The day has finally arrived… Halloween. And what better way to celebrate this dark holiday than to watch just that? Not much, I’d say. So, for this years Horror-a-thon, I’ve chosen to watch Rob Zombie’s Halloween instead of the original. Why? Because I think it’s a much better film, that’s why. And I know that the original Halloween is a classic and that it broke a lot of ground when it comes to slasher-flicks, but I just can’t stand the original (and most of its sequels). I’m fully aware of what people will think about that statement but I stand by it. The original stands proud with a 7.9 IMDB-score and a 94% Fresh on Rotten in comparison to the remake’s 6.0 and 25%, but ratings isn’t everything…. which you all know. Anyway, the remake was written and directed by Rob Zombie and it stars Malcom McDowell as Dr. Loomis, Brad Douriff as Sheriff Brackett, Scout Taylor-Compton as Laurie and Tyler Mane as Michael Myers, as well as Daeg Faerch as Michael at age 10. But on to the movie then, shall we..
We all know the story of Michael Myers stalking Laurie Strode and her friends on Halloween night and Zombie’s remake doesn’t change anything specific about that, but what it does is, it gives us a greater insight in “Why” Michael goes on this killing spree. The first 40 minutes or so is focused on Michael as a young boy, living with his mother, an older sister, a baby sister and a stepfather, where we see him being bullied, both in school and at home. The first thing in this movie that really sticks with you, is something everyone that have ever been bullied has thought about at least once in their lives…. taking out revenge on the bully (I’m pretty sure some of them did more than just think about it, too). And Michael does just that. He whacks the kid with a branch and when the bully falls down, Michael keeps on whacking him into a bloody pulp. Later on, he cuts his stepfathers throat, beat his sisters boyfriend to death with a bat and stabs his sister (while wearing the infamous Shatner-mask) seventeen times, leaving only his baby sister and mother alive. Needless to say, he ends up in a sanitarium, where he is put under Dr. Samuel Loomis’ psychiatric care. While in this psych-ward, he begins crafting weird looking masks, telling his mother that they hide his ugliness, and all the while becoming more and more withdrawn, always wearing these masks. After a while, Michael murders a nurse in the sanitarium with a fork, thus setting it straight once and for all… he is a complete psychopath and there is no “curing” him.
We flash forward 15 years, and we see Michael grown up… and yeah, he grew up BIG! Tyler Mane is one ginormous dude, standing at 6′ 9″(here shown next to Danny Trejo (to the right), standing at 5′ 7″), so the very sight of him is downright scary. For now, verything seems fine and dandy, with Michael pretty much catatonic, only focusing on creating his weird masks. But of course, there’s always that dumb f*cker who doesn’t know any better (in this case, a dumbass redneck hillbilly) who fucks everything up while (with his cousin) raping another patient in Michael’s room, you know, just because that was a great idea…. well, Michael didn’t think so. Yeah, you guessed it, he fucks them up both up, then the real movie begins. He escapes the sanitarium and backtracks to his old home, where he conveniently had stashed away a kitchen knife and the Shatner-mask… oh, for all of you who didn’t know that, the Michael Myers-mask is just a William Shatner-mask painted white. You learn something new every day, don’t ya?….
Anyway, this is where I’m gonna stop dropping spoilers. All I’m going to say about it from now on, is that… being that the mask apparently have been laying under the floorboards for 15 years and change, it’s only natural that it have begun to deteriorate, which I think gave it an incredible new look. Instead of that pale white expressionless mask we’re used to, we now get a creepy, badass, puts-tears-in-your-eyes scary mask that feels just as messed up and freaky that Michael himself really is… Props to Zombie for that one! Both Tyler Mane and Daeg Faerch gave incredible performances as old and young Michael respectively, and Faerch’s performance is even ranked #8 in the “Top 10 Performances From A Child Star In Horror” by Horrornews.
As for the rest of the cast, they did their jobs pretty well. Malcom McDowell’s Dr. Samuel Loomis was really believable but Scout Taylor-Compton’s Laurie Strode was a little dry at times, so it helped that she’s unbelievably easy to look at (yeah… she’s hot)! And of course, you have the alluring Sheri Moon Zombie as Michael’s mother and she does what she always does, she shows her ass. Hey, I ain’t sayin’ that’s a bad thing! But if I were to pluck one actor/actress from this movie’s roster for a performance-award, it would have to go to Brad Dourif for his Sheriff Lee Brackett. If he didn’t have Chucky on his resume, one could almost argue that this is what he was meant for. Oscar-worthy performance, to say the least.
Well what’ya know… I can’t think of anything else to say about this one right now. However, as it is for many other movies, this one is going to be featured in one of my webisodes, where I’ll be compairing them somewhat more in depth with the original, along with both Halloween II as well. So… I guess that’s it for the Horror-a-thon. Yeah, it really is, we made it!
What’ya think? Should I keep doing more horror-reviews, or should I just write whatever I want to write about like before? Please, tell me, I’m anxious to hear YOUR thoughts!
But as of now, I’m gonna go scoop myself a huge bowl of ice cream and eat it while watching a feel-good movie. It’s kinda needed now, after watching almost 85 horror-movies in 31 days. Yeah, didn’t know that did ya, that I watched more than the ones I wrote about? Well I did… and I’m pretty sure I won’t be watching any more scary movies this week or possibly even next week. A Horror-hiatus if you will. But I’ll be back very soon with other delicious movie-related posts, don’t you trouble your little nobs about that. But until then…. which one did you prefer, the 1978 original or the 2007 remake?