Halloween: 25 Years of Terror

If you're a fan of the "Halloween" series, this is most definitely the ultimate Halloween documentary you've been waiting for. The 80 minute feature is an excellent compilation of interviews with all those involved with every film (so far) in the series, with extensive behind-the-scenes takes and very informative input from cast and crew, all excellently narrated by P.J. Soles (who played Lynda in the original "Halloween"). The documentary is topped off with footage from the "Return to Haddonfield" Halloween convention in Pasadena, California, which consisted of panel discussions and interviews with the cast and filmmakers of each of the movies, where fans could come together and meet those who were a part of creating some of their favorite movies.

Basically, if you are a fan of the series, this 2 disc DVD-released documentary is a must have. It's very informative and gives you a lot of great info on the making of the movies. It was nice to see all of the cast and filmmakers from all the films come together to compile such an interesting documentary. Very well done, every Halloween fan must see this. 10/10.

Halloween: 25 Years of Terror (2006)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

An all too short but still entertaining documentary that tries to take a look at the entire run of HALLOWEEN movies. Just about everyone you could hope for shows up in interviews but when you're trying to cram all of these films into 83-minutes obviously you're not going to be able to give each film a lot of respect or detail. The first eight movies are looked at with interviews from a wide range of people from the best known in the series to those who just played small parts. Some of those interviewed include Moustapha Akkad, John Carpenter, Dean Cundy, Bianca Kajlich, Nick Castle, Rob Zombie, Tom Atkins, Danielle Harris, Edgar Wright, Rick Rosenthal, Clive Barker, Nancy Loomis and many, many others. Again, covering so much ground in such a short time is impossible but I still think fans will enjoy this. While it doesn't go into any great detail I do think it offers up enough good interviews to make it worth viewing. It also doesn't hurt that so many cast members return for the interviews and we get some honest remarks by producer Akkad who admits to certain mistakes made in the series. This includes rushing HALLOWEEN 5 into theaters and there's also talk about the issues surrounding HALLOWEEN: THE CURSE OF MICHAEL MYERS and how things got so messed up. We even hear about the various problems with the mask on HALLOWEEN: H20 and why more than four were used. Some of the best moments deal with the fans of the series as we see some wild ones, weird ones and some that are just downright creepy. This here leads to a discussion with some of the actresses talk about being stalked by fans and there's talk about what impact horror films and violence has on the public. The documentary also does a very good job at explaining each film in its limited time so those that aren't familiar with it will be able to watch this and see what all the fuss is about.

Recently I binge watched all of the Friday 13th movies I hadn't seen (Which was most) followed by the documentaries. I always found them underwhelming but watchable.

Halloween however I've never liked, not a single one of the entries did anything for me at all so what chance did a documentary stand? Crystal Lake Memories was the pinnacle of Friday 13th documentaries standing at 5hrs and was a fantastic piece of work. 25 Years Of Terror emulates that but on a smaller scale.

It covers the first 8 movies, gives you a small background on each before moving onto the next so it might not enlighten you as much as you'd hope.

With backstage footage, horror-con access and more there is certainly plenty of material for fans but nothing as ground breaking as they did for Friday 13th.

Essentially viewing for fans? Not really, but it's harmless enough if only for the Danielle Harris interviews.

The Good:

Danielle Harris

Some interesting background on each film

The Bad:

PJ Soles narration is awful

Some of the fan videos are cringe inducing

Things I Learnt From This Documentary:

Halloween fans are lunatics

Michael Myers was a lot funnier as Austin Powers

I enjoyed H25 a lot, both as a Halloween fan and a documentary maker myself. Chock full of cool information and rare tidbits, this one is, to my knowledge, really the first out of the gate in terms of a fan-made FULL retrospective on a film. Not just covering the production stories, or the fan base, or some other aspect exclusively -- but it's really a full-orbit "all-things-Halloween" documentary. Very well crafted and interesting from start to finish. The appropriately somber, even chilling, narration by P.J. Soles is a great touch. Though I am not a fan of Halloween in terms of it's entire franchise... essentially from H3 onward, in my opinion, I was nevertheless equally intrigued with the stories and info on the later films of the series, which I think speaks to the quality of the show's craft. Also quite fascinating was the coverage of fans and the activities attending the first Halloween convention in 2003. Certainly a must-have for any fan of "Halloween" but also for cinema enthusiasts. Particularly those who enjoy the wave of groundbreaking films from the seventies among which was this first classic monsterpiece that started it all.

Erik

As many horror fans now, a new sub-genre (if you will) has started in the horror genre.The retrospective documentary on famous horror franchises.There's been one for Friday The 13th,A Nightmare on Elm Street,Psycho and there's even one in production for Hellraiser.But it all started with Halloween:25 Years of Terror.Production for this documentary started back in October 2003 when the H25 convention was happening.It's great to have footage from the convention to go along with the documentary.P.J. Soles does a great job of narrating.She has a natural speaking voice that is nice to listen to.With this documentary you get tons of interviews with cast and crew from all 8 films.Even all the actors who played Michael Myers!! It's an entertaining and informative documentary that every Halloween fan should see.Even the hard core fans will find something new.As great as this documentary was, I think it should been way longer than 84 minutes.I also felt that they could have spent a little bit more time on Halloween 3 and 4.But besides that it's a fantastic documentary that lets you explore 25 years of Michael Myers and the Halloween movies!!