Halloween

December 17, 2007

Rated: Unrated Runtime: 121 min Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

I really hated Rob Zombie’s first movie, House of 1000 Corpses and as a result didn’t even bother with The Devils Rejects, so naturally I skipped his version of Halloween as well when it came to theaters. Looks like I made a mistake as Halloween is an excellent movie and in many ways, is better than the original.

In the original John Carpenter movie we start off with a point of view shot of Michael as he watches his sister fooling around with her boyfriend, then as he gets a knife, puts on the mask and stabs her to death. It’s an effective opening, but doesn’t tell you anything about Michael. Rob Zombie takes a different approach, letting us see a bit of his family life (it really sucks) and his school life (also sucks) before he loses it and starts the killing. His sister also isn’t his first kill, in fact, she’s the 4th. That’s not counting the animals of course, cause all good sociopaths start off with animals.

Now you may be thinking that this is just a bunch of unneeded info, we know Michael is nuts so let’s just get to the escape from the sanitarium and let the killing begin. Well, you’d be wrong. Seeing a little of the background made me just for an instant root for Michael, after all, the first couple of victims certainly deserved a bit of punishment. We also get to see quite a bit of Michael in the sanitarium, and we learn more about his masks and why he keeps his face hidden. The overall effect is most excellent, so that when we finally see the adult Michael Myers in his own handmade mask, he’s just creepy as hell.

Zombie certainly made this Halloween based on his own vision, but he kept parts in that fans will approve of. The clown mask at the beginning, and the mask he made famous (which was a William Shatner mask modified a bit with larger eye holes) are there of course, and once Michael grows up he no longer speaks. He’s also quite strong, and it takes a lot to kill him.

The acting is overall much better than expected (Malcolm McDowell does a fine job) and the effects are spot on… plenty of blood, but not so much that it looks fake. The methods of killing are also as they should be, stabbing.. lots of stabbing. Tension? Check, Zombie put together some good hide ‘n seek moments with Michael and just the right amount of in-the-nick-of-time getaways.

It’s not perfect though, there’s a plot hole the size of a cineplex that still bugs me. Michael has been in a sanitarium for 17 years before he escapes, and when he does the first action he takes is to find his little sister. But how? Though she lives in the same town Michael grew up in, her identity has changed and he has no knowledge of her new name, where she lives, or what she currently looks like. Yet, he gets back to Haddonfield and immediately finds her. It just didn’t make any sense.

Other than that though, this movie is close to perfect. I still can’t believe the same man who made House of 1000 Corpses is responsible for this fantastic version of Halloween. Maybe I should try The Devils Rejects after all.

Posted by John | Filed Under 4 Stars, DVD, Daeg Faerch, Danielle Harris, Danny Trejo, Horror, Malcolm McDowell, Sheri Moon Zombie, Tyler Mane, Unrated