Halloween Television Version Deux

...reviewed October 1st

I can remember two years ago how excited I was to grab a rental copy of Halloween: The Television Version. While Anchor Bay inserted the “new” footage with the original uncut Carpenter print instead of just showing the edited version as it was on television back in the day (for which I’m glad), the film really feels a little different than without the added scenes that pad running time a little bit. While I think the Loomis-in-Smith’s-Grove sequence is a rather intriguing moment that gives us an insight in how the psychiatrist attempted (futilely) to convince a panel (of two) of bureaucrats to place Michael (this is when he was still a boy) in a maximum security facility with proper security. Loomis is considered even at this point to be questionable in his professional opinion, and there’s this silence that really is deafening, following by the bureaucrats openly inviting to replace him with another court-appointed psychiatrist. I did notice the particular color of the auditorium colored in autumnal October as Pleasence sits alone where a hundred or so usually sit to discuss important matters of the mentally diseased. Pleasence just cuffs his face in his hands and wearily wonders how this hospital will keep a patiently waiting (“Waiting for what?” one of the docs ask. Loomis hasn’t got a definite answer. He just lets it sink in and answers, “I don’t know.”). When he visits Michael, the kid staring out the window, we get an understanding as to what Loomis meant when talking to Cyphers’ sheriff about his patient’s waiting for that night on Halloween when he could kill again.

 

The additional footage with PJ Soles visiting Curtis at her home to borrow a dress isn’t exactly a scene enriching in subject matter pertaining to the ongoing plot but it does allow us to feel a continuation of that day prior to Laurie picking up Annie and going over to babysit kids. I certainly don’t mind more Soles, and her character is given a little more screen time and all, but the scene serves little purpose (Laurie and Lynda discuss Michael, the creep in the station wagon they believe is a student from school) other than to re-state the obvious, and re-emphasize that Michael’s presence is starting to unnerve and frighten them.

 

 

 

 

It is interesting that Lynda (who really was oblivious to Michael during the three girls’ walk home in the neighborhoods from school after classes ended) acknowledges how Michael (or the student she believes is hanging around for the hell of it) bothers her. It also adds a little more weight to the friendship between Lynda and Laurie, whereas the film absent the footage seems to indicate that Laurie and Annie are the tight-knit pals of the trio, while Lynda tags along, providing them with that perky cheerleader accompaniment. At any rate, it shows us more of Laurie’s home and spends more time with her character so it should be (or could be) a bit of interest to Halloween diehards.