Synopsis:

There have been many edits of Halloween and Halloween II combined to make one full night of terror from The Shape in its pursuit of Laurie Strode. However, whereas a lot of those edits are quite gentle exercises in basically bridging the two movies together, resulting in a movie almost 3 hours in length, the intent with The Night of The Boogeyman is to take on the challenge of combining both movies to make one night of terror that only lasts around the normal length of a slasher film - in other words, 90 - 100 minutes.

Intentions:

The narrative is manipulated to fully concentrate on Laurie Strode, The Shape and Doctor Loomis. The other characters aren't particularly important, meaning classic scenes from Halloween 1978 needed to go. No more head tilt, no more The Shape stalking Annie, Tommy etc. In fact, there's hardly any on-screen murders in this cut. The name of the game here is to keep things moving - keep it lean, keep it moving forward as much as possible whilst ensuring it all still makes sense. Even some scenes with Laurie would need to go (no more "Everyone's entitled to one good scare")... true, this may not be an edit for everyone, but the brief here was to be brave, be bold, or go home. On top of this, Halloween (1978) now sounds as it was supposed to sound, with the mono audio track utilised, sourced directly from the Criterion Laser Disc. Happy Halloween everyone!

Change List:

- Pre-credit scene added – The scene where Michael stalks and kills Judith in the house now acts as a pre-credit sequence - Halloween II pumpkin used for title sequence (along with the Halloween II version of the main theme), masked so that new titles can be added on the right hand side - Trimmed the sequence where Laurie leaves her house and walks to drop keys off at the Myers House. Basically she bumps into Tommy sooner - Cut Tommy and friends outside school where he trips and breaks the pumpkin, and is then stalked by Michael - Scene where Laurie walks home with Linda and Annie is now quite heavily trimmed, ending as Annie says she has three choices… “watch the kids sleep, listen to Linda screw around, or talk to you” - Scene with Doctor Loomis and the graveyard caretake now takes place in-between scene of Laurie going home – also has added music from Halloween II - After Laurie has been spooked by seeing Michael in her next door neighbours garden, we cut to her being in the car with Annie, thereby cutting out the shots of her leaving her house and waiting for Annie to pick her up - Very slight trim as Michael is watching Annie go in to babysit Lyndsey – just to help speed things up - All scenes of Annie being stalked by Michael now cut (i.e. no seeing Annie getting caught in the laundry room, spilling butter on herself etc). Instead we just get to the stage where Annie wants to go and meet Paul, so she drops off Lyndsey at the Doyle house. This also means some scenes with Tommy and Laurie are cut - The lead up to Annie’s murder is now trimmed, and the murder itself is not shown - Scene where Loomis makes Lonnie and his friends scared at the Myers house is moved so it happens before Annie’s murder - Linda and Bob’s scenes are now heavily trimmed. We see them arrive at the Wallace house thinking Annie will be there, but the last we see of them alive is as after they start kissing on the couch and the camera pulls back to reveal Michael is in the house watching. Their murders are not seen - Laurie, curious after Tommy has told her he saw the boogeyman outside, now calls the Wallace house after she sees the lights go on and off. With Linda and Bob’s van outside, she is aware they are probably in there, and prompts her to telephone, but as there is no answer she goes over to check – this scene is trimmed so we don’t have to watch Laurie going through the motions of getting her keys and slowly walking over. Different music added. - Scene inside the Wallace house when Laurie is looking for Linda, Bob and Annie is slightly trimmed to move things along - After discovering the dead bodies and Laurie encounters Michael for the first time, have trimmed scene so that Laurie gets out of the house quicker and immediately starts back towards the Doyle house - Finale to Halloween ‘78 now slightly restructured - After Laurie tells Tommy to get upstairs, have heavily trimmed next scene where Laurie originally stabs Michael with a knitting needle. Instead, realising there’s an open window she is aware Michael might be in the house and she immediately goes upstairs. This scene is intercut with Bracket meeting up with Loomis again and being told that Loomis has found the car Michael was driving - Transition to Halloween II footage – Loomis does not look out over the balcony. I use the footage from Halloween II as he comes down the stairs and notices Michael has gone. Added music from Halloween III: Season of the Witch for this scene - Cut scenes of Michael killing the elderly woman and the teenage girl from next door - Trimmed scene of the paramedics taking Laurie to hospital… as they’re not important characters, their lines of dialogue when picking up Laurie are cut to a bare minimum - Cut scene of the boy with the razor blade in his mouth being taken to hospital. We briefly see him and his mother now at reception as Laurie Strode is brought in, but that’s it - All scenes with Jimmy and Bud after dropping Laurie off are cut - Cut majority of scenes with other personal at the hospital. Only necessary scenes with Laurie are kept, to keep momentum centred on Michael’s pursuit of Laurie - All kills with people at the hospital, except for Nurse Jill Franco, are removed - Film now ends on the shot of Michael’s burning mask/face - Mr Sandman song replaced with a version of the Halloween theme from Halloween The Curse of Michael Myers - New end titles.

Additional Notes:

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Other Sources:

Some music used from Halloween 4 - The Return of Michael Myers, Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, Halloween Kills.

Special Thanks:

Sophie Welch, Ryantology, BionicBob, Toodles and anyone who followed the "in the works" thread on this site.