‘Batman: The Long Halloween Part One’ Clip Visits Arkham Asylum

Batman: The Long Halloween Part One, the first half of this summer’s animated feature film adaptations of the classic mid-1990s comic book story, is out next week, and a fourth official clip has just debuted online, featuring our first look inside Arkham Asylum on an ominous Christmas Eve.

In the two-and-a-half-minute clip, hoping to ascertain the identity of the Holiday Killer, Batman and Gotham Police Captain James Gordon visit Arkham inmate Calendar Man, an in-the-know villain acutely aware of every date of the year, in his appropriately decorated cell. On their way, they noticeably pass by the cells of some of the Dark Knight’s infamous rogues gallery of villains, including Oswald Cobblepot (The Penguin), Jervis Tetch (The Mad Hatter), and Jonathan Crane (The Scarecrow). Calendar Man (aka Julian Day) is expecting them, because he knows there’s a killer on the loose who only kills on holidays, and it’s December 24th.

The scene is fun and creepy, as Calendar Man suggests the obvious suspects of rival crime bosses Carmine Falcone and Sal Moroni, before adding the possibility that the killer could even be Gotham’s District Attorney Harvey Dent.

Jensen Ackles (Supernatural, My Bloody Valentine 2009) leads the cast as Batman/Bruce Wayne, along with Billy Burke as James Gordon and David Dastmalchian, who voices both Calendar Man and The Penguin.

UPDATE: Another new clip was released today, in which Dent (the future Two Face) is debating a hard decision and says his iconic phrase, “I’m of two minds on this.” Ironically, it’s Batman who then suggests that Dent let a coin flip decide for him.

The voice cast also includes Naya Rivera, the late Glee star who died in July of 2020 after already completing her voice work as Catwoman/Selina Kyle., as well as Josh Duhamel as Harvey Dent, Titus Welliver as Carmine Falcone, Troy Baker as Joker, Amy Landecker as Barbara Gordon, Julie Nathanson as Gilda Dent, Jack Quaid (Scream) as Alberto, Fred Tatasciore as Solomon Grundy, and Alastair Duncan as Alfred.

The films are directed by Chris Palmer (Superman: Man of Tomorrow) from a script that reteams him with Man of Tomorrow screenwriter Tim Sheridan.

The official synopsis for Part One: Inspired by the iconic mid-1990s DC story from Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale, Batman: The Long Halloween Part One begins as a brutal murder on Halloween prompts Gotham’s young vigilante, the Batman, to form a pact with the city’s only two uncorrupt lawmen (Police Captain James Gordon and District Attorney Harvey Dent) in order to take down The Roman, head of the notorious and powerful Falcone Crime Family. But when more deaths occur on Thanksgiving and Christmas, it becomes clear that, instead of ordinary gang violence, they’re also dealing with a serial killer – the identity of whom, with each conflicting clue, grows harder to discern. Few cases have ever tested the wits of the World’s Greatest Detective like the mystery behind the Holiday Killer.

The Motion Picture Association has rated Batman: The Long Halloween Part One PG-13 for “violence, bloody images, language, and some smoking,” and The Long Halloween Part Two has officially been rated R for “some violence and bloody images.

Originally published in 1996-1997, the original 13-issue comic book story The Long Halloween, by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale, follows a killer named Holiday who murders people on every holiday for a year, from Halloween to the next Halloween, and it also features many of Batman’s iconic villains as he investigates the murders over the course of a year.

There has also been much speculation that director Matt Reeves’ live action The Batman will be a loose adaptation of The Long Halloween, which you can read more about here.

Bonus features on the Part One Blu-ray will include a sneak peek at this fall’s The Long Halloween Part Two, as well as the DC Showcase Short The Losers about a legendary ragtag team of WWII outcasts who find themselves marooned on an uncharted island in the South Pacific that is overrun with dinosaurs, and two classic cartoons “From the DC Vault.”

The Long Halloween Part One will be released on Blu-ray and Digital on June 22, from Warner Bros Animation, DC, and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, available for pre-order via Amazon here.

The Long Halloween Part Two will be released on Digital on July 27 and on Blu-ray on August 10.

You can watch the latest clips from Batman: The Long Halloween Part One below.

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See all of our Long Halloween coverage here.