ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 (1976) (Second Sight Blu-ray Review)

ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 (1976)
40th Anniversary Edition Limited Edition Boxset 

Label: Second Sight Films
Release Date: November 28th 2016 
Region Code: Region B Locked 
Duration: 91 Minutes
Rating: 15 Certificate (Uncut) 
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and Uncompressed PCM Original Mono with Optional English SDH Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1) 
Director: John Carpenter
Cast: Austin Stoker, Darwin Joston, Laurie Zimmer, Nancy Loomis, Tony Burton, Peter Franklin, Charles Cypher

John Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13 is a stone-cold cult-classic executed with near gritty perfection by one of cinema's great genre directors. On a fateful night in Los Angeles three disparate elements converge on the decommissioned police station Precinct 13. What transpires is a white-knuckle thrill ride packed with claustrophobic atmosphere and sweaty tension, a cult-classic in the truest sense of the phrase.

Newly promoted Lieutenant Ethan Bishop (Austin Stoker, Horror High) is assigned to oversee the decommissioning of a police during its last few hours of operation. The skeleton crew staffing the station are Captain Chaney (Henry Brandon, The War of the Worlds), the station's two cute, sweater-bound secretaries, Leigh (Laurie Zimmer, A Dirty Story) and Julie (Nancy Loomis, Halloween), plus Lt. Bishop. It seems like a pretty easy gig from the onset but things have a way of turning bad real quick when you least expect it. 

Things  seems mundane for Bishop and the crew for the first few hours of their shift until a correctional bus transporting three prisoners arrives at the station seeking medical attention for one of the inmates who has fallen ill. Also on the bus is a notorious murderer named Napoleon Wilson (Darwin Joston, Eraserhead) who is on his way to Death Row, plus inmates Wells (Tony Burton, The Magnificent Seven), and Caudell (Peter Franklin, The Puppet Master), correctional officer Starker (Charles Cyphers, Escape from New York) and the driver of the bus.

On the same night not far away the warlords of multiracial L.A. gang Street Thunder have declared war on the city Los Angeles in retaliation for for the death of a few of their own who were ambushed by the LAPD earlier in the night. They thugs drive through the streets of the city looking for random victims when they happen upon an ice cream truck driver parked on the side of the street. They open fire, in the aftermath a young girl (Kim Richards, Escape from Witch Mountain) lays dead in the street. This is still such a shocking scene of violence, even after many watches this still packs a visceral punch to it. The grieving an enraged father of the young girl pursues the gang through the streets, eventually catching-up to them and killing one of the warlords. Now on foot he is chased by the remaining gang members, winding up on the steps of the 13th Precinct. Once inside he collapses and is unable to relay what has happened, without warning the gang lay siege to the precinct beginning with a spray of silenced gunfire killing several officers and a few prisoners in very short order.

With the power and communications cut off and with precious few alternatives left to him Bishop unchains the surviving prisoners in a desperate attempt to thwart certain death. The movie is a bit slow to start as the three story lines slowly converge but once the white-knuckle action sets in it never slows down. The tension is oppressive as the good guys find themselves somewhat hopelessly holed-up in the precinct with very few weapons, cut off from the world and with no help on the way they must fight or die. Bishop and his ragtag crew don't seem to have a snowball's chance in Hell of surviving this urban skirmish, at times it does start to feel like Carpenter borrowed a page from George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968) in that respect, but maybe that is just because I've never watched Rio Bravo (1959) on which this is largely patterned

Assault on Precinct 13 was John Carpenter's first movie, unless you count the sci-fi comedy Dark Star which he co-directed with Dan O'Bannon (Return of the Living Dead). It's early stuff but already we can see many of what would become known as his trademarks, creating a very real sense of isolation and dread and a realistic approach to urban action. The movie is nicely shot in the super wide Carpenter-Vision (2.35) aspect ratio with a sweet Carpenter synth-score, which features a totally bad ass main theme that immediately sets a dark urban tone, I think outside of the Halloween main theme this is one of Carpenter's most recognizable pieces of music. 

