hearthesilence wrote:Just checked out the new 35th anniversary Blu-Ray and the transfer is definitely an improvement in terms of PQ. Never mind color, everything else is what I hoped the older Blu-Ray would be. Film grain and detail are all intact, this is an excellent transfer with no obvious futzing done to it. (Again, it's still shocking how poor the old Blu-Ray looks.)
I'm not well-versed in the film's history, but on aesthetic preference alone, I have to admit, I like the 1999 DVD transfer the best in terms of color and brightness/exposure. The later transfers look too bright, even blown-out, and the spring-like colors take me out of the film. Not just the lawn, having really green trees looks wrong, it makes the fall leaves scattered on the ground look even more fake and sometimes laughable. This is one instance where I prefer historical revisionism.
Thanks for the review of the new 2013 Blu-ray; I haven't seen this yet, but it sounds like it's a great version of
Halloween.
Just recently re-watched the Anchor Bay regular DVD (the back of the box says it's copyright 2007, but, as the OP said, there are so many DVD versions of this film - so, it's hard to keep track). And, the transfer is definitely sub-par.
Also, I agree 100% that it's quite evident this film was shot in the Spring, and the fake fall leaves on the ground just make it even more obvious - it would have been better to have not had any leaves at all, since not all parts of the country have a specific Fall/Autumn where leaves actually change color and fall off the trees (though, Illinois, where the film is set, does).
However, since the leaves are there & it would be tough to remove them digitally, I wouldn't mind seeing the film tinkered with somewhat so that the leaves on the trees actually have some Fall colors (red, brown) instead of all being green.