Amazon Unearthed Rare Cuts of Rob Zombie’s Halloween 1&2
Revisio-News #6: Theatrical Versions Streaming, A Leaked Workprint and more
In this article, I want to talk about the Rob Zombie Halloween films, which I recently discovered have finally become available in their theatrical cuts on streaming.
Among other things, I want to share my impressions of both Halloween (H1, 2007) and Halloween 2 (H2, 2009), my original review of H1, and discuss the differences between the various versions, including the first one’s leaked workprint.
Table of Contents2. The theatrical cuts on Freevee
Thoughts on H1 and H2
I remember being really excited when news broke that Rob Zombie would be making a remake of John Carpenter’s Halloween.1
Things, however, would not go all that well for him.
Working under the Weinstein brothers made him miserable, the film’s script got leaked or spoiled online and then, of course, there were all the fans who rejected the new film due to its apparent irreverence for the original.
While interning at an indie film company at the time, I witnessed my supervisor come into the office, apparently having either seen a test screening of the picture or received word from somebody that had, and express outrage at the fact that Michael Myers was a man, rather than ‘The Shape’ of evil, as in the 1978 picture.
That, of course, actually made me all the more excited to see Zombie’s take. Because Myers being an evil faceless boogeyman had been done to death at that point.
Once I’d actually caught it in theaters, my feelings were decidedly mixed. It seemed pretty obvious that H1 was at war with itself, a compromise between Zombie’s own personal vision and that of John Carpenter.
The DVD’s Director’s Cut improved things somewhat by extending the first half and putting back some of the kid Michael scenes from the sanitarium but it could not completely rewrite the lesser, more derivative second half.*
*The most visible difference is arguably in the asylum escape sequence. In fact, I recall how somebody else working at my internship company got a phone call and then shared with us that after the test screening, the studio was def-ly changing the asylum escape along with the ending. In the theatrical cut, Michael busts out by killing multiple armed guards during a transfer to another institution. In the director’s cut, Michael is prompted to escape by a couple of abusive orderlies that rape another inmate.
Zombie seemed done with the franchise, but then, despite the experience he had the first time, wound up coming back to make H2 (apparently in part to ensure he would never have to work with the Weinsteins again). He clearly had more creative control on the second go-around and though I didn’t think H2 was great, it was a clear improvement on its predecessor and felt much truer to Zombie as a filmmaker.
I particularly appreciated the director’s newfound interest in simply luxuriating in surreal and weird-as-hell dream imagery, like the one displayed in the Halloween dinner vision Michael experiences about 40 minutes into the movie, which foreshadows the more aesthetically ambitious approach Zombie would take with the underrated Lords of Salem (2012).
Apparently though, Zombie once again had a terrible experience behind the scenes and never really felt he had enough time to finish the film, especially as the release date of H2 got moved up two months from October to August (unless I misunderstood his comments), cutting down his post-production schedule.
“ I will not make another movie under these circumstances. When you lock a movie's release date and then move it two months, it's just not good. It's good for everything but the cast, crew, and people who are creatively trying to make a film. Post is the part that can make or break a film. With Devil's Rejects, we didn't have reshoots [it had a low budget], but we had the time to craft it. Luckily, I always use the same editor, and he immediately gravitates toward the takes that I like. The problem is that nobody makes movies anymore - they make schedules and they make budgets.”
Source: Collider interview with Rob Zombie by David Gralnik, Aug 29 2005
That might explain why the theatrical cut wound up with a baffling and unsatisfying ending. Regretting that he had second-guessed himself, Zombie would later restore the film’s original tragic denouement for the director’s cut on DVD. In effect, he repurposed the original ending of H1, where Michael regained some measure of his humanity and let Laurie go, only to get gunned down by the police anyway.
Zombie was always more interested in Michael the Man than Michael the Shape, and that point comes across clearly here when the finale, following an entire film of Michael speaking via a child avatar version of himself, has Hobo Michael actually take his mask off and tell Loomis to die before stabbing him in a rage.
It’s only after he has been demystified and regained his humanity that the police are able to actually kill him. In this version, though, there is no salvation for Laurie, who gives into her family’s demons and, seemingly driven by the same force as Michael was, moves in to finish Loomis off before getting promptly shot herself.
