Halloween (2007)

User Rating:

6.0/10   

Director:

Rob Zombie

Writers (WGA):

Rob Zombie (screenplay)
John Carpenter (1978 screenplay) ...

Release Date:

31 August 2007 (USA)

Genre:

Horror

Tagline:

Evil Has A Destiny

Plot:

After being committed for 17 years, Michael Myers, now a grown man and still very dangerous, escapes from the mental institution (where he was committed as a 10 year old) and he immediately returns to Haddonfield, where he wants to find his baby sister, Laurie. Anyone who crosses his path is in mortal danger.

Plot Keywords:

Boyfriend | Suicide | Dysfunctional Family | Teenager | Stripper

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Malcolm McDowell	...	Dr. Samuel Loomis
Scout Taylor-Compton	...	Laurie Strode
Tyler Mane	...	Michael Myers
Daeg Faerch	...	Michael Myers, age 10
Sheri Moon Zombie	...	Deborah Myers
William Forsythe	...	Ronnie White
Danielle Harris	...	Annie Brackett
Kristina Klebe	...	Lynda
Skyler Gisondo	...	Tommy Doyle
Danny Trejo	...	Ismael Cruz
Hanna Hall	...	Judith Myers
Tom Towles	...	Larry Redgrave
Bill Moseley	...	Zach 'Z-Man' Garrett
Leslie Easterbrook	...	Patty Frost
Steve Boyles	...	Stan Payne

Also Known As:

Hall9ween (USA) (working title)
Halloween 9 (USA) (working title)
Halloween: Retribution (USA) (working title)
Rob Zombie's Halloween (USA) (complete title)
Untitled Rob Zombie Halloween Project (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for strong brutal bloody violence and terror throughout, sexual content, graphic nudity and language.

Runtime:

109 min | USA:121 min (unrated version) | Brazil:83 min (cut version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | SDDS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Canada:16+ (Quebec) | Canada:18A (Alberta/British Columbia/Manitoba/Nova Scotia) | Ireland:18 | UK:18 | Canada:18A (Ontario) | Netherlands:16 | France:-16 | Singapore:M18 | Australia:R | Norway:18 | Hong Kong:III | Taiwan:R-18 | Finland:K-18 | Germany:18 (cut) | Philippines:R-13 (cut) | Argentina:16 | Italy:VM14 | USA:R (certificate #43755) | Portugal:M/18 | Germany:18 (SPIO/JK) (uncut) | New Zealand:R18 | Japan:R-15 | South Korea:18 | Australia:MA (cable rating) | Iceland:16 | Singapore:R21 (director's cut) (cut) | Brazil:14 (heavily cut)

Filming Locations:

Altadena, California, USA

Company:

Dimension Films

Trivia:

The inclusion of the plot line about Michael Meyers' early days at the mental institution under the care of Sam Loomis is a nod to a plot line added in by John Carpenter for the TV viewing of the original Halloween (1978). As told by Carpenter, when the original film was first sold to TV, they demanded added scenes to replace the edited portions of the murder scenes. So Carpenter recalled 'Donald Pleasance', the original Sam Loomis to film scenes of him at the hospital taking care of Michael.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When the ten-year-old Michael Myers goes to get the knife from the drawer to kill his sister, as he removes it the knife bends slightly, revealing that it to be a fake.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Michael Myers - Child: Come on, sweetie pie. Morning, Elvis. You're a pretty Elvis, aren't you? Yes, you are.

Movie Connections:

References Cool Hand Luke (1967)

Soundtrack:

Love Hurts

One giant failure

When I heard that Rob Zombie had been chosen to remake "Halloween" I thought it was an interesting pick. Interesting as in wrong and not suited for this kind of project, but, hey, maybe that was exactly what was needed: someone who had a completely different approach to the story of a man we've all come to know so well since 1978 (why they didn't just wait one more year for the remake to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the franchise, God only knows). So, was Zombie the right choice? Nah!

Personally, I'm not a big fan of anything the man has made up until this point. Each of his previous movies has been an incoherent and chaotic mess. Zombie thinks foul language, twisted story lines and perverted freaks make for a scary horror movie. Well, not in my book, they don't. You can tell that for the remake of "Halloween" Zombie was trying to restrain himself, but his "style" still shines through. Worse still, his obvious weaknesses in writing dialog and making his actors play naturally become apparent in a story as dependent on suspense and likable characters as this one.

The whole idea of making this movie part prequel, part remake of the original is stupid. It seems like the craziest overestimation of a movie's capabilities since Sam Raimi decided to have three villains in one "Spider-Man" movie. There's just no way this whole story can be told within one motion picture. Besides, who ever really wanted to see Michael's origins? What made Michael Myers so scary in the first place was that he was an evil, dehumanized monster. Getting to know him means taking away half of his appeal.

Of course, it's hard to make a "Halloween" movie in 2007 and still surprise an audience that has seen this kind of movie countless times by now. Then again, no one forced Dimension to green-light this project in the first place. It has just been a bad idea all along and the outcome isn't even good enough to be a throwaway, by-the-numbers slasher-flick, let alone a remake of the mighty "Halloween".

Rob Zombie is to blame most of all. He turned all the characters into Southern rednecks who curse, f..k and drink 24/7. Michael Myers himself is now a long haired metal-head (who listened to KISS in the 70's because... THEY WERE MASKED! Isn't that a great analogy?). In this version of "Halloween" Laurie is a faceless heroine who is every bit as foul-mouthed as her bitchy friends. And Dr. Loomis - well, Malcom McDowell does his best, but Donald Pleasence owned this role and there's not one scene in which it isn't apparent that Pleasence could have done the job ten times better.

McDowell is still the shining light in this ensemble. Most of the cast doesn't do as well as him, most notably the "teenage" girls, but maybe they're not to blame for the horribly contrived dialog they have to recite. Then there are names like Brad Dourif, William Forsythe or Udo Kier - all very cool actors, but what purpose do they serve here in roles that mostly don't have any significance at all? It's typically Zombie to throw together people and ideas like that and hope that the sum of all he thinks is cool will be bigger than the individual parts.

What about the death scenes? Well, they are as trite as they come. There's not one original kill in the movie and some deaths have simply been lifted from the original and repeated with more blood and less tension. Add to that more than a few obvious continuity errors and some scenes that are downright laughable (for instance, when young Michael tapes his sleeping stepfather to a chair and the guy doesn't even wake up) and you got yourself one of the messiest horror movies of the year.

I like Rob Zombie for his passion about horror movies, but let's face it: the guy isn't a good director. He was given a great opportunity here and he messed it up. "Halloween" is one giant failure and an indicator for Zombie that maybe it would be better for him to give up making movies.