producer John Carpenter - Composer (Music Score) Raymond Stella - Camera Operator Craig Stearns - Production Designer Tommy Lee Wallace - Production Designer Dean Cundey - Cinematographer Don Behrns - Production Manager Debra Hill - Producer Craig Stearns - Set Designer Thomas D. Causey - Sound/Sound Designer Debra Hill - Screenwriter John Carpenter - Screenwriter

Halloween
With its almost blood-free frights, gutsy heroine, and peerless score, Halloween became the gold standard for the late 1970s-1980s teen slasher cycle (as Scream cheekily acknowledged in 1996). Taking full advantage of the widescreen frame (and offscreen space), John Carpenter builds tension through the constant suggestion that something terrible lurks just out of Laurie's and the audience's view, whether it's behind a bush or in a passing car. Carpenter also shifts to the killer's point of view, leaving the audience with only the sight of the unaware victim and the sound of Michael's breathing. Evoking Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho and Vertigo, as well as Howard Hawks's original The Thing, Carpenter and co-writer/producer Debra Hill render Myers an inhuman force that paradoxically points up the psycho-sexual anxieties under the surface of small-town life, especially in the wake of the late '60s-early '70s sexual revolution. Teens responded to Halloween's thrills, as the $325,000 indie film went on to gross $47 million, begetting six sequels and numerous imitators like the Friday the 13th series. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
 

John Carpenter: Los Angeles Film Critics Association, New Generation Award (winner)

General Specifications: Language Options: English Subtitle Options: Sound Processing: DD5.1: Dolby Digital w/ sub-woofer channel DDS2.0: Dolby Digital w/ 4 channels of sound from a 2-channel stereo mix. DD1: Dolby Digital Mono Additional Features: cc Widescreen presentation (2.35:1) enhanced for 16 x 9 TVs Audio commentary with writer/director John Carpenter, actress Jamie Lee Curtis, and producer Debra Hill "Halloween - A Cut Above the Rest" 87-minute documentary featuring interviews with John Carpenter, Jamie Lee Curtis, P.J. Soles, Nick Castle, Charles Cyphers, Debra Hill, director of photography Dean Cundey, editor/production designer Tommy Lee Wallace, executive producers Irwin Yablans, Moustapha Akkad, and others "On Location - 25 Years Later" featurette with actress P.J. Soles and producer Debra Hill revisiting the original Michael Myers house Theatrical trailer TV spots Radio spots Poster and still gallery Talent bios DVD-ROM: original screenplay DVD-ROM: screen savers DVD Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1: Cinemascope MPAA Rating: R DVD Discs Included: 2 DVD Sides: 2 DVD DVD Region Code: 1 Content Length: 91 min Part of Series: Divimax   DVD Chapters: Side #1 -- Feature Presentation 1. Main Titles [2:08] 2. All Hallows Eve, 1963 [4:54] 3. Hell Night [4:06] 4. On a Crisp October Morning... [3:21] 5. Fate [4:05] 6. Don't Talk to Strangers [4:26] 7. Trick or Treat [5:02] 8. Day of the Dead [2:54] 9. Autumn Twilight [3:43] 10. Haunted House [5:13] 11. The Bogeyman [4:06] 12. Things That Go Bump in the Night [4:59] 13. Samhain [5:10] 14. Pranks [4:14] 15. Halloween Partying [5:50] 16. Masquerade [4:27] 17. House of Mystery [5:31] 18. Decorations [4:10] 19. Danse Macabre [6:27] 20. "It Was the Bogeyman" [3:42] 21. End Credits [2:11]