Films
/
Halloween (1978)
Halloween (1978) poster

Halloween (1978)

Horror, Thriller • 1h 33m

Director: John Carpenter

Best English-friendly & video release

Updated 4 months ago


Upcoming

UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray possibly teased?

Best audio release

UHD tiers

Excellent
Australia Imprint 4K Blu-ray
Superior Imports
Australia Imprint 4K Blu-ray > Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray:

better encode by FiM

Disappointing
Shout:

bad compression, issues with the mono track


About the film

Fifteen years after murdering his sister on Halloween Night 1963, Michael Myers escapes from a mental hospital and returns to the small town of Haddonfield, Illinois to kill again.

Featured Lists
National Film Registry

Year of Induction: 2006

TSPDT
2026: #581
2025: #593
2024: #586
2023: #612
2022: #612
Alternative Titles
John Carpenter's Halloween

Part of Halloween

See more →

Director: Rick Rosenthal

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Australia Imprint 4K Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray possibly teased?

Director: Tommy Lee Wallace

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Australia Imprint 4K Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray possibly teased?

Director: Dwight H. Little

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Australia Imprint 4K Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray possibly teased?

Audio Notes:

1990 CBS/Fox LaserDisc: Original Ultra Stereo mix on the Shout Factory 4K is sourced directly from the 1990 Laserdisc

Director: Dominique Othenin-Girard

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Australia Imprint 4K Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray possibly teased?

Director: Joe Chappelle

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray

Director: Steve Miner

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Pick your poison between Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray (better encode, incorrect color space) or Paramount 4K Blu-ray (correct color space, worse encoding)

Maybe the included remastered Blu-ray by Shout! Factory is better than both?

Audio Notes:

Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray has noticeable sync issues, Paramount 4K Blu-ray doesn't

Director: Rick Rosenthal

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray

Director: David Gordon Green

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Universal 4K Blu-ray

Director: David Gordon Green

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Universal 4K Blu-ray

Director: David Gordon Green

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Universal 4K Blu-ray

Featured in National Film Registry

See more →

Director: Richard Brooks

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive Blu-ray

Video Notes:

4K restoration from Original Camera Negative

Director: Jonathan Demme

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Arrow 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Best Audio:

1991 Orion LaserDisc vs 2024 Arrow 4K Blu-ray

Additional Info:

Criterion Blu-ray has exclusive extras

Director: George B. Seitz

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Warner Archive Blu-ray

Video Notes:

4K restoration from safety preservation elements

Director: Elaine May

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Cinématographe 4K Blu-ray

Video Notes:

Cinématographe 4K Blu-ray > MoC > Olive Films. From nicolas:

The master is good but it’s not that big an upgrade from the Olive Films disc and Vinegar Syndrome’ encode has some blocky highlights. A shame that they didn’t hire David Mackenzie here.

Audio Notes:

Cinématographe has unnecessary noise gating not present on the previous releases.

Director: Sidney Lumet

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly:

Kino Lorber US / Capelight DE 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab) · Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)

Best Video:

1.85:1: Kino Lorber 4K  / Capelight 4K

1.66:1: Criterion 4K

Video Notes:

1.85:1: Kino Lorber 4K  / Capelight 4K

1.66:1: Criterion 4K but low pass filtered

Comparison between the 4Ks, Criterion on the AR choice

Audio Notes:

Other discs have unnecessary filtering and sound worse, the difference isn't substantial but audible

Director: Dennis Hopper

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Sony UK 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Director: F. W. Murnau

Best English-Friendly, Video & Audio:

MoC OOP Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)

Upcoming Release:

Flicker Alley 4K confirmed for 2027 https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=24404584&postcount=1

Director: Stanley Kubrick

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly, Video & Audio:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Included in the Complete Kubrick box set with FiM encode of the same master from the Universal release without the filtering.

Audio Notes:

DTS:X mix on Universal 4K Blu-ray most closely approximates original surround mix

Additional Info:

Criterion DVD and Universal 4K Blu-ray has additional features not found on the Criterion 4K Blu-ray

Director: Sam Peckinpah

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Plaion Germany Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

4K Blu-ray said to be coming from Criterion, per Bill Hunt

Video Notes:

Includes Director's Cut and Roadshow Version

Same master as old WB Blu-ray but better encoding

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Video format: UHD Blu-ray

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly & Video:

WB 4K

Sources: YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

An undeniably significant improvement from the BD yet still severely flawed. See DFIC's review.

Best Audio:

1984 MGM Hi-Fi VHS

More from John Carpenter

See more →

Director: John Carpenter

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Sony 4K Blu-ray or Carlotta 4K Blu-ray (FiM encode)

Video Notes:

Sony 4K Blu-ray and France Carlotta 4K Blu-ray (FiM encode) are similar

Director: John Carpenter

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Universal 4K Blu-ray

Sources: blog.sporv.com (opens in a new tab)

Best Audio:
Audio Notes:
  • the only track on Universal 4K, which is in DTS:X, has a mixing error of around 6dB too low on side channels, otherwise very similar to other 5.1 mixes.

Director: John Carpenter

Video format: UHD Blu-ray

Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)

Best Video:

Fabulous Films 4K Blu-ray, some caps

Additional Info:

disc info

Director: John Carpenter

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Sony Columbia Classics Vol 4 4K Blu-ray

Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Sony Columbia Classics Vol 4 4K Blu-ray (review)

Director: John Carpenter

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Italy Koch Media Blu-ray

Video Notes:

Italy Koch Media Blu-ray is not stretched compared to US Shout! Factory and UK Arrow Blu-rays

As for the color grade, unsure whether the Italy or US/UK Blu-ray is more accurate to the theatrical colors.

Best Audio:

Arrow Blu-ray

Audio Notes:

Arrow Blu-ray has lossless original stereo

Additional Info:

Shout! Factory Blu-ray has the most extras with a lossless isolated score

Director: John Carpenter

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly:

Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray

Best Audio:

2.0: Shout! Factory

Audio Notes:

2.0: Shout! Factory > StudioCanal. Italy Eagle Pictures doesn't have it.

Director: John Carpenter

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Arrow 4K Blu-ray

Audio Notes:

Shout! Factory Blu-ray has slightly less rolloff of the higher frequencies

Director: John Carpenter

Video format: UHD Blu-ray

Director: John Carpenter

4K · Excellent
Best English-Friendly, Video & Audio:

Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray

Video Notes:

Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray is a strong upgrade in PQ compared to a poor old Blu-ray

Audio Notes:

Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray sound was improved compared to the old mixes.

Director: John Carpenter

4K · Solid
Best English-Friendly & Video:

Scream Factory 4K Blu-ray

Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Caps by cinemaniac, which look great but the old Sony master doesn’t look too bad and Indicator has a Fidelity encode

Edit history

6 edits

Researched and maintained by

tyyuxAdamA

· last reviewed 4 months ago

Every recommendation follows the same method — how these calls are made.