Countless times by countless
people I’ve been asked:
1.) Will
there ever be a complete box set of all the Halloween
films in one collection?
2.) Will
there ever be an official release of Halloween
6: The Producer’s Cut?
I’ve answered both questions with
a simple and definitive no. First, ownership of the rights to the individual films in the Halloween series. Think of it like a big pizza (yeah, I think of everything in terms of food). There’s
simply too many parties involved to ever see eye-to-eye on who gets the
biggest slice of the pie. As for the infamous “Producer’s Cut” of Halloween 6, a grainy workprint bootlegged and shared among fans for nearly two decades, I figured
that if it's not gotten an official release by now, it just ain’t gonna
happen.
The better question is: Do we really need a complete collection? If you're like me, you probably already own all the films on Blu-ray (with the exception of H6: The Producer's Cut, which I own a bootleg of on DVD). I kinda have my own complete collection Blu-ray set already...
See, it all boils down to money. Fans love Halloween. The company's releasing Halloween love fan's money. It's business. The bottom line. A kind of crude, merciless capitalism. And, hey, I'm fine with that. This is America! But when is enough is enough?
When the news that SCREAM! Factory
and Anchor Bay (two juggernauts at the forefront of
horror fanboy exaltation) had combined forces to do the seemingly impossible, finally
bringing all of the Halloween films
together in one complete set, including the first official release of Halloween 6: The Producer’s Cut, most fans
of the series were, shockingly, less than enthused. But why!?
Two reasons:
Money.
And the overwhelming sense that we’ve already had our pockets plundered by this series time and time again.
Those who rode the fence, hoping
for a plethora of brand new extras to justify the set’s lofty $118.00 price tag,
were further disappointed when the full list of special features and extras
didn’t quite meet their expectations, and were, in large part, left-overs from
past releases.
I’ve already heard claims of canceled pre-orders, either due to second thoughts over the
price, or because of unhappiness with the extras. The disdain for the set among its target audience has
even been felt by the companies releasing it and the people who worked on it behind
the scenes. Disillusioned fans have been painted as crybabies and whiners, with an inflated sense of entitlement and unreasonable expectations.
Now, while fanboys can be an
unruly lot, I admit, I take a little offense to these accusations. I, too, felt
an overall banal sense of been-there-done-that when the set was announced. The
price tag didn’t help matters. Also take into account that I already own every film on DVD and Blu-ray, with multiple editions
of each. How many different editions of the same movie do you really need? Anchor Bay has long been in the business of
churning out new editions of popular horror movies, justifying the release with a scant new extra or newly approved transfer to provide fresh revenue from an old cash cow. Halloween
is just one of the movies in Anchor
Bay’s catalog that has
been released to death.
The simple answer is to just not
buy any new editions of movies you already own. But companies like Anchor Bay
and SCREAM! Factory know that fans know that we just can’t help ourselves. It’s part
of being a fan. When you love a film series like Halloween, you feel entitled
to own every edition of it. You feel entitled to support the series. The Special Edition is quickly out-shined by the Deluxe Edition and, eventually, The Super Deluxe Special Edition takes its place on your every-shrinking shelf space. It’s exploitation, people. It’s a kind of exploitation involving individuals who can’t
help but let themselves be willfully exploited. And it seems to only be getting worse.
The Halloween series belongs to the fans. I truly believe this. We own
the series – not Anchor
Bay or SCREAM! Factory.
Us! You and I! THE FANS! We’ve put up with inferior sequels, ridiculous
storylines, the insult of Busta Rhymes and his kung-fu defense against The Shape and Rob Zombie's lowbrow "interpretation" of John Carpenter's classic. We’ve even been asked to pretend some sequels didn’t exist (even though we paid good money for them!). They’ll try and tell you “we did this for the
fans”. No, you did this for money. You know we’ll buy this set, because we’ve
bought every other edition you’ve released over the years without fail. It’s the same movies, just in a shiny new package! We’ve already given you a fortune to own these films in
our collections, and now you’re surprised that we’re a little pissed that you’ve
asked for more. Instead of releasing and re-releasing the old movies, put that time and effort into making new Halloween movies. You want to give the fans what we want, give us a Halloween movie LIKE the original. A no bullshit, gimmick-free, old-school slasher movie with an emphasis on atmosphere and suspense. Fanboys do have a tendency to live in the past, true, so give us something new to look forward to!
If anyone should feel insulted by the new Halloween: The Complete Collection, it should be the fans.
