Halloween (1978): The Lost Footage

Today Fangoria’s Michael Gingold posted an article about the ultimate set of unedited negatives from John Carpenter’s HALLOWEEN (1978) that ended up in the hands of Synapse Films’ Don May Jr in 2006. Unfortunately since 3 years ago, the news has not differed in that there is still no future written in stone for this holy grail footage, but Carpy himself has shown an incredible interest in its ultimate fate. I say ‘incredible’ because it’s rare The Man takes part in anything about his original classic other than documentary retrospectives that cover the same old ground.

I’ve posted this under the DVD category because although there is no distribution outlet for this Lost Footage yet, it bloody well deserves to be on DVD. I’d even go as so far to suggest every inch of film, all those hundreds of hours of film, be transferred to a 10-15 dual-layer DVD set or Blu-Ray to allow film students and editor wannabes to pour through the footage and construct their own cuts of one of the most flawless films ever made. Hey, I can dream. Leave me alone.

The subtext seems to be that nothing has or will come of this due to politics. Don May Jr. runs a competing DVD outfit to Anchor Bay and maybe Malek Akkad prefers not to get caught in the middle. And maybe AB don’t want to get in bed with Synapse, a company that has gotten its mits on several choice genre titles throughout past and present. That’s just total speculation on my part, because I just can’t imagine why Lil’ Akkad wouldn’t jump at the chance to honor his father’s leading production by taking part. And with 3 years having passed since the footage unearthing, it’s unlikely he hasn’t found a moment to jump. Jump being a simple email response, even if glib.

For the incredibly in-depth and exhasutive article on the HALLOWEEN Lost Footage including several mouth-watering screencaps and what you can do to help secure its future, Click Here!