In 1978 John Carpenter brought the world a little movie called Halloween. It helped to blow the budding slasher sub-genre wide open, and was followed by seven mostly decent sequels. But by 2007, the series had petered off with the last of the increasingly pedestrian sequels having been released five years earlier in 2002. Then along came Rob Zombie, and in 2007 and remake was born.
Michael Myers, a troubled young boy from an abusive household, is committed to Smith's Grove psychiatric hospital at ten years of age after murdering his family. Seventeen years later, Michael is now not only fully grown, but actually has become freakishly large and monstrous looking. He has been waiting and now he is ready to make his escape. He heads for his home town of Haddonfield, Illinois, where unsuspecting teenage babysitter Laurie Strode becomes his target for reasons that will later be revealed. Meanwhile his doctor, Dr. Loomis, races to warn the people of Haddonfield, and Laurie, before it's too late.
While keeping to the same basic plot as the original, Rob Zombie's remake does flesh out several aspects of the plot with more gory details. For example, Michael Myers' murder of his family and his escape from the psychiatric hospital. But there are a number of other changes as well.
As in the original films, Michael Myers is seemingly immortal. But in the remake his is also monstrous in size and possesses super human strength. The remake seems to strive to provide rationale for Michael's development into a deranged serial killer; abusive household etc. This is as opposed to the original which simply explained that he was evil and that was that. On the other hand there is no explanation of how or why he suddenly has super strength and abilities.
In true Rob Zombie fashion, Halloween also brings the gore in epic proportions. The original Halloween was quite violent for its time, and the sequels even more so. But this one has them all beat no questions asked. The extremely graphic violence helps to portray Michael as a particularly vicious monster, but it doesn't make up for whats missing. Namely, suspense and atmosphere. Rob Zombies remake is a slasher film, no doubt there, but it feels like an action movie melded with a torture porn. It is undoubtedly in keeping with the current trend in slasher flicks, but it just doesn't deliver the spooks the same as the original.
When all is said and done I guess they just don't make them like they used to and there's some things you just can't remake.
2 TV's to the face out of 5
Rated R for strong brutal bloody violence and terror throughout, sexual content, graphic nudity and language.
Watch the Halloween trailer.
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