The most significant difference is the scene in which Michael Myers escapes from Smith's Grove Sanitarium. In the theatrical release, the killer is being transferred to some undisclosed location—at night—whereupon he suddenly breaks his chains and murders the guards. Zombie apparently filmed this scene because of the graphic nature of the original escape sequence, in which a couple of orderlies remove a female patient from her cell, take her to Myers' room, and proceed to rape her, thus allowing the movie's primary antagonist the opening he needs to walk out of his cell. The scene makes a bit more sense, in terms of storytelling, than the inexplicable nighttime transfer, but it's easy to see why the producers wanted it changed. Rob Zombie's rape scenes are gruesome, and very hard to watch.
In my opinion the extended version of Halloween isn't much of an improvement over the theatrical release, if at all. I think if there were any additions to be made, it should have been to the second half, where character development suffered the most. As I pointed out in my initial review, the characters of Annie, Linda, and most especially Laurie Strode, are reduced from their original and more fleshed out personalities in John Carpenter's horror masterpiece to stereotypical, throwaway slasher film dummies with whom the audience cannot empathize. Granted, Zombie does give a little bit more likability to the character of Linda, who in Carpenter's classic was no more than a sex-obsessed bimbo. But all the qualities that made Laurie a character audiences could make an emotional investment in are lost.The extras, which are contained on a second disc, provide deleted scenes as well as the obligatory featurettes. It's interesting to see what footage failed to make the final cut, and easy to see why it did. One deleted scene shows Michael Myers' parole hearing, which doesn't even include McDowell's character, making it unnecessary. Given the killer's obviously violent history in this movie, as opposed to the original in which it is suggested that Myers just sat in a room and did nothing (thus lulling the guards at Smith's Grove into a false sense of security), there's no reason to think that even after fifteen years this homicidal maniac could be trusted to be released to a minimum security facility.
Other extras include an alternate ending, which again Zombie was wise not to place in the final cut, an alternate scene of Linda's boyfriend meeting his end at Myers' hands. It's interesting to see just how different a film from the original the director of House of 1,000 Corpses might have made, had these scenes been used.
It's a real shame that the longer cut of Halloween turned out to be so mediocre, because I actually thought the theatrical release was very decent despite other fans' mixed opinions before and after it hit theaters. I give this DVD a 'C+'.
