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"Make it your own."
John Carpenter sent those very words Rob Zombie's way when he had asked the legendary director, indirectly, how he should remake his classic 1978 slasher flick. The phrase "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" couldn't apply more traditionally to a film than it does here.
Carpenter's low-key, morally righteous (arguably) but superbly well-executed horror classic is re-imagined with - instead of small-town folks and a sense of brutal calmness – a bevy of white trash stereotypes, foul-mouthed teens, dysfunctional families, and a limitless mean streak. While Carpenter's film was light on the bloodshed (nearly bloodless, in fact), on-screen violence and profanity, anyone who knows Zombie knows he likes to push buttons. And as Carpenter told him, "make it your own." Zombie's Halloween is dark, unforgiving, brutally violent, and totally unrelenting.
Not content with just slightly reworking the original film's plot, Zombie dedicates the first 45 minutes of his re-imagining to the backstory of a 10 year old Myers, then proceeds to follow it up, very loosely, with the events that took place in Carpenter’s classic. Humanizing Myers as Zombie does during the film's opening act had many purists, myself included, up in arms and that is very understandable. Michael has always been a senseless killing machine with no feelings or motive. We can only assume he murdered simply because he enjoyed it. His connection to the holiday in which he chooses to butcher his family members was never explained until much later in the series and, thus, took the franchise in a direction that had been decidedly ignored in Halloween 6’s sequels, Halloween: H20 and Halloween: Resurrection. But Zombie manages to do what I never thought possible, and that is maintain Myers frightening facets & characteristics while also giving the character reason and explanation for his rage. Of course, purists will still denounce Zombie's decision to do this, but Rob has always seemed fascinated with questions posed by serial killers inner-workings; this is seemingly yet another way for him to quell his curiosity.
Although Zombie has always been fantastic at casting his films, too many B-list stars clutter Halloween's cast list whereas a remake of this caliber should, by all rights, have had bigger names to accompany its high importance. That is not to say that I didn't enjoy seeing Brad Dourif (Child’s Play), Malcolm McDowell (A Clockwork Orange), and the always-excellent Danny Trejo (Machete) chew the scenery, but they never came close to the iconic presence of - and probably won't be as revered as - the late, great Donald Pleasance or Jamie Lee Curtis (the original Halloween's Dr. Loomis and Laurie Strode, respectively). McDowell, no matter how great he may be as a much crasser, more grounded Sam Loomis, never channels the charismatic excellence of Pleasance.
It is simply astounding, though, how far Zombie has come as a director. From the out-there-as-all-hell, faux-music video vibe of House of 1000 Corpses to the very realistic, very gritty Devil's Rejects, to the film in question which can only be described as a seedy, stylish, sometimes surreal semi-recreation of one of America's first slasher classics. Imagery has always been important to Zombie, as expressed in his music videos, and that is at the forefront here. Blood is a deep red, Myers' memorably eerie mask is the best its looked in years, and Zombie's camera angles so dead-on throughout I nearly applauded them. Rob has done something else here as well - either through writing or directing - and that is make Michael Myers scary again. Fantastic lighting, excellent cinematography, and Rob's creative direction won’t sit well with everyone, but fans of the musician/director will be more than satisfied.
I was particularly surprised to see that Dimension billed this two-disc set as a director's cut (that is, as opposed to an obnoxiously over-designed "unrated" tag as we're so used to seeing) and chose to let Zombie give the fans of the movie substantial amounts of additional footage. The 11 added minutes contain, first and foremost, more character and plot development. There is a rather disturbing and completely unnecessary rape scene thrown in there (Zombie loves those rapes, doesn't he?) that takes the place of the theatrical print's big-budget break-out sequence, but the remaining footage only betters the picture.
You will either love or hate Halloween for everything that it is and isn’t, but don't sit down on your comfy sofa, Blu-ray inserted in player, and pretend you have no idea what you're getting into. This 2007 re-imagining was written and directed by Rob Zombie, so expect a lot of Zombie-esque touches (as just mentioned, rape included) that don't quite gel with the prototypical Halloween formula. But as Rob Zombie's take on the franchise, it's a grungy, atmospheric, and downright effective slasher flick that scores big in my book.
8/10
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