Halloween: 25 Years of Terror

This insightful, well made documentary is about the groundbreaking horror classic "Halloween" and its seven sequels. Which this feature has interesting interviews with several of the cast and crew of each "Halloween" movie, including Michael Myers less sequel "Halloween 3:Season of the Witch". This is a true story of what went great and the controversies, they had with these pictures. This DVD also has interviews with the die hard fans of the original like Rob Zombie (The Devil's Rejects), Clive Barker (Hellraiser) and Edgar Whight (Shaun of the Dead).

DVD has an sharp full frame (1.33:1) presentation and an fine-Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround Sound. Beside the very good documentary, this 2-disc set is packed with extended interviews with the well respected sequel to "Halloween" and the oddball third film, extended celebrity interviews, several behind the scenes footage of the Halloween movies, terrific Panel discussions and a whole lot more.

What makes this DVD special is genuinely feel that this documentary is certainly made with care. It is also surprisingly funny to see the real fans of these movies (Which it was filmed in California at the "Return to Haddonfield Convention" back in 2003). Which makes you realize how special the Halloween movies are. DVD also included a collector's booklet and a bonus comic book. Since the late executive producer of the series:Moustapha Akkad (Who passed away in 2005) managed to succeed to keep the franchise alive and had every reason to be proud. Even from non-fans of the series will certainly enjoy it. (****/*****).

Everything you always wanted to know but were afraid to ask will be solved with this DVD issue. It's in the same way as the documentary of Jason Voorhees but it's in some way better, I mean, when some actors refer to a scene you actually see the scene. Some interviews are a bit too deep in explaining things but I guess if you are really a Halloween geek you will love it. For me it was very interesting to hear why some editions failed and why for example part 6 has two different versions, one that's out on DVD and strangely a more bloodier part that is called the 'producer's cut'. Also nice to hear what happened to the original Myers house, you will see all the locations that still exist and others that are gone or completely changed. A must have for the Halloween geeks.

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!!

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.