DVD Review: Halloween (Rob Zombie) (2007)

2008 remains a disappointing year for good, solid horror movies. With an apparently new slant on an old classic (which in my opinion, should have been left alone), Rob Zombie and his team of bad actors embark on a mission to destroy more than just people.

The movie can be split in two parts. The second half is the remake of John Carpenter’s original Halloween movie, and the first half, tells the story about the young Michael Myers, and what happened in the family house before his arrest. The first half was interesting and followed many a yarn on the beginnings of the main character.

Sherie Zombie (Rob’s wife) plays Michael’s mother. If it wasn’t for her off-screen marriage with Rob, I doubt she would have received the opportunity. Ideally, Sherie would be relegated to B-grade horror movies, and I wonder whether she’d still make the cut (no pun intended). The tiresome acting by most of the characters was overshadowed by Michael Myers. In this remake by Rob Zombie (an apt surname considering how I felt through the second half), Myers took on more of a Jason Voorhees (Friday 13th) personality than a Michael Myers. The second half of the movie should be watched by the undead, those wanting to be the undead, or simply people who are bored of life.

The holes in the plot were about as large as the holes in Sherie Zombie’s acting repertoire. The story never explained how Michael found his baby sister after over a decade of being in prison, without contact, and having no knowledge as to where she was and what she looked like, or the fact that she was adopted by another family. Divine or psychic, one may say. There was no other explanation. Also, I’ve never understood why a person with apparently superhuman powers, wants a relatively small kitchen knife for, but that’s not Rob Zombie’s fault. Everything else probably is, though.

The transition from the first half of the movie to the second half of the movie was ridiculous and it is difficult to believe that the movie was screened for errors and omissions before public release. In software terms, the movie would make an alpha release.

When I obtained the DVD, I was looking forward to having a different slant on an old classic. They either work, or don’t. The plot holes should have had the manuscript rejected until I saw that Zombie himself wrote the screenplay. Typical. There were also a few characters in the movie that were in his previous films. No risks were taken, and I think a good horror movie needs an element of risk to make it at least appear dangerous. Movies need directors that will go that extra mile for their audience which makes Steven Spielberg such a hit with me, and I don’t think Zombie had the audience in mind when he made this movie. What’s next? Jason Voorhees v Michael Myers? I wouldn’t be surprised (although Jason would win, of course). Perhaps Rob Zombie et al was concentrating more on his swollen head and bank account than the audiences who believed (past tense) that he could have (past tense) made a good film.

If it wasn’t for the first half of this movie, I would have been gravely disappointed, but like the movie Batman Begins and others like it, I found it interesting how the child became the Michael Myers that we all know and love today. If I had a hand in the movie itself, I would’ve stopped at the point before Michael escaped. At least the movie would have had resonance and less holes in the storyline.

Let’s keep our fingers crossed that Rob Zombie marries a good actress next time.

Like this review? Please give me your comments in my guestbook