Halloween [DVD] [2007]

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Editorial reviews

Amazon.co.uk review
pMore of a supercharged revamp than a remake, Rob Zombie's take on John Carpenter's iHalloween/i expands the back story of masked killer Michael Myers in an attempt to examine the motivation for his first deadly attack, as well as some reasons for his longevity as a horror icon. Zombie's Myers is a blank-eyed teen (played by Daeg Faerch) whose burgeoning mental problems are left unchecked in a horrific home environment; harassed by schoolmates, a randy sister, and his mother's deadbeat boyfriend (William Forsythe, terrific as usual), Myers' homicidal explosion seems inevitable, and intervention by Dr. Sam Loomis (Malcolm McDowell, who offers a fast-talking, hippiefied version of the Donald Pleasance character) does little to impede his development into a mute, unstoppable killing machine (Tyler Mane) bent on finishing off the only survivor of his family's massacre--his sister, now grown into teenaged Laurie Strode (Scout Taylor-Compton). Opening up the psychological motivation of a cipher like Michael Myers is an interesting approach, but Zombie's script possesses neither a depth of character nor dialogue to offer more than a clichéd thumbnail character sketch. Zombie's iHalloween/i isn't terribly suspenseful, either; he has a keen eye for visuals and the details of chaotic environments, but his scares are nothing more than brutal showcases for his special effects team. The end result barely surpasses the original film's numerous sequels, though the Who's Who of cult and character actors in the cast (including Zombie regulars Sid Haig, Bill Moseley and Ken Foree, as well as Brad Dourif, Udo Kier, Clint Howard, Richard Lynch, Danny Trejo, Dee Wallace, and Danielle Harris) adds a touch of late-night monster movie charm. However, the film's best performance belongs to the director's spouse, Sheri Moon Zombie, who brings unexpected pathos to the role of Myers' downtrodden mother.i-- Paul Gaita/i/p

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Customer reviews

review by: date: 2009-07-02 rating:
Stick to Halloween and Halloween H20.
I don^t really see the point in the making of this film. Remake the original movie ONLY if you can do it better. This isn^t better. br /It shows more of Michael Myers past killings and life in the asylum, then the killings of the teenagers. br /So it^s a more longer, gore filled, with naked females in sex scenes. br / The original "Halloween" had an innocence to it. It was one of the first horror/slasher movies to be really successful. It stood on it^s suspenseful story alone. br /If you^re a serious movie buff. As well as horror/slasher fan then you have to have the original film DVD in your collection. br /Then "Halloween H20". Which is a perfect follow up film and conclusion to the story. It shows how the only original survivor Jamie Lee Curtis, now has to stop running from Myers and fight back. It is an excellent conclusion. br /Besides these 2 Halloween movies. Give the rest a wide miss. br /That includes this poor original remake and all the other poor sequels.

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review by: date: 2009-06-29 rating:
A film of two halves.
If I am completely honest, I shudder when I hear the words remake, or (even worse) re-imagining mentioned, and that shudder turns into a full body quake that results in unfathomable rage when it's attached to a well-loved original. However, as a man of reason I understand why these movies are being made, and even if filmmakers are selling their creative souls quicker than a forbidden cheeseburger at a fat camp, it really is about bringing back a franchise that is on the way out, and sometimes it works out for the better. br / br /I enjoyed the remake of The Texas Chainsaw massacre; The Hills have Eyes and even, to a much lesser extent, The Amityville Horror. Even non-horror movies have done admirable jobs such as the revival of the Batman franchise. br / br /Although despite being understanding, I put off watching this film for two years because like a lot of people I hold the 70's giallo-inspired movie in high regard; afraid they were going to abuse the original, removing all aspects of horror and replacing it with enough gore and TA to put Eli Roth to shame. I buried the movie into the darkest recesses of my mind, forgetting it even existed, until one day I stumbled across a review and noticed it was directed by rob zombie, wondering why I never noticed that before I decided to take the plunge, I mean I rob zombie has a decent record with horror movies. It was a decision I came to regret. br / br /I gave the movie a chance, and after watching for 10 minutes it slowly dawned on me that this wasn't a quick look at Michael as a child, to immortalise him as a feared psychopath with complete disregard for human life, before moving on. No, they were going to show us his childhood in detail, and that they did, with cliché after cliché thrown in(more on that later). br / br /The reason that the original was scary wasn't just the jump scares, but it was the unknown. Who was Michael? What drove him? Why was he so hell bent on killing? These were all questions we were asking, and the quick scene of him killing his sister at the start was all we had to go on, that and his incarceration in an asylum, so it was this sense of not knowing that gave us chills, that he was capable of so much more than what we were seeing. It worked well, and it was what made tension so unbearable, yet fantastic. br / br /The remake however, exposes us to Michael as a cliché-horror-movie child, with an emotional abusive father, a stripper mum and a sister that could be mistaken for a lady of the night, coupled with bullying at school and extracurricular activities killing animals, the filmmaker tries to rationalise Michael. Which ruins the movie, and makes him seem less daunting and more human, which is like taking the sting away from a wasp. By showing us his human side, Rob Zombie is taking the mystery away from Michael, and trying to replace it with empathy, but it just doesn't work. It's like going to a magic show but before enjoying the mystery of what you about to watch, you get to see a demonstration of how each trick is done. Why are we supposed to empathise with his childhood, when he kills without prejudice? In the original he also kills, but it's part of the horror, as the motivation for killing is only known by Michael, and the idea of him severing his only link to normality by going after his sister is all speculation. Yet, this film spends the first half of the movie establishing a childhood and a reason for the way he is, only to completely disregard the first half of the movie in the second half, and it came off feeling convoluted. If it wasn't for Mike Myers himself then it could have been mistaken for two different movies. It's a shame that it took Rob Zombie 40-odd minutes to do less than what carpenter did in shorter than 10 minutes. br / br /There are small sparks of light in the movie though, like Rob Zombie doing a commendable job of directing with a few specific scenes; like when we see the camera pan up with Michael sitting outside on a step and the clown mask smirking up into the sky as it sits on his head, or when he incorporates the giallo-inspired aspects of the original into the movie. As well as Tyler Mane, of previous wrestling fame, doing a great job as Michael Myers by feeling completely ominous. br / br /But it just isn't enough to recommend this movie, and after watching this I am dreading seeing the original again as I feel they have altered my perspective of Michael away from brooding horror, to a guy with serious emotional problems.

