From Halloweenmovies on Facebook:

COME ON ARGENTO TITLES NEXT!

I saw this update, and I realize that its the official halloween website, but I'm not buying into it until AB actually announces it.

At this rate, I doubt we'll ever see US releases of the Argentos they have left on Blu...

Well said...

Problematic transfers aside, the two most notable AB Argento titles have already been released by Arrow, so I'd much rather get some Bava in HD. Plus, his films are far superior to the AB Argentos, in my opinion.

Both of the AB Argentos are above some Bava like Roy Colt & Winchester Jack. Bava is a great director and I would certainly upgrade many of his titles to blu but he did make his fair share of shit. The Arrow blu of Phenomena is the best the film has ever looked imo but I can't bring myself to spend $ on their release of Tenebre. I'd love for AB to put out a nice high-def transfer of Tenebre.


And to make this post on topic, I'm in for both Halloween 4 and 5 as long as they actually come out and don't look awful.

come on universal and release H3...let's knock one of the big 3 out on blu

how good are Anchor Bay Blu-rays?

For the most part, they've been good (speaking about catalog stuff)... with the exception of Evil Dead 2. Then there's the Halloween disc, which I think looks great, but a lot of people will call it horrible because of the color timing issue.

Sweet! This will complete my Halloween collection on Blu-Ray since Halloween III isn't a real Halloween film anyway.

Looks awesome to me and Halloween is my 2nd favorite film.

Except that it is and its awesome.

halloween 3 is the only real halloween title besides the original considering the plan was to make every halloween have a different plotline sorta like the twilight zone.

and had they stuck to that plan, the "series" would not have become complete crap like it did. and they could have still spun off the michael myers story in addition to the main "series" anyway.

halloween 3 is awesome. a warlock who runs a toy factory controlled by robots that make masks to kill children which are activated by a catchy commercial's theme song? TOP THAT!

I guess things are progressing quickly. I'll see if I can find out some more info on the discs.

I still haven't seen Halloween 3, but I'd love to see it get a Blu-ray release as well considering 4 and 5 look to be coming. I'd certainly buy them all.

And count me as another one that thought the Halloween Blu-ray looked good. I wouldn't mind it getting an even bigger release at one point, but I think it's certainly worth the low price tag that I've seen it reach.

Anchor Bay's first wave of horror Blu-rays released in 2007 (Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, Evil Dead 2) were awful, with the exception of Halloween that came out ok except for the color timing thing. Later releases like The Evil Dead and Hellraiser are both strong. It's a shame they didn't do Hellbound: Hellraiser 2 when they had the rights.

Here's looking forward to Halloween 4.

Yeah. Response to the Romero Deads were more positive at the time than they really should've been (even though a lot of the reviews were lukewarm), but expectations have changed a lot over the past few years. They looked better than the DVDs, and I think that was what most people were using to gauge them, but now we're more in the habit of comparing BDs to other BDs instead of to standard-def.

I agreed with everyone about Halloween at the time, but it hasn't aged well either. Someone posted screenshot comparisons from Anchor Bay's BD and the snippets of the movie in Universal's Halloween 2 BD -- and bear in mind that those excerpts in the sequel are generations removed! -- and the footage still looks considerably better on the Universal disc versus Anchor Bay's.

Well there was a reason they chose NOT to continue on with that and that was because Halloween 3 sucked. There's an old saying, if it isn't broke don't try to fix it. It would have made more sense if Halloween 2 had been a different story completely but it was the 80s and it was a time of slasher films and sequels and to sit there and think people would accept a completely random story under the "Halloween" name was ridiculous. Not to mention the movie is boring. I own the DVD (bought for $5 one year for the hell of it) and I've never been able to get through it. They made the right choice returning to the Michael Myers series which is why "Return of Michael Myers" made so much money because people didn't care about mediocre stories that had nothing to do with that character. Now I agree with you that it didn't start getting stupid especially with parts 6 & 8, but the others were pretty decent.

AB's Halloween on blu-ray looks awesome even though the color timing isn't perfect. At least there is no DNR or EE and the picture looks like the movie just came out.

That's really disappointing about Halloween, where were the comparisons posted? At the very least Halloween doesn't have the really god-awful blurring, smearing and motion-trailing that Dawn of the Dead exhibits. What a disgrace, and it's not even mentioned in a single review of that disc. And better yet Arrow pretends they fixed it but lo and behold the problems not only remain but are made worse by what appears to be a layer of fake grain. I really really hope that at some point there's an adequate release of it.

I still have my 1999 AB Halloween set with the proper color timing. I want to upgrade to this on blu, but held off because I wasn't sure about the color timing and quality of disc. Sounds like I still have to wait a little bit. Come on guys, finally do this film right.

I have no issue with the color timing on Halloween. I've also heard some people question whether Cundey remembered what the film looked like theatrically in '78. I think his THX DVD transfer is way too bathed in blue. The current BD looks better, IMO.

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison.php?id=80239
http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison.php?id=80263

The added grain in the H2 screenshots isn't a surprise because they're higher generation, but still, the Anchor Bay screengrabs look kind of...milky and filtered. Anchor Bay also used a pretty old master for Halloween, one that dates back to at least 2003, and that could just be a result of the tools available at the time. It could really stand a new transfer.

I own both discs but haven't done a direct comparison myself.

I just watched the blu-ray and the theatrical disc from the 2nd Anchor Bay DVD release (the 2-disc one with the theatrical and TV cuts). Aside from the standard color differences to be expected from a new HD copy (i.e. richer, more vibrant colors) I only noticed a few instances of color differences. The shots of Loomis staking out the Myers house and the last couple of shots of Laurie escaping Lindsey's house aren't as blue. But on the other hand, several scenes like Loomis & the sheriff in the Myers house and Loomis saving Laurie at the end of the film have more of a blue tint. Regardless, this is NOT the 25th Anniversary print.

In regards to the quality of the transfer, I don't see what any of the complaining is about. I'm a little near sighted (about 20/40) and the difference in detail and sharpness is like the DVD is without my glasses and the blu-ray is like putting my glasses back on. Any fan of this film that is giving this blu-ray a miss is only hurting themselves.

On topic, has AB given any more info on blu-rays of 4 & 5? Does anybody think they'll release them off-season, or will we probably have to wait until at least fall 2012?

Nothing as far as I know. On the Halloween Facebook page, someone asked for release news on 10/19, but didn't receive a response.