POLL: Regarding the Special Edition of Halloween II (1981)

Michael-Myers.net General Discussion
1

Regarding the Special Edition of Halloween II (1981) Please read my post before voting

  • Would you like a Special “Rosenthal Cut” Edition DVD/Blu-Ray of “Halloween II”?
  • Would you like a remastered Special Edition DVD/Blu-Ray based on the “Theatrical Cut”?
  • Would you like a remastered Special Edition DVD/Blu-Ray of the “Theatrical Cut” with the option of watching Rosenthals scenes restored?
0 voters

Please read before you vote.

It been rumoured for sometime now that Lionsgate are producing a special edition of Halloween II on DVD. Lots of the fans are screaming for this to happen sooner rather than later as even Rosenthal had stated in Fangoria a while back that his cut of the movie would be on the disc…

However I think before we all scream for Rosenthals cut we should read and consider this…

At the last Halloween II Q+A at 30 Years of Terror, fans questioned the cast and crew about the Rosenthal cut. According to them his cut of Halloween II played more like a Psychological thriller with minimum kills, most of them occuring off-screen and was nothing like the TV cut and bears little resemblance to the theatrical cut.

According to Rosenthal in other interviews he has said that Carpenter only came in at the insistence of Akkad, to shoot extra scenes of violence in order to compete with the gorey slasher template that had been then set by “Friday the 13th” and that Carpenter also reshot the finale somewhat.

However Carpenter has said in interviews that during pre-production he asked Rosenthal to do only one thing… To make the movie scary because that’s what the audience expects.

Carpenter then left him to it but when Rosenthal screened his cut Carpenter said it wasn’t scary… he described it as “Pedestrian and predictable”…

Carpenter advised Rosenthal on how to improve it… pointed out problem areas… asked him to recut it… to pace it faster and increase the scare factor… According to Carpenter he even supplied Rosenthal with an excellent editor (Mark Goldblatt) but nothing changed and because Carpenter was the Producer of the movie he had a responsibility to the people who put the money up for it.

Not only that but Universal had refused to distribute the movie based on Rosenthals cut. Carpenter went into the editing room and spent 2 weeks cutting the movie shorter so it would move faster.

He then realised that it needed an opening scare (Alice on the phone) a few connecting sequences for the final chase scenes and some more killings. So he went out and shot the additional material himself.

What we actually have now in the form of the Theatrical is Carpenters cut of the movie even though he didn’t take the credit for it.

Carpenter regrets having to do this to Rosenthal… for reasons that he would hate the same thing done to him but he felt it was necessary to give the fans something more of what they expected.

Makes me wonder what Rosenthals cut of Halloween II is like then, considering that outside of the death scenes and the great climactic chase scene there’s not much more going for it. In fact I think the death scenes and the chase scenes are the best part of it, You can just sense Carpenters style all over them.

Just look at what Rosenthal did to Halloween:Resurrection. That movie is as far from Carpenters original than any of the other sequels in terms of tension, terror and suspense. I think that might just give you a clue as to how Rosenthals cut of Halloween II will be. Maybe Lionsgate feel the same as Universal initially did and are actually doing us a favour by NOT releasing it.

What do you guys think?

2

I would like to see Rosenthal’s cut just for the simple fact that none of us have ever seen it. I’d like to be able to compare both versions to each other. Will it be good? I have no idea, but I still want to see what Rick’s direction for H II is like.

I really hope that Lion’s Gate does something with this. Next year marks the 30th anniversary for HALLOWEEN II & it would be perfect to release a special edition DVD to coincide with that. Until then, I will be keeping my fingers crossed in hopes of getting a decent release for HALLOWEEN II. The versions we have been given so far have been bare bones & crappy. I mean, who put those DVD’s together, teenage punks on drugs? :sunglasses: :laughing: :wink: This film deserves better!

By the way, I chose #3. I’d like to have the option to see Rosenthal’s scenes in the film.

3

I choose #3 or a disk containing both theatrical and the Rosenthal cut remastered to it’s full glory.
Bonus features with alternative/deleted footage not seen in both versions.
Cast/crew interview with behind the scenes stuff.
Photo gallery(Come on Billy K!!)

The TV cut had better character development.
You get to know the characters more and adds up to why they act the way they do.
Would like to see those scenes added in.
I heard that it’s closer to Rosenthal’s version.

4

Exactly what Kaizu states - if they were to re-release a re-mastered version, we really need to have THREE cuts of this movie. The Theatrical, TV and Rosenthal’s cut, just to satisfy the curiosity of the fans.
Hell, even just a remaster BluRay Edition in TRUE Dolby Digital, DTS Lossless would make me happy. But it MUST be remastered!

5

I couldn’t agree more with the above statements. Three cuts would be amazing to be able to view the movie however you want to. As well loading it full of special features would be a plus.

6

Have to agree, a super edition, set would be amazing all 3 cuts and bags of extras.

7

I WANT IT ALLLL!!!

mike

8

I agree. I think if Rob Zombie can release two 120 minute “Halloween” movies we can more than handle a cut of Halloween II that moves at a slower pace but with more character development… I think audiences now almost expect a movie to be closer to two hours than just 90 minutes.