It is a bold and audacious conclusion that illustrates how, though very similar on the surface, the director’s cut is a really different picture and clearly the superior iteration. Watching it, one gets the sense it was made by someone who no longer gave a shit about satisfying audience expectations or having a likable main character.
Without it, I don’t think there would be quite as many voices today that hail H2 as a misunderstood masterpiece.*
*I personally don’t quite agree with that sentiment, as both cuts in my mind are a little too long and don’t explore some of their narrative details to their full potential. I definitely think the hospital nightmare sequence should’ve been completely cut from the film.
The theatrical cuts on Freevee
Though they may not be the best iterations of Zombie’s vision, the theatrical versions are still worth seeing. Each provides insight into the compromises the director had to make for theatrical distribution and so enriches the experience of the director’s cuts.* Moreover, they both feature exclusive footage that can’t be found in the others.
*Revisiting the theatrical H2, for instance, made me appreciate Scout Taylor-Compton’s performance all the more, as in the theatrical cut she plays a considerably different, more well-put together incarnation of Laurie that has largely gotten over her trauma by the film’s beginning. The director’s cut, meanwhile, takes the opposite route and makes Laurie’s trauma ever-present, depicting her as permanently damaged by her ordeal.
The problem is that, since their initial releases back in 2007 and 2009, the theatrical cuts have been largely unavailable for mass circulation. DVD releases tended to prioritize the director’s cuts and though the theatrical editions did get some distribution (such as a Canadian DVD release by Alliance that featured both H1 and H2 on one disc), they were typically barebones in terms of special features.*
*I wonder if the exclusion of the theatrical cuts from the US market was a deliberate attempt on Zombie’s part to gradually phase them out of distribution/existence/memory and so leave only his preferred versions available. That these releases were not even afforded special features when available seems to support this possibility, though I have no idea how much control Zombie would actually have over the releases.
On Blu-Ray, the theatrical editions have been essentially excluded until the June 2023 “Ultimate Edition” release by the Australian boutique distributor ViaVision, which collected both cuts of H1 and H2 into a single release, combining them with pretty much all previously released bonus materials including a making-of doc for H1.2
While I have no idea when exactly Zombie’s H1 and H2 first arrived on streaming and VOD platforms, I was pleasantly surprised to discover earlier this month that Prime Video is indeed showing the theatrical cuts of them both via Freevee. This means you don’t even need to have an Amazon/Prime Video account to watch them.
The HD transfers are pretty good, so I suspect these were ported over by Lionsgate from the ViaVision release. I’d suggest checking out these ones sooner rather than later as there’s no telling when the Amazon license will expire.
You can find H1 here and H2 here.
You can find extended breakdowns of the differences between versions here and here.
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BONUS FEATURES
H1 Workprint Cut
My Original 2007 review of H1
The Unreleased H2 documentary
H1 Workprint CutA piece of old news: some time before Zombie’s H1 came out in theaters, its Workprint Cut leaked onto the web. Now, if you google search it, you can in fact find it uploaded to a very good archival site and see it there.
As is typical of workprints, this early cut is not finished: it has temp music and sound effects, but it is, imo, more watchable than workprints generally are. Running a full 2 hours with credits, this cut focuses much more on Michael’s perspective and offers a good idea of what Zombie’s vision for the film was before it went through the test screening process.
There’s lots of deleted and alternate footage here that has shown up elsewhere. Zombie, for instance, would restore part of the original asylum escape sequence to the director’s cut, while the alternate ending was released as a deleted scene on the DVD.
But there are also instances that aren’t present in any other release, such as a scene between the incarcerated kid Michael and Loomis, where Michael tells his therapist that he has nothing left to say, marking the exact moment he decides to stop talking.
Another notable distinction is, again, during the asylum escape. Watching the work-print makes clear that the director’s cut found a middle-ground between the work-print escape sequence and the reshoots done for the theatrical release.
In this version, Michael is prompted to escape by the abusive orderlies. However, the janitor played by Danny Trejo does not reappear and so does not die at Michael’s hands. Zombie admitted in interviews that he only later recognized that he had to resolve that character and the reshoots allowed him to film a new death scene.
Thus, the director’s cut would combine the original escape sequence footage with the new footage of the Janitor’s death.
Finally, you can see the original ending in its intended context. I haven’t found the famous instance where Michael actually speaks after unmasking himself in this version though, so I think - if indeed filmed - it must’ve been removed very early.
