Halloween (2007)

Good, but far from perfect, 5 September 2014

I originally wrote this back in 2007 after seeing 
the movie in the theater. For whatever reason, 
I never posted the review. Here it is:

Unlike some other fan comments I read on the internet, as soon as I heard the news that Rob Zombie was going to remake Halloween, I was ecstatic. Halloween has always been a favorite of mine. In fact, I've probably seen it more times over the years than any other horror movie. As for Zombie, I loved both his first two movies (yes, I loved what I consider to be the very underrated House of 1000 Corpses). The whole project seemed like a sure fire winner to me.

Overall, I enjoyed Zombie's reinterpretation of John Carpenter's classic quite a bit. It's not perfect, but it's a damn good effort. While I appreciate the fact that Zombie followed the basic storyline of the original, he threw in enough of his own ideas and scenes to keep it original and keep the audience guessing. One thing that makes me laugh are the comments I've read that complain the movie has too much foul language, too much violence, and too much nudity. What were these people expecting? It's a Rob Zombie movie! The final chase scene is for the most part expertly handled. The old Myers house becomes more of a focus and I enjoyed the chase going through every conceivable room and level. And just when it seemed the chase was over, Zombie's inclusion of false endings really caught me off guard. I was very impressed with the direction of this portion of the film.

Other highlights for me included some of the acting. Daeg Faerch is surprisingly good as the young Michael Myers. He has an innocence about him that he plays to his advantage. I'm also surprised at how effective Sherri Moon Zombie was at playing Michael's mother. After her husband's first two movies, I thought of her as little more than a one note actor. While she will never get near an acting award, she did show a little range with her performance in Halloween. And Malcolm McDowell is . . . well, he's Malcolm McDowell – a wonderful actor. I don't think there's much more that need be said. The music was a real asset in the movie. Zombie used Carpenter's original score to great effect and mixed in some nice period pieces. I've seen some on the internet complain about the inclusion of the song "Love Hurts" at a particularly key moment in the movie. Well, I loved it and thought it fit perfectly. Finally, I've just got to say I loved some of the casting decisions, particularly the cameos. Some seemed quite natural – Danny Trejo as an institution worker, Clint Howard as a doctor, and Sybil Danning as a nurse. But Micky Dolenz from the Monkees as a gun store owner? How cool is that? Freakin' Micky Dolenz!

Okay, enough of the good. As I said in the opening, the movie's not perfect. But I'm not going to sit here and pick the movie apart, so I'll limit this to three of the most obvious faults I saw in the movie. First, the opening 30 minutes that detail Michael's childhood before the killings start goes on far too long and takes away from the mystery of Michael. Too many movies try to explain away everything. Zombie, unfortunately, falls into this trap. Next, I've got a real problem with the way Zombie chose to present Laurie Strode and her friends. There's no real attempt to make them more than one dimensional characters. Who are they? Why do they do the things they do? Why should I care about them at all? Finally, and this is a biggie, I have a problem with (and though I've tried to limit the comparisons with Carpenter's movie, this one has to be mentioned) the lack of atmosphere and subtlety in this version of Halloween. Zombie seemed to be rushing the last half of the movie and missed out on what made the original a classic. How many times did Michael materialize out of the shadows in the 1978 movie? Man, was that ever creepy or what? Zombie seems content to let the audience know exactly where Michael is at all times. And if you do lose sight of him, be patient – he's bound to come crashing through a wall at any minute. It really lessens the mystery and suspense.


5/10