The cast is superb, the wry relationship between Lt. Bishop and killer Napoleon is fun stuff, particularly Joston as the wise cracking antihero always asking to bum a smoke from everyone. He's right up there with Snake Plissken (Escape from New York) as one of Carpenter's most iconic anti-hero figures and the wry banter back and forth between the two makes for great viewing. While not a huge role the hypnotic Laurie Zimmer appears as one of the sexy sweater-bound secretaries trapped in the precinct and there's some tasty sexual tension between her character and the killer Napoleon. The actress has a certain Lauren Bacall type charm about her with cool demeanor and stunning blue eyes, not to mention the woman can really rock a sweater. 

Blu-ray: Assault of Precinct 13 (1975) comes to UK Blu-ray from Second Sight Films with a fantastic 1080p HD widescreen (2.35:1) transfer. Colors are vibrant with strong black levels, a few of the darker scenes can be a bit grainy but overall this looks wonderful with some nice crisp texture and fine detail. I do believe this is the same HD master as was used by US distributor Scream Factory for their Collector's Edition Blu-ray with some additional clean-up and restoration work performed by Second Sight to remove additional dirt and scratches and the results are wonderful, the movie has never looked better on Blu-ray. 

The disc comes with English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and an uncompressed PCM Original Mono mix for the purist. Dialogue comes through crisp and clean, and the snarling John Carpenter synth-driven score sounds superb. The surround is predominantly front heavy but the surround does open it up a bit, particularly with the score bleeding into the surrounds. Optional English subtitles are provided. 

Second Sight have put together an epic 4oth Anniversary edition of the movie licensing all the Scream Factory extras including two audio commentaries and throwing in a few more. We have the original John Carpenter commentary which is still one of my favorite non-Kurt Russell commentaries from Carpenter. The second commentary is with Art Director and Sound Effects Editor Tommy Lee Wallace which is moderated by Michael Felsher of Red Shirt Pictures. Wallace has some great stories to tell about collaboration with Carpenter, the different locations and his career making movies. Michael Felsher does a great job keeping the conversation on track and interesting.

Another carry-over from the Scream Factory release is the 2002 interview with Carpenter and star Austin Stoker after a screening of the film at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood. Carpenter fields questions from the audience and touches on the origins of the movie and what it was like shooting is first solo-directed feature. Carpenter is funny with some fun anecdotes, including one on how he skirted an x-rating from the MPAA. He also touches on his influence on filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino and Guy Ritchie, recording the score and his post Dark Star relationship with the now late Dan O'Bannon. Also carried over are the Red Shirt produced video interviews with actors Nancy Loomis and Austin Stoker adding up to about 35-minutes. Stoker goes into his early careers and working with Carpenter on the film, a particular scene he'd like to go back and switch-up a bit. Loomis also touches on her early career, Carpenter's original plan to make a western, the location, her character and life after acting plus the whole convention experience.

Second Sight have also included three brand-new video interviews produced by Severin Films for this release. We get new interviews with Austin Stoker (10 Mins), Producer Joseph Kaufman (16 Mins) and Tommy Lee Wallace (22 Mins) all recorded in 2016. Exclusive to this release is the inclusion of John Carpenter's early student films, the eight-minute short 'Captain Voyeur' which was unearthed by archivist Dino Everett at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts. Now honestly this is not some lost Carpenter masterpiece but the rough short does feature some of the themes we've come to associate with the director. The short follows the ill-fated adventure of a peeping-tom over the course of a night. Extras on the disc are finished-up with a trailer, radio spots and a weird French documentary 'Do You Remember Laurie Zimmer?' (2003) in which filmmaker Charlotte Szlovak attempts to find the elusive actress who seemingly fell of the face of the earth shortly after this movie. 

We were sent only a 'check disc' for this release but the limited edition box set also includes five art cards and a bonus CD soundtrack of the menacing Carpenter score. This is a mighty stacked Blu-ray with loads of cool extras, Second Sight have put a lot of love into this Carpenter cult-classic. 