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review by: date: 2009-04-14 rating:
Amazing
This is a great film directed by Rob zombie.He has made it a lot more interesting then the previous Halloweens.It keeps you on your toes and it certainly made me jump.

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review by: date: 2009-03-22 rating:
Rob Zombie Garbage
The most pointless remake I have ever seen-this is the equivalent of Casablanca being remade starring Amy Winehouse and Pete Doherty- you don't care for one character in this movie- lowlife garbage.


review by: Stuff lover date: 2009-03-03 rating:
Doesn't cut quite deep enough
I finally got around to watching the Rob Zombie Halloween recently, after having heard good and bad things about it from friends and reviewers. I think the John Carpenter original was a classic, one of the defining films of the slasher genre (although may say that statement is damning with faint praise). Michael Myers has returned what seems like a thousand times since and, as is so often the case with the icons for blood and gore, he has brought diminishing returns with him. Even in the worst of his appearances though, the unstoppable, unfeeling Michael has been fascinating and what Zombie has sought to do here is not just remake the classic, but to get far more under the skin of Myers. br / br /Rob Zombie has created a movie of two halves. He starts out by looking at the childhood of Michael Myers. When we meet him he's the middle child in a white trash household with a slutty older sister, a mother who seems well intentioned but leaves him every night to go stripping, and a layabout abusive stepfather. His baby sister, Laurie, will become much more important later in the film. Michael is a quiet kid in need of a haircut and with a liking for masks. It turns out, as we are introduced to a psychologist named Sam Loomis, that Michael also likes killing small animals, and shortly after this revelation he graduates to killing grown humans too. This extended opening gambit, and the scenes in the sanatorium where Michael is decamped to are certainly not bad, and stretched out over a whole movie may have succeeded in getting under the skin of this sociopath. Rob Zombie's Halloween needs to move onto the remake element though, so there's no real time to dwell on any of this and we're left not quite understanding just why Michael is such a bad bastard. br / br /The second half of the movie is far more familiar to fans of the original Halloween as we are introduced to a teenage girl named Laurie Strode (whom we will later find out is adopted). She's a nice, decent girl, a bit cheeky, but normal. Then all hell breaks loose when Michael Myers escapes and returns to his hometown where he slowly stalks and kills Laurie's friends and their boyfriends. Carpenter's original built up to the murders beautifully with creepy shots of Laurie (feeling someone watching her) always just missing Michael at the corner of her eye. Zombie's Halloween doesn't have the time for this build up and because of this the remake element fails to stand up to the original. This is not to say Zombie is not a good director, his crumbling vision of Haddonfield with paint chipping off of its picket fences is well realised and he has an eye for a shot. He lets himself down by letting things get a bit too exploitative with a slightly overdone rape scene and the fact that almost every one of the young female cast members has her breasts exposed at one point or another. Those at tangential to the fact that this film is let down by trying too much and delivering not enough in return. br / br /The adult cast members can't be criticised although the teenage fodder throughout the movie (including Scout Taylor-Lawton as Laurie) are unimpressive and its hard to root for them as they are bumped off. Tyler Mane has an imposing physical presence as the adult Michael which works well, and Malcolm MacDowell is an old hand and delivers a more nervous, twitchy form of obsession to his Sam Loomis than Donald Pleasance brought us in John Carpenter's original. As several people have remarked in other reviews here, Zombie's wife Sheri Moon Zombie is spot on as Myers' shattered mother. br / br /In the end this is a brave attempt and not the triumph or the epic fail that some people would have you believe. Halloween suffers by being less than the sum of its parts but its still good, gory fun and is certainly worth a look. br /

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