Halloween

I don't have a problem with remakes per se. Even though I am not a big fan of the original "Halloween" film directed by John Carpenter, I do acknowledge it as a film that started a horror slasher trend and served as an inspiration for many of the films that came after it. Since I am not crazy about the 1978 film, I thought I would be able to enjoy this remake without being too influenced by my love for the original film. After seeing this remake, I started to appreciate the original version a little bit more, since Rob Zombie turned the story and its characters into a vulgar mess. The original film mostly focuses on the life of Laurie Strode going on about her business and interacting with her friends for the most part, while we see the mysterious Michael Myers stalking her, appearing from out of nowhere, and we never really get to know why (without taking the sequels into account). In this remake, Rob Zombie attempts to explore little Michael Myers' psychology, giving our villain a soul and establishing the roots of his evilness, taking away all the mystery and darkness surrounding the character. The results are not good by any means and the only thing it proves, is that sometimes, mystery is scarier and more disturbing than having everything explained, especially if the explanation is as predictable as "he was raised in a bad environment". The audience doesn't want to be spoon fed and I think it's clear that one of the main reasons why the original villain was scary, it's because Michael Myers remained as an enigmatic character from the beginning until the end. In the original film, Myers appears to come from a seemingly normal family, but for some reason, he turns out a merciless killer anyway. While the original "Halloween" film is not my favorite, as I established before, I do give the film credit for giving us a villain that no one could ever sympathize with. This film basically tries to portrait Michael as a poor little thing who was poorly raised and eliminates any possibility of seeing him as a genuinely dark and fear-provoking character. This overexposure of Michael's early years lasts about 40 minutes, which gets tedious, it makes the villain more pitiful than frightening and in the end, they don't really manage to establish a point about his insanity all that well either. Once again, Rob Zombie casts his wife, Sheri Moon Zombie, who was great in 'House of 1000', playing a Insane, trashy girl… but why did she have to play almost the exact same character here? I don't know what's the deal with Rob Zombie having the need to show us his wife stripping and being sexy all the time, maybe it's some kind of fetish they have and it's all good... but 'Halloween' was not the right choice to show Sherri Moon dancing and showing her body again. Another thing that Rob Zombie seems to borrow from his film "House of 1000 Corpses" is the fact that the characters are swearing most of the times and while I have nothing against foul language whatsoever, but I think it sounds repetitive and silly when we hear the f-word every 5 seconds. The amount of stupid lines that could be easily compared to some of the crappiest PG-rated films that came out throughout the last years. I'm really disappointed. I didn't think I was going to hate it so much, but I do and it's a shame because I really wanted to like this film. Better luck next time, I guess. My noble advice for all fans of the original 'Halloween' movie is: Don't watch this remake if you're sensitive, because this hurts a lot. I know I felt cheated, even if I'm not a fan of Carpenter's version either.

The film’s first act is simply a huge version of the 1978 classic’s opening scene; following Michael Myers as a child through his first murder(s). Though many people found this tedious and far too drawn-out, personally I relished the opportunity to get more than a half a minute of character-development on the antagonist. In fact, we don’t only get to see Michael growing up and being arrested, the film then goes on to show us his evolution in a mental asylum. Once again, I know that was less than appreciated by quite a number of people who saw the film, but I find the sequence fascinating every time I watch the movie. Things like the relevance of the mask and kitchen knife are explored more deeply than the original, and the brutality of the character of Michael Myers is more striking. Though this is not considered good to hardcore fans of the silent bogeyman-characteristics from the original. The protagonist of the piece is a character by the name of Laurie Strode, just as she is in the John Carpenter version, and she has two similar off-siders as the original (one of whom is portrayed by Danielle Harris of _Halloween 4_ & _5_ fame). Where the film does not advance in comparison to its predecessor is the dialogue between these three characters. They use virtually identical language to that of the 1978 film, which felt outdated and artificial even then (I can only hope that this was an intentional throwback by Mr. Zombie). The Ahab to Laurie Strode is Doctor Loomis, Michael Myers’ psychologist, acted by the consistently fantastic Malcolm McDowell. I believe it is his performance that makes me appreciate Rob Zombie’s remake so much. He steals every scene he is in with his overwhelming presence, particularly in the Zone 2 theatrical version of the film (which to my knowledge is unfortunately not available in Australia). _Final rating:★★★½ - I really liked it. Would strongly recommend you give it your time._