The backstory provided by the new film is superficial at best. Okay, sure Michael Myers was once a screechy, irritating, unsympathetic kid who grew up in a white-trash household. But somehow this ‘ordinary kid gone wrong’ grows up to be just another run-of-the-mill slasher villain who can snap off any restrainst with a shrug, overpower any number of heavily-armed guards, and shake off .38 caliber bullets fired at him at close range. Rob Zombie doesn’t ‘humanize’ Michael Myers, he makes him look more unbelievable than ever.
Actually, I did think Zombie did add one distinctly creepy element to the story: The adult Michael Myers w/o the mask looks an awful lot like Rob Zombie. This film is pretty much just a ‘Mary Sue’ adventure, in which Zombie has cast himself as the unstoppable killer, one with a pole-dancing stripper mother who looks remarkably like…the woman married to Rob Zombie. There’s baggage there that not even Freud would want to touch.
Halloween I and II were the only Halloween movies. Period. The rest was just gratuitous franchising. John Carpenter’s early horror movies (The Fog, The Thing, Halloween) were great, suspense-filled romps that I quite enjoyed. They weren’t all about gore or gratuitous nudity or anything, they did just fine on their own merits. I even liked Halloween II, even though it was a different director. Dino DeLaurentiis managed to keep in line with Carpenter’s vision there, which was great.
When I heard that Zombie was doing a Halloween remake, I was very concerned. I was really hoping he wouldn’t turn it into a slasher/T&A flick and ruin all that was good and pure about the original. He never listens to me though. That’s exactly what it seems to have turned into. I’m torn on whether or not I want to see it. It sounds pretty trashy.
At the risk of starting another debate about the qualities of this movie - yes, there are boobies - 3 pairs to be exact, and one full frontal - The ‘tramp sister’ at the beginning - and the two friends of the baby sister torward the end - yes, they are supposed to be “teenagers” - but a) we know the actors are not and b) this is no worse than the majority of the other “slasher flicks” that are out there - in fact, I would say that the nudity in this film was more ‘natural’ than some of the obvious ‘only for TandA sake’ that has been in other such flicks. (it didnt seem to be there just for the sake of being there).
The theater I saw this in obviously wasn’t checking IDs for this rated R movie, as shortly after sitting down the row behind me filled with a gaggle of giggling, gossiping high-school girls. Oh man, this is gonna suck I thought. Then, halfway through this piece of crap movie, when the absolutely inane high-school bimbo characters were yakking away with their ridiculous dialogue in their annoying squeeky voices, one of the real-life high school girls behind me blurted out in disgust, “This is stupid! Who talks like that?” I wanted to turn around and hug her.
I have a good friend who is a die-hard RZ fan who said she walked out of the movie and demanded her money back. She e-mailed me and said, "I want to take out a full page ad in VARIETY that says “Rob, PLEASE GO BACK TO MUSIC AND STOP REMAKING GOOD MOVIES.”
The reason that it seemed a tad off to me was that all three of the characters were specifically high school girls. Had they all be college freshman or something it wouldn’t have jarred me as much. I just thought it was strange that every set of naked breasts in the movie belonged to a teen age girl. shrug…maybe because the movie sucked so much I noticed it more or something.
I don’t disagree with that - they were ‘clearly’ high school students - I guess I just saw them the same way I’ve always seen them in these movies - about to get killed - their nudity didn’t enter into the equation in my mind - and i’ll re-iterate that, IMHO, the way it was handled in the movie is exactly how it should have been in - not in a strictly to “titilate” sense - all three couples were killed as a result of the coupling that was going on - the first set because she didnt take him out for halloween, the second because they were in his house and the third - well, I’m not as sure on the third set - and why did he not finish her off? Did the second one remind him more of his older sister or something? Except for the truck driver - all of his kills seemed very focused on the individual he was killing - they weren’t random in any way.
Finally saw it today- I liked it well enough but what has not been mentioned, which made it more enjoyable for me, was spotting the Rom Zombie players-
William Forsythe, Ken Foree, Bill Moseley, Leslie Easterbrook, Sid Haig, Danny Trejo and Tom Towles, AND special appearances by normal-looking Clint Howard, Brad Dourif & Udo Kier.
Dannielle Harris, who played Annie Brackett, the sheriff (Brad Dourif)'s teen daughter IS THIRTY! So much for “teenage” boobies.
