DVD Review: Batman: The Long Halloween, Parts One & Two
The superhero and the mystery genres rarely overlap, but one superhero is often dubbed “The World’s Greatest Detective”: Batman. The Long Halloween is one of the most famous and respected Batman comic serials, focusing on a year-long crime spree, where a serial killer targets individuals connected to the Gotham City criminal underworld, striking once a month, always on a holiday. The 1996-97 Jeph Loeb/Tim Sale comic is widely regarded as a classic, and it was a major influence on the movie The Dark Knight. A quarter-century after its release, The Long Halloween has been adapted into a two-part, three-hour animated direct-to-Blu-Ray production.
The “hunt for a serial killer” genre is one of the most hit-or-miss branches of the crime genre. When these books are well-written, they can be masterpieces or at least highly entertaining diversions. When less skilled hands are involved, the result is usually a muddle of clichés and callbacks to much better productions.
The Long Halloween is a pretty competent and enjoyable production, and it’s quite overt about its homages to The Godfather and The Silence of the Lambs. In terms of the Batman mythos, it’s part of the arc that shows Batman realizing just what kind of superhero he needs to be, as well as Gotham City starting a transformation from a corrupt city run by organized into a corrupt city overwhelmed by deranged and disorganized supervillains.
As the story unfolds, most of Batman’s most famous foes get to take center stage at one point or another, the best scenes being the ones featuring The Joker and the incarcerated date-obsessed villain known as Calendar Man. The central emotional lynchpin of the narrative comes from the slow unraveling of the crusading District Attorney Harvey Dent, as his mental state devolves and he heads down a dangerous road into madness and villainy.
Fans of the graphic novel will find that the narrative has been left about 80% intact from the original. The iconic, atmospheric art style of the comic could not be transferred easily into animation, and the February, March, and April crimes have been glossed over early in Part Two. Other than a few minor changes here and there, the biggest difference comes from the ending. Animated adaptations of DC Comics mysteries have a habit of changing the identity of the killer, causing mixed reactions amongst fans. The Long Halloween is infamous for providing two separate solutions to the crime, leaving readers to wonder and debate which is the correct one. The animated adaptation chooses only one of the solutions, adding another twist to personalize the motive. Those viewers familiar with the source material may find the resolution somewhat simplified, but it’s a fun and satisfying production overall.
As a mystery, The Long Halloween does a strong job with cluing. The motive is hinted in a way that the perceptive viewer can infer without being too obvious, and simple lines of dialogue have added resonance once one realizes how they tie into the broader puzzle. The pacing as the city descends into chaos is handled well.
The voice work is uniformly strong, and there are times that approach genuine poignancy that could have actual emotional heft with a little more effort. Some themes, like Harvey Dent’s unraveling and eventual psychotic break, could have been developed a little more, though the developing relationship between Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle is handled really well. Pretty much everything about The Long Halloween is good, but a little bit of striving to be something more could have made it great.
–Chris Chan
Batman: The Long Halloween, Part One
PG-13
Warner Bros.
2021
Blu-Ray $24.98
Batman: The Long Halloween, Part Two
R
Warner Bros.
2021
Blu-Ray $34.98