Happy Birthday to Me [DVD] [1981] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

ok, this is a pretty famous slasher movie so most of you probably know the plot but for those unfortunates who have missed this high quality slasher movie here is a very brief rundown. Ginny (plated by sue anderson from little house on the prarie) is a poor kid going to a rich school thanks to the efforts of her upwardly-mobile mother, she's doing well and is friends with the clique of privalidged kids who previously shunned her. Everything is going fine until a drunken stunt sets of a chain of murders culminating in a goulish set piece at ginny's birthday party.
as those of you who've seen this movie before already know, this canadian made slasher, directed by J lee thompson (a fantastic director probably best known for the origional cape fear) is probably one of the best slasher films made and certainly deserves a place next to classier fare like the origional my blooy valentineMy Bloody Valentine [DVD] [1981] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC] like that one the film contains character development an involving plot and suspense scenes that work making this stand apart from a lot of other slasher films from this era, plus it has a fantastic score, which leads me into qualifying this reviews title.

Ok.. so why SHOULD you buy this? Firstly the picture quality is amazing, as is the sound mix, the film never looked or sounded better (unless it ever hits blu-ray) Mainly though this is the first release since vhs to actually contain the films origional score. Previous releases contained a totally new and totally inferior soundtrack which did a hell of a lot of harm to the movies effectivness, fortunately anchor bay have remedied this and this makes their release the best and most effective way to watch the movie. As like other releases the disc is bare bones and it is the R-rated cut, though the slightly more gory uncut version apparently no longer exists.

Overall if your going to buy the film get this as it is definately the best version out there!

Very good old school slasher movie which actually does have the original soundtrack. If you go to audio set up and change it to german and then play the movie you will notice the original soundtrack is playing, however, the movie is in german through out. I first watched it with the altered terrible soundtrack with them speaking english and then I watched it with the original soundtrack and them speaking in german but with subtitles. So there are two versions of the movie on this disc (original soundtrack and altered soundtrack).

HBTM is a forgotten horror classic from 1980 featuring Melissa Sue Anderson and Glenn Ford. Melissa plays Virginia, a teenager who's friends are been killed off one by one in strange ways. Who is the killer? A few fine twists in this film will keep you guessing.

The DVD release of HBTM is long overdue, and unfortunately it is not a perfect release. Unable to obtain rights to the original score used (and known by fans), Columbia Tristar altered the score to a disappointing effect. For example, the original introduction 'haunting' score has now been replaced with disco music. This hardly sets the required mood to watch the film. Similar situations occur throughout the film. The closing music is the only original music used on this DVD.

This aside, the transfer to DVD is great, and very clear. It has been cleaned up well, and is widescreen anamorphic. Fans who were only used to the cropped video version, will enjoy seeing the film this way.

Despite the altered soundtrack, HBTM is worth owning if you are a collector of the genre. Hopefully a Canadian company will see fit to re-release it oneday with the original score.

If a job's worth doing, it's worth doing well???