Limited Edition Special Features
- Newly Restored from High Definition 1080p Transfer
- DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and Uncompressed PCM Original Mono Audio Options
- Return to Precinct 13: A new Interview with Austin Stoker (10 Mins) 
- Producing Precinct 13: A new Interview with Joseph Kaufman (16 Mins) 
- Filmmaking with John: A new interview with Tommy Lee Wallace (22 Mins) 
- Captain Voyeur: John Carpenter student short (Blu-ray exclusive) (8 Mins) 
- Do You Remember Laurie Zimmer documentary film (Blu-ray exclusive) (54 Mins) 
- Interview with John Carpenter and Austin Stoker (23 Mins) 
- The Sassy One with Nancy Loomis (13 Mins) 
- Audio Commentary with Writer/Director John Carpenter
- Audio Commentary with Tommy Lee Wallace moderated by Michael Felsher of Red Shirt Pictures 
- Trailer (2 Mins) HD 
- Radio Spots (1 Mins) 
- 5 Art Cards (Limited Edition box set exclusive)
- Bonus CD Soundtrack Disc (Limited Edition box set exclusive)

Assault On Precinct 13 (1976) is an action-packed white knuckler that starts off a bit slow but once things pick-up this siege classic proves to be one Hell of a tense ride. Second Sight have knocked it out of the park with their 40th Anniversary Limited Edition Boxset, this is the definitive version of the movie, this is the one to own. highly recommended. 

Blu-ray Review: ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 (1976)

ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 (1976) 

Collector's Edition Blu-ray

Label: Scream Factory / Shout! Factory

Region Code: A

Duration: 91 Minutes

Rating: R

Audio: DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 with Optional English SDH Subtuitles

Video: 1080p Widescreen

Director: John Carpenter

Cast: Austin Stoker, Darwin Joston, Laurie Zimmer, Nancy Loomis, Tony Burton, Peter Franklin, Cgarles Cypher 

John Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13 is deceptively simplistic siege-classic executed with gritty perfection. On a fateful night three disparate elements converge on the titular decommissioned police station in L.A., what transpires is a white-knuckle thriller packed with claustrophobic atmosphere and sweaty tension, definitely a true cult-classic.

Newly promoted Lieutenant Ethan Bishop (Austin Stoker, Horror High) is assigned to oversee the decommissioning of a police station during its last few hours, there's only a skeleton crew manning the station; Captain Chaney (Henry Brandon, The War of the Worlds) and the station's two cute, sweater-bound secretaries, Leigh (Laurie Zimmer, A Dirty Story) and Julie (Nancy Loomis, Halloween). It seems like a pretty east gig but things have a way of turning for the worse now don't they? 

Things at the station are pretty low-key until a prison bus transporting three prisoners arrives seeking medical attention for one of the convicts. On this particular bus is the notorious murderer Napoleon Wilson (Darwin Joston, Eraserhead) on his way to Death Row, he's joined by Wells (Tony Burton, The Magnificent Seven), and Caudell (Peter Franklin, The Puppet Master), plus correctional officer Starker (Charles Cyphers, Escape from New York) and the bus driver. 

At the same time not too far away the warlords of the multi-racial L.A. gang Street Thunder have declared war on the city of Los Angles in retaliation for for the death of its gang members who were ambushed by the LAPD. They drive the streets of the ghetto looking for random victims when they happen upon an ice cream truck driver parked on the side of the street, in the aftermath a young girl lays dead in the street (a shocking scenario!). The young girls enraged father pursues the gang through the streets, eventually catching-up and killing one of the warlords. Now on foot he is chased by the remaining gang members to the 13th Precinct. Once inside he collapses in a state of shock and is unable to relay what is happening. Without warning the gang lay siege to the building beginning with a spray of silenced gunfire killing several officers and prisoners in very short order. 

With the power cut and the phone lines dead and with precious few alternatives Bishop unchains the surviving prisoners in a desperate attempt to thwart certain death. That's pretty much the entire film, it's pretty simple stuff and while it's a bit of a slow start as the three story lines are established once they converge this pot-boiler never looks back. The tension is oppressive as they are holed-up in the precinct with very few weapons, cut off from the world. In contrast the gang have large numbers of armed members with no fear of death, Bishop and his ragtag crew don't seem to have a snowball's chance in Hell of surviving this skirmish. Street Thunder are relentless and unflinching, devoid of humanity, it really does start to feel like a page from George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968) in that respect. 

Assault on Precinct 13 was John Carpenter's first feature out of film school but we see many of 

what would become his trademarks, a very real sense of isolation, it's gritty and realistic approach, gorgeously shot in Carpenter-Vision aspect ratio plus we get a sweet Carpenter synth-score featuring a totally bad ass main theme that immediately sets a dark urban tone, it's one of his most recognizable pieces, a stone-cold classic. 

