Happy Birthday to Me
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Movie Reviews of Happy Birthday to Me
Movie Review: I have to agree with everyone else...
Summary: 2 Stars
I am honestly suprised as well. I do not know what happened to the original score. The score for Happy Birthday to Me inspired many movies of that time including Motel Hell and The Children. I was fully expecting the macabre score to begin upon the start of the movie and instead there is a disco track. I mean, I know how someone could believe that disco music could be just as terrifying, but it just was not the same. I am thankful that I do have this movie on VHS. The only part of the original score that made it into the movie was the theme sung at the end during the credits. Very disappointed.Movie Review: "Birthday" No Present to Fans
Summary: 2 Stars
I know music scores sometimes are a holdout to DVD releases. What once was a chilling, suspenseful horror film has turned into a run-of-the-mill suspense yarn. Imagine watching "Jaws" without John Williams score. It would not be the same feel. Here, Columbia must have felt that the film was so old no one would remember. Horror fans are loyal, and we hate the fact that they feel just getting the title out would appease us. We want the original film. We have waited patiently, and well we are still waiting. The video transfer I must say is excellent, too bad the audio sucks.Movie Review: man why ????
Summary: 2 Stars
I just Brought This New Dvd Copy And I really Think They Destroyed It I Mean Why Did They Had To Redo The Music Score I Mean I Agree With The Others I Been Trying To Get This Movie On Dvd For A While Now And It's Not Worth It I'm Better Off Just Watching My Vhs Tape At Lease It's The Original I Only Give It Two Stars Because The Picture Shows A Lot Better Than My Vhs But At Lease It's a Lot Scary Than That Garbage That They Have On DvdMovie Review: 4 stars for the movie, 1 star for the DVD
Summary: 1 Stars
"Happy Birthday to Me" is one of the classiest slasher films ever made; it's suspenseful, it has very high production values, and it has some pretty good performances from people like Glenn Ford and Melissa Sue Anderson, who was best known as Mary Ingalls on the TV show "Little House on the Prairie". Despite having a big-name director (J. Lee Thompson) and a major studio (Columbia Pictures) behind it, "Happy Birthday to Me" is mostly remembered for the hilariously exploitive poster art (shish kabobs, anyone?), which was also used as the cover for the 80's home video release. Why Columbia/Sony decided to replace that highly original and striking art with THIS is beyond me. There is a birthday cake in the film, and a knife, but there are no possessed girls or ominous castles to be found. I'm sure this misguided marketing attempt pleased at least two people: the clueless graphic designer and the lucky daughter who got to be a model for the day.
But even worse than the hideous new cover art -- which actually isn't new anymore, because the DVD has been around for four years now -- is the new soundtrack Columbia/Sony decided to slap on the picture instead of securing the rights to the score by Bo Harwood and Lance Rubin. Only the end credits song by Syreeta and a few music cues remain. The 80's dance score is wildly inappropriate for the movie and kills any suspense that was built up. The result is the cinematic equivalent of a lobotomy.
I bought this DVD knowing full well what a monstrosity it is, but I only paid $5. I can't imagine paying full price. The picture quality is good and the movie isn't completely unwatchable this way, but the original soundtrack is ten times better and makes the film a more memorable and enjoyable experience. Do yourself a favor and track down a VHS copy. Perhaps Sony will release another DVD edition with the proper soundtrack, but I wouldn't count on it.
Movie Review: URGENT WARNING: SHOCKING CHANGES TO A CULT CLASSIC
Summary: 1 Stars
Anyone who remembers this classic FIVE STAR frightfest from 1980 should be forewarned that its gorgeous original soundtrack has been COMPLETELY REMOVED from the dvd release, with only the original closing song making the cut. I've just recently started seeing stories about this pop up all over the place, and I am as outraged and disgusted as everyone else seems to be. How could Sony believe for a second that the fans wouldn't notice a completely different--and inferior--soundtrack from the original? Would anyone ever think of releasing "Halloween" without John Carpenter's score? This is not the first I've heard of altered music in movies and tv shows released on dvd, and it seems that it's becoming an epidemic in the industry. I was so looking forward to this release, so grateful to rediscover this cherished classic on beautiful dvd, yet now that I know the awful truth I don't even want to touch it. It's a severe slap in the face to horror fans everywhere--and movie fans, in general--and it also signifies a disturbing trend that needs to be nipped in the bud. And if this truly is a rights issue and the original score could not be secured for this dvd, then why not pay someone to create a new score that is at least SIMILAR to that of the original? Studios need to start realizing that a movie and its music are not separate. Changing a movie's original soundtrack is THE SAME AS CHANGING THE MOVIE ITSELF!!! There is no other way to look at it. And we, as consumers, have to work to get legislation into place that will force studios to let us know in the dvd description if ANYTHING AT ALL has been altered, tampered with, or deleted. It is in the best interests of the studios to stop this appalling behavior at once ... before their dvds start collecting dust on discount-store shevles.