9

I want the mix-I want The Theatrical with the TV and Rosenthal’s Cut scene in it! This way, we get all the gore and scares(JC-Cut) and all the lovely character stuff(RR/TV-Cut). Anchor Bay did this with Halloween:The Extended Cut so I hope an agreement can be reached for this too! :prayer: Halloween II:The Ultimate Cut :prayer:

10

the version of resurrection that was in theatres and dvd IS NOT rosenthals cut, if you have seen it like i have you can take the resurrection is bad angle right out of the equation, he didnt film it that way it was butchered to hell


his cut of h2 is probably closer to the tv version than theatrical and i like that better

i say bring it on!

11

It’s kind of a no brainer, but still a creative topic. Interesting… Nice one. Option 3 bye the way. :wink:

12

I’ve seen all the cuts of Resurrection and none of them deserve the title “Halloween” in my opinion…

In fairness to Rosenthal, the script was weak and flawed to begin with and it had plot holes big enough to fit all the planets through.

Firstly, when Michael grabs his mask as a means to remind Laurie of the “H20” moment just before she decapitated the “Pseudo Michael”. My God… How the hell did Michael know “Pseudo Michael” did that?! Are we meant to believe that Michael witnessed this moment hiding in the bushes… that he knew the exact spot where Laurie was gonna drive the ambulance over the cliff and get there just in time… It undermines the intelligence of the series’ fans never mind the whole “Pseudo Michael” contrivance to begin with…

Then they show Michael walk into the bushes… WITH A FULL HEAD OF HAIR!!! WTF?.. Now forgive me if I’m mistaken but I recall John in “H20” reiterating to his mother how she told him she watched Michael burn… So that was the evening he was wearing that fire retardant hair gel then?

The chase scene between Michael Myers and Laurie Strode was devoid of any tension or suspense… For Gods sake it was the final chase scene between Mr Myers and Jamie Lee Curtis. It should have been fireworks… something to rival the original chase scene but under Rosenthal’s Direction it just turned out barren and lacklustre.

Then it had the problem of the Myers house… It’s not a big house so if people are being killed off one by one while inside it, you would definitely hear them scream and certainly hear mirrors breaking etc…

The biggest problem I think with Resurrection though is that there were too many characters introduced into the movie too late in the proceedings and not enough time to develop them. They should have cut half the cast and took a little more time to develop the remainder, build up to events of that night, just like in the original, slow but purposeful… It had potential… I mean in the original Myers was without motive to any of his victims so It could’ve worked just as well here.

13

maybe i didnt quite say what i meant to say, by no means is resurrection a winner BUT the original kills and plot with the stolen car etc were much better in his cut

all i was pointing out was that his cut was much better than what we got

good movie? nope far from it! better than what it turned out to be? yep!

if a script sucks it sucks but what can you do except work with what you got? also in this day and age of test screenings when 15 year olds decide what stays and goes in a movie and reshoots are forced what can you do? take it where the sun dont shine and move on


since JC was behind H2 you can expect he had a much better script etc to work with since most of the theatrical cut and tv cut were rosenthals scenes im fully confident that his cut of h2 would blow resurrection out of the water and be worth seeing in that form

if theres less kills so what, the body count was much lower in JCs masterpiece and i dont see anyone saying “ya know it would have been better if there were 10 more deaths”

also in rosenthals defense in his cut of h2 he tried to make it like the original halloween, suspense, characters, low body count and low gore, JC is the one that deviated from the original formula, is that a reason to not want to see it?

i guess in all my rambling what im saying is you cant compare the 2 movies because the same director did them, the scripts and people behind the scenes were different

14

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, sadly Universal Studios isn’t licensing out “Halloween II” or any other movies for that matter that they own. Universal Studios learned a hard lesson from Anchor Bay when they received several licenses on Universal Studios titles one specifically, “Army of Darkness.” Universal was only paid one payment on that particular title due to how the contract was written and Anchor Bay made millions releasing the movie in different versions; that was not written about in the contract and now Universal has learned from their mistakes and no longer license’s out titles; several reasons why Anchor Bay isn’t doing any Universal titles any longer and a very good reason why Anchor Bay cleaned house and got rid of a lot of employees.

It has been discussed, much like the Warner Bros Club, that certain movies will be released in a Universal “club” form; you have to pay to be a member. Bluray would be the optimum format. Lesser known titles would get the Bluray treatment and Universal would make their money immediately knowing how many to make instead of releasing it and doing the “buy back” at the end of the year on titles that didn’t sell well. Sadly, special editions don’t really happen; just a bear bones disc being limited would be that satisfaction of having a high definition copy to everyone else’s DVD.

15

Theatrical, TV and Rosenthal’s cut on a 2-disc special edition. Complete with interviews, behind the scenes footage and a special featurette with Dick Warlock, John Carptenter, and TLW talking about the mask!! (oh yeah, and another shot of nurse Karen’s Ta-Ta’s! :mrgreen:)

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Also, when she paused and said “I have to be sure”, I was thinking that this guy(if it really wasn’t Michael) broke into your room in the dead of night and attacked you with a knife!!! So, sweetie, Michael Myers or not you have every right to drop him off a roof to his death. And why did Laurie believe that Michael would die from the fall when shooting him eight times in the face and chest, stabing him in the eyes, neck and chest, and BLOWING HIM UP failed?

17

then why wouldnt they “learn their lesson” and just release the damn thing themselves, make millions and everyones happy, i mean compared to the other movies in the series my goodtimes dvd just aint cutting it anymore

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How the hell would she recognize him any how?

19

Maybe she would just know, I’m not sure.

20

_Here is the petition for H2. http://www.theburningleaf.com/tbl/?page_id=30

Check it out and be sure to sign it. It may help the cause.

You never know.

My vote in this pole goes for the last one._