Rob Zombie's HALLOWEEN - MiceChat reviews

[Fishbulb]

Alright kids, here's the Fishbulb take on it.

I won't bore you with back story like the film does. I will not wax poetic about how the original 1978 horror classic this film is based affected me when I saw it at the drive in at the tender age of 4 years old. I will simply tell you what I liked and didn't like about this re-imagining of a classic boogeyman story. Furthermore, because this is, essentially, a remake it is inevitable that comparisons to the original will be drawn. I did try to remain fair though.

I LOVE Rob Zombie's music and his persona. It's fun, it's twisted, it's psychotic and scary and full of geeky references. This man knows horror films and knows horror monsters so it would seem that he was a great fit to revitalize the Halloween franchise with his own high octane, visceral style. Nope.

The film opens on the dysfunctional Myers household on a typical morning. Mom the stripper is cooking eggs while arguing with her disabled boyfriend who is flirting with his step daughter over mouthfuls of cereal. A young Michael, our hero(?), is upstairs killing his pet rats. Lovely. Later that day little Michael is pushed over the line by some bullies which sparks his homicidal rampage. He kills a bully on the way home from school, then after mom leaves to go to work and being denied a trick or treat trip, he kills his step father, sister and sister's boyfriend.

Michael is moved the the Sanitarium, where he denies any responsibility for the murders before stabbing a nurse in the neck with a fork. Although it is clear that Michael has a psychotic connection with masks, we see in one shot that he is allowed to create and display his collection of home made disguises in his cell. Wouldn't they be discouraging that at a mental hospital?

After a bloody breakout from the sanitarium, and about 40 minutes into the film, the remake finally reaches the original's storyline of an anonymous (well not anymore) boogeyman returning to his home. This is where the film actually begins to pick up some steam and gain the creepy, suspenseful energy of the original.

A nubile Laurie Strode is the model teenager with cool friends. A far cry from the nerdy, virginal Jaime Lee Curtis take on the character. Laurie goes through her day at school, catching glances of Michael here and there, all to good effect. Later she settles in to her babysitting job and agrees to watch an additional child to cover for a friend.

The second half of the film, yes I said second HALF is the retelling of the original story that horror fans are looking for. Zombie does a great job of paying homage to the original's plot while twisting it just enough to call his own. One scene in particular where Laurie finds one of Michael's victims still alive while he is still in the house is particularly effective and very suspenseful. The problem is that by the time the interesting stuff begins to happen we've already checked out. We've grown callus to the gallons of dark blood, the overuse of a four letter expletive, and the appearance of the white Shattner mask in the shadows.

The movie is a failure but not without some true successes. When Zombie is paying homage to his source material and coloring it with his own palette the movie works great. It's only when he tries to infuse the boogey man with a human soul that the pic gets bogged down and boring. The boogeyman wasn't supposed to have a soul. The boogeyman is scary because he doesn't have one. Unfortunately this retelling gave him one and robbed the story of nearly all it's suspense, mystery, and interest.

I give it 2 out of four stars.

1- Don't bother
2- Wait and rent it
3- Matinee Price
4- Worth full price admission

[Xharryb]

I posted my thoughts in another existing thread, but I'll comment here also. I've actually seen quite a lot of comments similar to yours Fishbulb regarding the demistifying of the character. That seems to be a common complaint from purists and fans of the original, but I found that I liked it for exactly that reason. I like getting into the head of the killer. I liked that he wore a mask for a reason beyond just hiding his face. I especially like dthat there was a specific connection to the famous mask as opposed to just being a random mask he pulled off a shelf. He was obviously a disturbed little boy from the get go, but he got even crazier because he was locked away. Makes you think about what might have been if his treatment had been handled differently.

Overall, I think the biggest problem the film faces is that it's based on an existing property to which it will be endlessly compared. Some people will like the changes and others won't, but EVERYONE will make the comparisons. As a Rob Zombie film, I thought it was fantastic and showed growth from him as a film maker and a storyteller. As an update of Halloween, well, it's certainly not the classic genre starter the original was, but again, I like it because of what was added.

[TikiRoomLiz]

I gave it a three, since it had me in utter suspense at the end. The scene where Laurie is in the wall and Michael is looking for her ... oh man ... I just wanted something to happen. I'm sure my boyfriend did too since I had a death grip on his arm during that scene ... LOL!

I enjoyed the film myself, and I think it adds that I am a big fan of Rob Zombie ... both his music and movies (but not his comic books).

[filmfreak11]

I think it's better than most horror remakes. That's all I'll say for now.

[PirateMunkee]

I agree with everything you said Fishy except I happened to like it a little more. I had to look at it as Rob Zombie's Version is the story of a Psychopath and in that it does extremely well. It puts a human face upon Myers and makes it a little more creepy. John Carpenter's version is the story of the boogeyman. The Great White Shark who's only purpose is to kill.

[Tinkerbelle]

I loved it!
I loved the changes, I loved that Rob Zombies version is taken more from Michaels perspective (not quite the right term, but you know what I'm getting at)

I actualy felt bad for him, I loved that we see inside the psycopath mind.
He was a very scared very disturbed little boy who needed help, unfortunatly it didn't work.

I love that there was a story behind the masks not just something random. I love that everything he did was for a reason. it makes it scarier in my opinion, he was not mindlessly killing, he had purpose.

I of course loved Carpenters original, hell he started the whole genre that we all know and love the original has well earned it's cult classic status, but I think Zombies take on it enhanced it. it will never be the original it's not meant to be, it's Zombies version of the story. and frankly (don't throw tomatos) I liked it better, it had more grit and depth which I liked.

I give it 4 stars....

[painted windows]

The first 50 minutes of the movie were so bleh. It wasn't that scary until the end when Michael was terrorizing his little sister, and that was even that scary. The original was better I'd give 1.5 stars.

[splashmountainfreak]

I found myself laughing more often than I was jumping. There were a few suspenseful scenes, but I seem to remember the comedic value rather than the horror.

Such as when the nurse comes into to sit with Michael in the room after Dr. Loomis and his mom have left. She sits down across from him, picks up a newspaper, and turns pointedly away from him. I started laughing because they just made it waaaaay too obvious. A little imagination would have been nice.

"I'm Joe Grizzly bitch!" had me on the floor.

And the part where he's killing the Mexican janitor, and he's yelling "I was good to you Mikey, I was good to you!". It was just so incredibly cliché that I couldn't help but laugh.

I also didn't like how completely unbelievable it was, I mean, a crazed manic knife-wielding psycho has just escaped from a sanatorium via a bloody rampage and he isn't being searched for. He's not exactly someone that can really slip in with the crowd either. Its plot holes like that that really annoy me with most horror movies.

Perhaps I'm the wrong person to give a review as I'm not a fan of horror movies, but I thought this was way way way way too predictable, accidentally funny in too many places, and had too many plot holes to make it in any way believable, which made it much less scary.

[KISSman]

While I was pretty excited about going to see it, I thought Rob Zombie's "Halloween" was very mediocre.

IMO, the best part of the film was the backstory with Michael as a kid. Oh, and the fact that the movie opened with KISS' "God of Thunder" was pretty cool as well. Anyhow, as soon as he becomes the standard Michael Myers, it becomes a ho-hum film.

I can't think of a single moment when I was scared or on the edge of my seat. That's pretty bad for a 'horror' movie.

While I dig Rob Zombie's music, it doesn't change the fact that he is a pretty terrible filmmaker overall. The fact that he casted all the same people from his previous films (including his wife) seemed rather self-serving.

This is a rental at best.