Halloween (2007)

- written February 2008

Summary: Years ago Michael Myers killed his family but left his baby sister alive. Now’s he’s back to finish her off! Laurie is just trying to enjoy her Halloween, not realizing her brother is out there and his former shrink is trying to find him, before Michael finds her!           Overall: Let me give this as a heads up first: I’ve not liked either of Rob Zombie’s first 2 films.           There I said it and went into the film thinking that. But hey, I wanna have the best website I can and so was obligated to watch this film. And it’s just not good.           As you watch this film, you realize that Zombie is “remaking it...or in his words “re-imagining it.” Whatever you call it, you watch this film remembering part 1. And as Zombie adds new characters and new scenes and “re-imagines” classic ones such as Michael killing his sister at the beginning...it makes you really appreciate Carpenter’s work.           Some online reviewer call this a “bastardization of a classic.” I think the real problem is the film is so crude, so coarse, so perverse We have strippers and incest ideas and bestiality comments and the “f-word” being thrown out all over the place. The more I watched it, the more turned off I was by the movie. Was there any female character who didn’t go topless?           What made the first film scary was really because you had no idea what the guy’s motivation was. And here that’s what Zombie spends 40 minutes setting up. And frankly, by the time he’s done you almost empathize with Michael. But...why today...why now? Why this Halloween? Simply because his sister refuses to baby-sit him? Really? I liked Zombie’s attempt at motivation...but frankly it didn’t do enough to convince me. It’s scarier when you have no idea why someone does something. “Oh my God, why?” versus “Oh wow...totally understand.”           It’s a violent gory film and for anyone who missed the original, I’d argue go get the other one. But Zombie has a lot of diehard fans...I’m not one of them!           Comparison: Halloween meets Reservoir Dogs

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