Hi All! I hope you’re well!
This is only my second finished fan cut so please go easy on me haha. I made an extended edit of the Wicker Man (1973) a couple weeks back (which I’m also happy to share if anyone’s interested) and I’ve now completed my own extended cut of Halloween II (1981.) It’s not one of my very favourite films in the franchise, just because there are so many heavy-hitters, but I do think adding back in some of the TV cut scenes helps the flow and the tone of the movie.
I’ve taken all of the TV scenes missing from the higher quality theatrical cut of Halloween 2 and re-inserted them (except from the alternative ending with Laurie and Jimmy in the ambulance, which I prefer on a story level but is kind of disruptive the flow of the final scenes.) These scenes have been cropped and stretched to fit the aspect ratio of the theatrical cut, I’ve also messed with the brightness and colour grading to match with the theatrical cut, but there‘s still a little discrepancy between the two. Some of the scenes also appear in a different order to the TV cut, in order to improve the pacing/flow of the movie (in particular, some of the scene with Laurie and Jimmie appear a little later.)
Some other, more minor changes include:
- The pre-credits title cards (e.g. Moustapha Akkad presents, a Dino Laurentis production etc.) now appear over the closing shots of the houses from ‘78 instead of a black screen, accompanied by the sound of Micheal breathing blended in with the Halloween 2 theme. As the music fades at the end of the credits, the “Trick or Treat” rhyme from the begging of ‘78 can be heard softly. I also added a dissolve effect to transition from the credits to the pov, making the street “appear” in the skull’s eye hole.
- A radio can be heard playing “Don’t Fear the Repear” by Blue Oyster Cult (as well as some of the warnings about Micheal Myers from earlier in the film in the background of the hot-tub scene) and giving some warnings about Micheal Myers coming to Haddonfield (taken and muffled from other parts of the film.)
- The closing credits start playing earlier, scrolling up across the closing shot of the ambulance driving away, before the background fades to black; at the end of the credits, a shot of Micheal’s Mask can be seen burning. More of the Mr. Sandman song is hear than in the official cuts, followed by Don’t Fear the Repear.)
If anyone would be interested in watching it feel free to comment or shoot me a DM! I’m gonna be using SwissTransfer links to share as has been suggested to me as a way to share large files for free, although I’m new to all this and have never been on the receiving end of that, so please do let me know if it works.
Edit: Just learned I can’t send PMs, so I’ll just leave the link here, but please all let me know what you think. It took me a good couple of days to edit it.
https://www.swisstransfer.com/d/4a513ec5-3ec6-4bd5-92df-c415fcfdf0dc