Halloween: The Doctor’s Cut

I have to confess as a fan of the horror genre that I'm not that familiar with the Halloween franchise. Oh, I've seen the first movie. It's one of the greats. And I did see the 2018 movie of the same name. But unlike the Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, or even the Chucky franchises, I haven't gone through the effort to watch every movie revolving around infamous slasher movie villain Michael Myers. I only just bought (and saw) Halloween II in preparation for this edit of the first two films. So I can't really tell you whether it stacks up as a worthy edit for the Halloween fanatic. But as a casual observer, I thought this was a mostly well done effort. A few hiccups, but not too bad.

This mashup of Halloween (1978) and Halloween II (Although the first one takes up a little more running time for the first 80 minutes of this 138-minute cut) is pretty much what you expect it to be. And if you're not a big fan of the padding that Halloween II suffers from, you can rejoice over how much faster paced the second half is. I still think the Halloween section is better than the Halloween II section, and I still don't think the twist revolving around Michael Myers' sister is growing on me. Still, this edit is a nice, complete recreation of the first two, and they complement each other well enough that I can't complain beyond a few of the shortcomings of Halloween II.

If I have any criticisms to give towards the editor, I do think there is an overuse of the most popular theme songs at the beginning of the edit. I think I heard the main theme 3 times in the span of 15-20 minutes. And yes, it kind of annoyed me. So, points off in the audio department for that one. Otherwise, this is a pretty good mashup. It's not one of my favorites, but it's close enough to being one that I'd recommend it.

Very impressed with this edit, would absolutely recommend it.

My only gripes are the 1:25:44 to 1:25:45 hour marks where that girls eyelids can be seen moving slightly despite the fact that she’s well…dead otherwise I have nothing but good things to say about this edit starting with that banging intro which I was rocking out to all the way through definitely an unorthodox but exciting way to start a horror movie and speaking of which your use of music has successfully created an enthralling and atmospheric experience that kept me on the edge of my seat.

Your use of text also blends perfectly with that of the films as such if it wasn’t for the fact that I had watched the films before viewing this edit you could have easily convinced me that they were apart of the official source material and the fact they match so well is credit to your excellent text editing abilities and your ability to seamlessly splice the two films together kept me invested in continuing to watch the edit as it truly feels like both films are now one single narrative.

The alternate version of Don’t Fear The Reaper helped in maintaining the edits tone and atmospheric quality throughout providing a resolutive yet haunting ending.

As someone who did a similar Halloween 1+2 film concept and has seen many other incarnations of this specific fan mix, Jnisch has made the best I've seen. The cuts are logical. The Hi-def footage of Carpenter's tv footage is not something I thought I'd ever see, and it showcases the power of that scene and its seamless integration into Halloween. The pacing is solid and the transition between the two films is seamless without losing the catharsis of the theme music playing at that moment when Michael is gone. It's tough to not lose momentum by the time you get to part 2 and this edit cuts through the fat. Congrats on getting approved. Well deserved! My only suggestion would be a little less security guard. Never liked that execution of that sequence much and think it goes on too long in the original H2 so a fanmix especially could spare it imo. I like the idea of the opening being in black and white, gives it kind of a Psycho vibe, though the editing is more modern. Works best for those who know the original. Volume is a bit in the red which is fine just be careful with headphones. Like I said this is my favorite of the H1 + H2 edits I've seen.

I really enjoyed this edit; I hadn't seen a fan edit of these two films before, so I was looking forward to seeing something different, to see each story presented in a unique way.

The opening sequence, with the "Don't Fear The Reaper" music is perfect, and really had me thinking that this was always like that in the original film! The subtle trims work perfectly; none of the trims stood out as "hang on, something is missing". All of the cuts and trims were seamless, especially the transition from the first film into the second film, which was flawless.

The audio overall sounds great. In my ratings, I slightly marked down the audio, as very early on in the film there is a noticeable shift in the volume of the audio. This is nothing terrible, and doesn't ruin the experience by any means.

The picture quality was fantastic, so much better than the old VHS and DVD versions I saw years ago!
The trims and cuts excise anything that originally slowed down each film, and preserves the suspenseful atmosphere of each film.

This edit is the one I'll be keeping and watching of these two films from now on.

This is a really enjoyable edit, and I recommend it to anyone whether they enjoy suspenseful films / horror films or not!