I do think any fan of Zombie or the Halloween movies should check it out.
My Original Review of H1 Initially published on Livejournal in September 2007
Poor Rob Zombie.
The guy has taken so much flak lately for remaking a beloved horror classic. And he doesn't deserve it. The original film isn't going anywhere, and Michael Myers continues to exist in one form or another, be it the subtle, evil incarnate Shape of the original or the new, human, motivated, unstoppable juaggernaut of the remake.
It's weird, however, just how difficult people are to please when it comes to the issue of The Shape/Michael.
As much as nobody wants merely a "remake" of the original film a la Gus Van Sant's "Psycho", people tend to be just as reticent towards any fiddling with the formula of "evil embodiment Michael vs. Dr. Loomis and survivor girls".
Just the mere concept of Zombie's remake - to show a different Michael Myers, before he turned into an inhuman, faceless entity - seems to ignite more rage in film fans and critics than the idea of The Shape getting Karate-chopped by Busta Rhymes or Laurie Strode kissing Michael before plummeting to her death.
Or the story with the thorn cultists.
Does the film deserve the venom it gets from half or more of the audience for bringing a "human" Michael? I remember how my own internship supervisor voiced displeasure at how the Zombie Michael sucks, because he's not pure evil anymore.
Well, the fact is, this IS Zombie's Michael.
Carpenter's initial iteration isn't desecrated by Zombie's reality-grounded interpretation of the character. This new version purportedly TALKED in the mask - a single line of dialogue subsequently edited out. Personally, as it would've been cool to hear the Shape after all those years of mute remorseless murder.
But oh well... Whatever complaints purists might have, I think the film is okay.
I liked Michael's backstory, as it's something which was never really explored in the original film - Rob Zombie does have a thing for all that crazy redneck stuff. All the cameos in the film are cool, and Michael's attacks are perhaps the most brutal ones to date. Zombie definitely knows how to make violence disturbing, and although his approach never has the subtlety of Carpenter, his Shape is still quite vicious.
I feel "Halloween" also showcases Zombie's evolution as a filmmaker. Although that is not too apparent, the director has learned that restraint can have its advantages. The camera no longer moves about the screen in every frame, which was the case in his previous endeaours. This is especially noticeable in the Sanitarium scenes, where Zombie employs still shots and more extensive takes, perhaps deliberately homaging Kubrick's "Clockwork Orange."
It's only when Michael does what he does that the chaos of his psyche moves into the outside world, and the handcam shots take prevalence once more.
Overall, it's a good film. Not great, but good.
7 out of 10.
The Unreleased Halloween 2 Documentary If you’ve ever bought a Rob Zombie movie on DVD, you might occasionally notice the presence of a feature-length making-of documentary, such as 30 Days in Hell for The Devil’s Rejects or In Hell Everybody Loves Popcorn for 31.
Surprisingly, however, there was never such a doc for H2, despite its predecessor getting the excellent 4-hour documentary Michael Lives when the picture was reissued in a special edition about a year or two after the initial one-disc release.
And yet, I recalled Zombie mentioning over the years that he had, in fact, made a documentary about the making of H2, which was a whopping 8 hours long!
Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any places Zombie actually talked about this online but I did manage to locate this 10-minute video by Nick of The Lost River Drive-In, who explains why apparently the 8-hour doc will never be released. I hope one day it makes its way out of the vault and reveals the hell the Weinsteins put him through.
But what do you think?Do you have a favorite cut of H1 or H2? Have you ever seen the theatrical versions? Did you like them? Why or why not? What’s your take on Rob Zombie in general?
Can you think of any other movies, where the theatrical cut has been kept from circulation?
What’s you favorite Halloween film?
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If you’re interested in film revision, consider also reading the following:
I’d been a fan of the heavy metal rocker-turned-filmmaker since first seeing House of 1000 Corpses (2003), a postmodern horror pastiche that, while not very good as a whole, showed a lot of promise for a debut picture. Zombie would greatly improve as a filmmaker with its bolder and more confident sequel, The Devil’s Rejects (2005), which was successful enough to put him on the map and is likely what led to him getting the Halloween gig.
Strangely enough, not even the 15-disc Halloween Complete Collection Blu-Ray box set released by Scream Factory back in 2014 included the theatrical cuts of H1 and H2.