Watching Halloween on Blu-Ray

Yay! I'm back to work. Thankfully, as I was getting a bit stir-crazy at home.

Last weekend, my buddies Drew and Bill had a few of us over for a late evening cookout. It was a spontaneous thing with little notice. Brian (cincycub) was there and so was a new guy, a 23-year old cubby named Jordan. So after dinner, we went to the living room to watch a movie. Bill had just received the 35th anniversary edition of "Halloween" from 1978, so we coerced his other half to sit through it with us.

I have to admit, the new Blu-ray version was crystal clear on their HD television. You could see everything, the leaves on the trees, the knit of the outfit, etc. It's strange to see such detail on a movie filmed that long ago. Everything also seemed brighter, which was one of the complaints online was that the special blue filter they used to make it look like fall was supposedly gone.

What struck me so odd was that the improvements that made the movie seem so clear and detailed also made the movie appear cheaply done. I know it was an independent movie done on a shoestring budget, but the original version hides a lot of imperfections that the new HD detail seems to bring forward. The movie is still fun to watch, but it almost looks like it was filmed with a hand-held camera.

The best part was watching it with friends after drinking a few beers and critiquing certain parts:

• "If Laurie looked out the window to see a guy across the street in a mask staring at her, why doesn't she scream?"
  
  
• As Annie and Laurie are driving to their respective babysitting gigs, they are sharing a joint. Annie freaks out when she sees her dad, the sheriff, at the hardware store that has been burglarized. She quickly tries to get rid of the joint. Drew asked, "surely she realizes that she doesn't have to stop, right? She could just drive on by as her dad is busy."
  
  
• We think that the Sheriff and Dr. Loomis are having a thing, since they are spending so much time together in the bushes.
  
  
• Dr. Loomis finally turns around and sees the state car that Michael stole right behind him, parked on the street, even though he's been hiding in the same bushes for hours and never looked around.

Even more fun was explaining the older stuff to the 23-year-old, such as a rotary dial phone, how taking a phone off the hook would prevent it from ringing, why there is a phone booth in the middle of nowhere for people to use, etc.

I liked the remastered movie, despite the flaws I see in it. I ordered it from Amazon today.