Hi everyone, don't know if I told you this but I write, produce, direct and edit films. Yesterday I got my hands on a film I would have liked to have edited myself. Not sure if it belongs in the museum as technically what I've edited is someone else's work, however the way I've edited it changes the film into more of my critical vision of the film.
As I can't post up copyrighted material I'm just going to have to verbally describe my choices. For those unfamiliar with Rob Zombie's Halloween or the John Carpenter classic go watch it first as SPOLIERS ahead. Personally I feel Mr Zombie completely missed the point in the classic film, but that's my opinion. If you wish to view my work please PM and I will send somehow! It's work in progress, but it's 95% done
----------
1) Cut to the chase, dive straight into Michael butchering his step dad and sister. Yes no more unicorn tongue about his abusive past. My reasoning is when you reveal stuff like this, you humanise the character of Michael, and you make the audience sympathetic. The who reason Michael was frightening is because the original child that played him looked like he was on the front of some damn cereal box – a middle class white kid in 70’s America who could do nothing wrong who butchered his sister for NO REASON. Here we have a kid who’s bullied, and abused by his step dad, not really as scary when he bumps off his abusers. To further cement my point, remember when slenderman was scarier at the beginning when the creepypasta started? It’s because not much was known about him. Humans fear what they don’t understand. The same goes for Michael – he kills people and no-one knows why.
2) After his mother finds him on the step with his baby sister we cut to Dr Loomis giving a speech about Michael, that’s right we cut out all the crap about Michael as a child in the psychiatric ward. Yes if this was a full on prequel to Myers this kind of stuff would be brilliant, but here we’re just watering the plot down and it’s not what audiences paid to see. Around half way through Loomis’ speech I’ve intercut Michael’s escape. I have however cut out the tasteless rape scene first of all because I just didn’t like it – it’s a scene with a woman being raped, and second of all we cut to the chase. Dr Loomis’ speech does indeed fit well here. Not only does it have these positive effects it also allows us to see less of Michael’s face
3) Lastly I removed the scene with the Mechanic. Yes it’s a nice deaths scene but I really don’t give a damn how Michael got hold of mechanic’s clothes. In the original it was down by a quick tilt of the camera. Now a whole scene is dedicated to it. So now we cut straight to Haddonfield where the original pretty much began. This cuts at least 30 or more minutes of the film out which is great for a supposed slasher film.
I’m currently rolling through the rest of the footage to see what else I can do to make the film better. Feedback appreciated.
Things I cannot change
1) The stupid side story on how Michael acquired the mask, I’m afraid it’s so well buried into the film that it’s just not possible to get rid of. I even had to salvage the scene at the beginning when Michael’s sister’s boyfriend wants to do it with the mask on.
2) Laurie Strode being a bit of an idiot. Yeah sure in the original she had zero personality and looked like a 40 year old librarian. But I think they pushed Laurie’s personality way too much the other way, and I’m not sure there’s much I can do about that – sorry!
Time for Original from beginning credits to get to main story in Haddonfield: 51 mins 46 seconds
Time for my edit to do the same 9 mins 40 seconds
Edited by Penguin101, 12 April 2013 - 11:46 AM.