The cast of relative unknowns is very strong, the relationship between Lt. Bishop and Napoleon is fun stuff, particularly Joston as the wise cracking anti-hero always trying to bum a smoke. He's right up there with Snake Plisken (Escape from New York) as one of Carpenter's most iconic anti-hero figures and the wry banter back and forth between the two is great stuff, the two have a great chemistry. Laurie Zimmer appears as one of the secretaries trapped in the precinct and there's some simmering sexual tension between her character and Napoleon, it's a nice touch.

Blu-ray: Assault of Precinct 13 (1975) comes to Blu-ray from Shout Factory horror imprint Scream Factory with a very pleasing 1080p widescreen (2.35:1) transfer, considering the low budget origins of the movie colors are strong and black levels are pretty decent, a few of the darker scenes can be grain heavy but not it's not awful and I welcome a nice health layer pf natural film grain which is what we have here. The elements used for the master were in excellent shape, there were very few instances of print damage, just some minor speckling. 

Om he audio front we have two options, the original DTS-HD Master Audio Mono for the purists and a potent DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix which sounds fantastic. It has more presence and oomph than the 2.0 mono and John Carpenters menacing synth-driven score sounds fantastic, this time around I preferred the 5.1 which while predominantly front heavy does open it up a bit.

Onto the special features we begin with the commentary from the previous DVD edition with John Carpenter, it's still one of my favorite non-Kurt Russel commentaries from Carpenter who goes into great detail about making the movie, budget issues, locations and some great anecdotes, this is a top-notch commentary and it's great to see it carried over. 

Also carried over from the previous DVD release is a 2002 interview with Carpenter and star Austin Stoker following a screening of the film at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, it's good stuff with Carpenter fielding questions from the audience and explaining the origins of the project and what it was like shooting is first solo-directed feature. Carpenter is in fine form here, very funny with some great anecdote about skirting an x-rating from the MPAA, his influence on Tarantino and Guy Richie, recording the score and his post Dark star relationship with Dan O'Bannon.  

Onto the new features we have a new audio commentary from  Art Director and Sound Effects Editor Tommy Lee Wallace moderated by Michael Felsher of Red Shirt Pictures, it's another fun with Wallace going into some great stories about collaboration with Carpenter, the different locations and his career. Special features producer Michael Felsher does a great job keeping the track going, prompting Wallace from time to time and asking the questions fans would want to know, good stuff. 

Red Shirt Pictures have also produced two brand-new featurettes with stars Nancy Loomis and Austin Stoker. Stoker goes into his early careers and working with Carpenter on the film, a particular scene he'd like to go back and switch-up a bit. Loomis also touches on her early career, Carpenter's original plan to make a western, the location, her character and life after acting plus the convention experience. 

Extras are finished off with an isolated music score featuring Carpenter's bad-ass synth score, a theatrical trailer, still gallery and radio spots for the film. Scream Factory have done an outstanding job so far with these John Carpenter re-issues on Blu-ray, hope to see more soon!

Special Features:

- Audio Commentary with writer/director John Carpenter
- NEW Audio Commentary with Art Director and Sound Effects Editor Tommy Lee Wallace
- NEW interview with actress Nancy Loomis Kyes (12:43)
- NEW interview with actor Austin Stoker (7:48)
- Interview with John Carpenter and Austin Stoker(23:07)
- Theatrical Trailer (2:03)
- Radio Spots (1:04)
- Gallery (3:20)

Verdict: Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) is a white knuckle cult-thriller, it starts off a bit slow but once things pick-up it's pretty relentless, a siege classic and one Hell of a tense ride. Scream Factory's new Collector's Edition Blu-ray is a top notch presentation, yet another John Carpenter classic gets a sweet 1080p edition with some great value-added extras, a no-brainer, buy it! 4 Outta 5 

Blu-ray Review: HALLOWEEN (1978) 35th Anniversary Edition

HALLOWEEN (1978)

35th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray

Label: Anchor Bay Entertainment 
Region Code: A
Rating: R

Duration: 92 minutes
Video: 1080p Widescreen (2.35:1)

Audio: Dolby TrueHD 7.1. Original Mono with Optional English SDH Subtitles 

Cast: Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Pleasance, P.J. Soles, Nancy Loomis

Director: John Carpenter

Synopsis: In 1978, Compass International Pictures released an indie horror film by an up and coming director and a largely unknown cast. Presented by the late Moustapha Akkad, the film cost $325,000 and ended up not only becoming one of the most successful independent motion pictures of its time, but single handedly created the genre of the modern horror film along with the first iconic (via a painted-over William Shatner mask) cinematic slasher!

