Watched a couple horror films tonight (well, technically last night):
Halloween (1978) - Still 5/5. Saw it at a theater. Screen Archives promised a new HD transfer and it was five bucks so it sounded fun to hit it up with a buddy. And it was fun seeing it on a big screen, however the presentation was lousy. Pretty good res on the picture, but the projection was all off, and the way they formatted the file was terrible as well. First off, it began with a new mini documentary. This was at like a really weird aspect ratio, might've been around 1.66:1. Or maybe it was supposed to be 1.85 but the projector was all messed up. So whatever this ratio was or was supposed to be, the movie was apparently on the same video file, and so the movie image was actually stuck within the same weird frame. So instead of filling the entire screen like it should've, and they even had the curtains open for a scope ratio flick, the movie is crammed into this little weird window with big black openness on all four sides—except the black levels were really poor and you could see grays on top and bottom of the image, filling the rest of this 1.66/1.85 frame. Totally unprofessional. On top of that, the image wasn't even rectangular, it made like a smile shape, making the already warped anamorphic photography even more warped. Damn bizarre. On top of technical problems, there were assholes in the room chatting the whole time. ALL THIS SAID, however, I had a good time seeing the movie on a big screen, even if it could've been 10,000 times better had competence been involved. Throw the Blu-ray on a projector at home and you'll get results that are far more satisfactory; I didn't notice anything in the supposedly new HD transfer that I didn't see on the Blu-ray from several years ago, leading me to believe it's not from a new HD master at all. And come on, this should have been on friggin' 35mm!
Magic - 4.5/5 (RW) – Holy crap what an intense film. Anthony Hopkins gives such a convincing performance, and that dummy is just creepy. Super classy flick. Makes me realize I need more horror films in my collection that deal more with actual suspense over blood and boobs.