.jpg)
Halloween (2007)
An Uninspired Remake
Directed By: Rob Zombie
Starring: Tyler Mane, Malcolm McDowell, & Scout Taylor-Compton
MPAA Rating: “Unrated”
Starring: Tyler Mane, Malcolm McDowell, & Scout Taylor-Compton
MPAA Rating: “Unrated”
Rob Zombie was supposed to be the savior of the Halloween franchise...the man who could restore it to its original greatness. Zombie was very vocal about his dislike of the other Halloween sequels and insisted that he was the man who could once again make Michael Myers scary. Well, to be blunt, Rob Zombie failed...miserably. This is not to say that his version of Halloween is necessarily bad, but it certainly isn’t scary and he definitely missed what made John Carpenter’s classic so amazing. What Zombie brings to the table is more violence and more gore, but less creativity and less inspiration. To expand upon Carpenter and Debra Hill’s original story, he tacks on a useless and two-dimensional back story that has been exploited by just about every slasher series in the history of film and, when he is handling the original material, it is all just mindless mimicry.
Michael Myers (played by Daeg Faerch) is just a normal ten year old boy...except that he lives with an abusive and physically-handicapped stepfather, a stripper mother, and a whore of an older sister, and that he enjoys killing animals in brutal ways. On Halloween night, he brutally massacres everyone in his family, except for his mother and his baby sister who he affectionately calls “Boo.” As a result, he is locked away and placed under the care of Doctor Samuel Loomis (McDowell, in a wonderful performance). Over the course of his hospitalization, he kills a nurse (Sybil Danning) and proves that there is nothing human left within his mind. Years later, he escapes and begins a quest to find his baby sister, Laurie Strode (Taylor-Compton). Along the way, he inexplicably kills a whole lot of people who don’t add anything to the story, except for their severed limbs.
What has Rob Zombie done for Halloween, you ask? Well, he has assembled a nice cast. Malcolm McDowell is a worthy successor to the role of Dr. Loomis and Scout Taylor-Compton is fairly decent as a Jamie Lee Curtis wannabe. I particularly appreciated the casting of Danielle Harris (who played Laurie’s daughter in Halloween 4 & 5) as Annie Brackett. Brad Dourif is also another welcome addition. I would have rather seen Adrienne Barbeau’s deleted scene, however, than a dull scene with Sid Haig (who, no doubt, was included because he is good friends with Zombie). Michael Myers also looks his best since the original film; I really dug the mask. The musical score (with a slight variation of the original theme music) is nice and eerie. Zombie also has a few inspired directing shots that seem to mirror some of Carpenter’s without every blatantly copying them. The film is also entertaining enough for me to give it a passing score (no matter how slight).
Now, on to the negative! Who edited this film? It certainly seemed as though Myers himself hacked it up with that butcher knife, because there was no coherent narrative. The film jumped around endlessly, making it impossible to figure out just where exactly Michael Myers was at any given time. Is he here or is he across town? We never can be sure. Also, the dialog is cheesy and dull, perhaps even painful at times. Our three leading ladies (especially the lovely Kristina Klebe) are characterized as being nothing more than whiny losers and so it makes it hard to care for any of them. The entire prologue depicting Michael’s childhood, despite easily being the best part of the film, is disposable and clichéd. Zombie packs the movie with too much violence, too much sex, and too much language, losing the classiness and respectability that was Halloween (1978). However, what Zombie lacks in originality and tastefulness, he almost rectifies with nice production values and nearly two hours of guilty entertainment. Given the fact that his first film was the abysmal House of 1000 Corpses, I think it is fair to say that he has made a lot of progress.
Michael Myers (played by Daeg Faerch) is just a normal ten year old boy...except that he lives with an abusive and physically-handicapped stepfather, a stripper mother, and a whore of an older sister, and that he enjoys killing animals in brutal ways. On Halloween night, he brutally massacres everyone in his family, except for his mother and his baby sister who he affectionately calls “Boo.” As a result, he is locked away and placed under the care of Doctor Samuel Loomis (McDowell, in a wonderful performance). Over the course of his hospitalization, he kills a nurse (Sybil Danning) and proves that there is nothing human left within his mind. Years later, he escapes and begins a quest to find his baby sister, Laurie Strode (Taylor-Compton). Along the way, he inexplicably kills a whole lot of people who don’t add anything to the story, except for their severed limbs.
What has Rob Zombie done for Halloween, you ask? Well, he has assembled a nice cast. Malcolm McDowell is a worthy successor to the role of Dr. Loomis and Scout Taylor-Compton is fairly decent as a Jamie Lee Curtis wannabe. I particularly appreciated the casting of Danielle Harris (who played Laurie’s daughter in Halloween 4 & 5) as Annie Brackett. Brad Dourif is also another welcome addition. I would have rather seen Adrienne Barbeau’s deleted scene, however, than a dull scene with Sid Haig (who, no doubt, was included because he is good friends with Zombie). Michael Myers also looks his best since the original film; I really dug the mask. The musical score (with a slight variation of the original theme music) is nice and eerie. Zombie also has a few inspired directing shots that seem to mirror some of Carpenter’s without every blatantly copying them. The film is also entertaining enough for me to give it a passing score (no matter how slight).
Now, on to the negative! Who edited this film? It certainly seemed as though Myers himself hacked it up with that butcher knife, because there was no coherent narrative. The film jumped around endlessly, making it impossible to figure out just where exactly Michael Myers was at any given time. Is he here or is he across town? We never can be sure. Also, the dialog is cheesy and dull, perhaps even painful at times. Our three leading ladies (especially the lovely Kristina Klebe) are characterized as being nothing more than whiny losers and so it makes it hard to care for any of them. The entire prologue depicting Michael’s childhood, despite easily being the best part of the film, is disposable and clichéd. Zombie packs the movie with too much violence, too much sex, and too much language, losing the classiness and respectability that was Halloween (1978). However, what Zombie lacks in originality and tastefulness, he almost rectifies with nice production values and nearly two hours of guilty entertainment. Given the fact that his first film was the abysmal House of 1000 Corpses, I think it is fair to say that he has made a lot of progress.
0 comments:
Post a Comment