The idea is simplicity itself, why no one thought to make Halloween-themed slasher before John Carpenter did in 1978 is actually a bit odd now that I think about it. Sure, Bob Clark's xmas proto-slasher Black Christmas (1974) might have begun the holiday-themed deathride a few years earlier, but Carpenter nailed Halloween first and best, period.

Halloween (1978) as if you didn't already know, for fuck's sake I hope you know, concerns a young man named Michael Myers whom one Halloween night 1963 just up and snapped, he put on a clown mask and slashed his promiscuous teen sister to death with a butcher knife, afterward he is sent away to Smith's Grove Sanitarium where he remains for 15 years, until he escapes, returning to the Haddonfield, Illinois to murder again... and again. 

His psychiatrist Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasance, Cul-De-Sac) knows just where Myers is headed, but when he warns the local Haddonfield police they don't seem overly concerned about the dead-eyed murderer coming to town, and just in time for Halloween, too. 

Local teen Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis, Terror Train) is babysitting young Tommy Doyle (Brian Andrews, Angel Dusted) while across the street her friend Annie (Nancy Kyes, The Fog) babysits Lindsey (Kyle Richards, The Watcher in the Woods), but when Annie takes off to pick-up her boyfriend Paul she drops the young girl off with Laurie, setting up one of the most unforgettable slasher classics of all time. 

John Carpenter's Halloween (1978) is a superb, tightly-knit chiller with a cold, motiveless killer and a group of likable Mid West teens who for whatever reason are caught up in a fateful night of murder, and the kills while mostly bloodless are just as effective and brutal even after countless watches. Jamie Lee Curtis is great as the naive good girl, she pretty much set the gold standard for the final girl in slasher films for the next twenty years, her piercing screams are unforgettable. Of course, every good girl has to have a few promiscuous friends, enter P.J. Soles (Animal House) as the sex-loving Lynda, who quips "totally" in the cutest way ever, her death scene is a bogeyman classic, and when her boyfriend Bob's demise is perfectly executed and brutal. The body count here is not the stuff of legend but their impact is devastating, you actually care for these characters quite a bit. My favorite death has always been Annie, she jumps in her car to pick-up her boyfriend when she realizes something odd about the windshield, there's condensation on the inside, just as she realizes she might not be alone... too late, a classic death.

Carpenter originally wanted Hammer icon Christopher Lee (Dracula: Prince of Darkness) or Peter Cushing (Horror Express) for the role of Dr. Loomis but instead ended-up with Donald Pleasance whom already had a storied career including memorable appearances in Roman Polanski's Cul-De-Sac (1966), Raw Meat (1973) and the Amicus horror anthology From Beyond the Grave (1974) but this is the role that would cement his place forever in the annals of horror cinema, even if his performance in a few the later sequels bordered overwrought parody, in Halloween (1978) he was pure perfection showing concern, frustration and anxiety in just the right amounts. 

Even after 35 years John Carpenter's Halloween (1978) is a perfectly scary watch, it's a tense, atmospheric suburban-nightmare, a group of teens versus a killer with no discernible motive, he's a shape, the shape of evil and he's coming to your town and there's very little you can do to stop him. Damn, when I saw this on TV as a kid trick or treating on Halloween night was just scarier, I would see that white mask emerging form every damn shadow on the street, it really affected me and while I'm a bit old for trick or treating and I don't see Myers peering at me from the shadows anymore Halloween is still the best damned slasher ever made.

Blu-ray: For this 35th Anniversary Edition of John Carpenter's seminal slasher classic Anchor Bay went back to the vault and creating an brand-new HD transfer supervised by the film’s original cinematographer, the Prince of Darkness himself, Dean Cundey and what we get is quite a step-up from the previous Anchor Bay Blu-ray I am pleased to report. There's a nice fine layer of film grain present throughout, no grain-scrubbing here, we get a crisp image with a pleasing amount of fine detail, it's wonderful. The brightness had been toned down quite a bit, the previous Blu suffered a bit with brightness boosting and hot skin tones, this is a more natural and pleasing image, fans are gonna be thrilled by the new transfer. 

Audio options include a newly minted Dolby TrueHD 7.1 and the Original Mono with Optional Spanish and English SDH Subtitles, and like the transfer it's quite nice beginning with John Carpenter's iconic score, it's one of the most recognizable pieces of film music with good reason, the chilling piano and the deep throb of the low-end, it's a thing of beauty, the Blue Oyster Cult's "Don't Fear the Reaper" has never sounded better. Score, dialogue and effects come through clean, well-balanced and with nice clarity, the 7.1 definitely adds some atmosphere and depth to the proceedings, I far prefer it to the original mono, so I am not an absolute purist in the audio department, I do enjoy a decent surround remix and I think this one's done very well. 

Fantastic transfer and engaging 7.1 aside let's have a look at what the 35th is packing in terms of extras beginning with a brand new audio commentary with writer/director John Carpenter and star Jamie Lee Curtis, not a lot of new revelations here but it's great to hear these two sit down and watch/discuss the film. 

 “The Night She Came Home” (59:43) is a new featurette with Jamie Lee Curtis detailing her one and only horror convention appearance to help support her charity causes, it's a fun watch as we see the fans line-up and pour on the love for Curtis while she shows much love and respect for fans of the film. I do recall hearing about this convention appearance a few months back and there was some negative buzz about the prices she was charging for photo ops and this answered a lot of those criticisms for me. It pretty much covers every facet of her appearance from pre-arrival to post-convention, going into this I was bummed it wasn't a new doc about the film but I was thoroughly  entertained. 

Anchor Bay dig up a vintage featurette with On Location: 25 Years Later (10:25), a narrated extra revisiting the South Pasadena locations with contributions from producer Debra Hill and actress P.J. Soles, it's sorta a mini-making of doc that also touches on the casting and genesis of the film. 

Not sure how I've avoided seeing the TV Version of the film for so long but included on the disc are the Additional Scenes from TV Version (10:46) which was an interesting watch having never seen 'em, but I was also a bit disappointed that the 35th Anniversary Edition did not offer he TV Version as a branching option instead of separate from the film, not that they're all that fantastic but just something for the fans, a more definitive edition. 

The last of the extras on the disc are a selection of trailers, TV spots and radio spots, love me some radio spots and pleased they included them here. Onto the packaging this limited edition release comes in Digibook-styled case with foil lettering and new artwork from artist Jay Shaw, it also features a 20-page essay with writing on the film by film historian Stef Hutchinson, there's some great behind-the-scenes photographs, it's a good read. Love how when you open the cover the first image you see is the iconic theatrical artwork, something I didn't love so much is the way the disc slips into cardboard envelope on the inside back cover of the Digibook, not a fan of slip-ins, much prefer snap-ons, but that's just a personal preference. 

It's no surprise to me, considering just how many different editions of Sam Raimi's Evil Dead Trilogy and Halloween (1978) Anchor Bay have released through the years, that they have chosen not port over every extra for the 35th Anniversary Edition... not surprised but maybe slightly disappointed. Would have loved to see a definitive version of the film with the previous John Carpenter, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Debra Hill commentary, a branching version that includes the TV footage, the fact track and the Halloween: A Cut Above the Rest documentary. Groaning aside, it's still a damn fine edition and there's always the 40th anniversary, don't think for a moment that's not in the works already. 

Special Features:

- All-new commentary track with writer/director John Carpenter and star Jamie Lee Curtis
- “The Night She Came Home” new featurette with Jamie Lee Curtis (59:43) 

- On Location: 25 Years Later (10:25) 

- Trailer (2:42) 

- TV Spot 1 (0:32)
- TV Spot 2 (0:32)
- TV Spot 3 (0:12)
- Radio Spot 1 (0:29)
- Radio Spot 2 (0:27)
- Radio Spot  3 (0:28) 

- Additional Scenes from TV Version (10:46)

Verdict: Sure, I might bemoan the fact that this is not the one-stop definitive edition of the film I would have hoped for with my laundry list of extras but make no mistake about it, Anchor Bay's 35th Anniversary Blu-ray of John Carpenter's Halloween (1978) is a thing of chilling beauty with the best transfer yet and a wonderful audio presentation with some great extras, Halloween is the seminal slasher, the one that all others pale in comparison to, and while plenty of fun, tit-riddled slashers came after it none have unmasked it. 5 Outta 5