Halloween (2007) Dimension/Horror RT: 121 minutes Unrated Director’s Cut (extreme graphic violence and gore, lots of nudity, strong sexual content, language, scenes of intense terror, alcohol abuse) Director: Rob Zombie Screenplay: Rob Zombie Music: Tyler Bates Cinematography: Phil Parmet Release date: August 31, 2007 (US) Cast: Malcolm McDowell, Scout Taylor-Compton, Tyler Mane, Daeg Faerch, Sheri Moon Zombie, William Forsythe, Danielle Harris, Brad Dourif, Kristina Klebe, Hanna Hall, Adam Weisman, Richard Lynch, Danny Trejo, Ken Foree, Dee Wallace, Udo Kier, Clint Howard, Daryl Sabara, Sybil Danning, Micky Dolenz, Daniel Roebuck, Sid Haig. Box Office: $58.2M (US)/$80.4M (World) Body Count: 22
Rating: ***
The last few entries in the Halloween franchise ranged from mediocre to atrocious so for his version of Halloween, writer-producer-director Rob Zombie (House of 1000 Corpses, The Devil’s Rejects) decided to restart the series and redefine the parameters of the story. Instead of just rehashing the original 1978 classic, he re-imagines the story of Michael Myers and gives the masked killer a more detailed back story.
As the movie opens, it’s apparent that 10YO Michael Myers (Faerch, Hancock) is a disturbed little boy. Who wouldn’t be with a family like his? His mother Deborah (Sheri Moon, House of 1000 Corpses) works as a stripper to support her family while her drunken live-in boyfriend Ronnie (Forsythe, The Devil’s Rejects) sits around and makes inappropriate remarks about her teenage daughter Judith (Hall, The Virgin Suicides). He refers to young Michael as a faggot and a queer. The man is loud, abusive and mean. What kind of mother exposes her children to this? Judith is a foul-mouthed slut who dresses like a prostitute and runs around with a scuzzy boyfriend Steve (Weisman, Hatchet). In other words, they are perfect candidates for an entire episode of The Jerry Springer Show.
At school, Michael is frequently targeted by bullies who ask him if his mother would be willing to perform certain sexual acts for a dollar. When the school principal Mr. Chambers (Lynch, Invasion USA) breaks up a fight in the boys’ restroom between Michael and two bigger boys, Michael says “f*** you” to him. Chambers brings in child psychologist Dr. Sam Loomis (McDowell, A Clockwork Orange) to evaluate the boy, but Michael runs out of the school building before a conversation can take place.
His first Halloween killing spree begins with Wesley (Sabara, Spy Kids), the bully who made sexual remarks about his mother. That Halloween night, while Deborah is at work at a local strip joint, Michael kills Ronnie, Judith and Steve in an orgy of blood, gore and violence. He spares the life of his infant sibling “Baby Boo”, the only normal person in the house.
After a lengthy trial, Michael is committed to Smith’s Grove Sanitarium under the care of Dr. Loomis. The boy claims to have no memory of the murders and doesn’t understand why he can’t go home with his mother. Gradually, Michael begins to recede inside himself. He becomes obsessed with making paper-mache masks that “hide his ugliness”. After he brutally attacks a nurse, Deborah goes home and commits suicide leaving young Michael all alone in the psychiatric hospital with no hope of ever being released.
Fifteen years later, Michael (Mane, X-Men) is still locked up in the maximum security wing of the hospital. He’s a long-haired, silent behemoth who still sits there and makes his paper-mache masks. He hasn’t spoken a word in fifteen years. Any element of humanity is long gone. Loomis decides to drop the case; there’s nothing else that he can do for this patient. Michael manages to escape from the sanitarium and make his way back home to Haddonfield.
Just like in the original, he starts stalking Laurie Strode (Compton, The Runaways) and her two friends, Annie (Harris, Halloween 4 and 5) and Lynda (Klebe, Zone of the Dead). It isn’t long before Michael picks up his signature butcher knife and puts on his signature mask. He kept both items hidden in the floorboards of his childhood home which now sits abandoned and used by local teenagers for a place to drink and have sex. Loomis follows his patient to Haddonfield and warns Sheriff Brackett (Dourif, The Exorcist III) that Michael is coming home. His sister’s gravestone has gone missing from the local graveyard. There’s only one person who could wrench it out of the ground and carry it by himself.
At this point, I think we all know what comes next so all I will say is that Michael amasses quite a body count before the night is through. Unlike the first movie, Michael seems to be looking for Laurie Strode because he knows she’s his sister (aka Baby Boo). He kills her adoptive parents and anybody else that stands in his way. This plot element wasn’t introduced in the original franchise until Halloween II (1981), but who cares? The idea is that Rob Zombie is redefining the character of Michael Myers and in doing so, he gives one of the most famous horror movie characters of the 20th century a whole new identity.
Michael is no longer a silent boogeyman, a phantom that seems to materialize out of the darkness. He’s a vicious psychopath who butchers and mutilates his victims beyond belief. Zombie’s characterization of Michael Myers is absolutely different from anything that fans have ever seen, but I think it takes something away from the character. Isn’t it more frightening to not know why somebody is trying to kill you? Who would you be more afraid of, the silent boogeyman from the original Halloween or the in-your-face psychopath from the remake? I would expect that many of you will choose the former option.
The level of violence in this movie is extreme. What else would you expect from the front man of thrash-metal band White Zombie? Among other things, the bully is beaten to death with a tree branch, a nurse is stabbed with a fork, the mother’s boyfriend has his throat slit and the sister’s boyfriend has his head bashed in with a metal baseball bat. That’s on top of the countless people who are either stabbed repeatedly or crushed/smashed to death by Michael’s bare hands.
What else is different about this version of Halloween besides offering a more thorough examination of Michael Myers’ psyche and the motive behind his killing spree? The two main characters are also redefined, but not exactly for the better. Let me explain, I like Scout Taylor-Compton. She’s intelligent and talented, but she portrays Laurie Strode as a very annoying and obnoxious teenager. That’s probably a true description of many high school girls, but fans know Laurie as an intelligent and serious young lady far more mature than her age would suggest. But would that particular character type fit in here, in the madhouse that is Rob Zombie’s universe? I suppose not. The new direction of the story requires a girl who is completely naive and silly, somebody like this version of Laurie.
Then there’s Dr. Loomis. Remember the histrionics of the character originally played by the late Donald Pleasence? Remember his priceless dialogue about Michael Myers being the personification of evil? Remember him waving around a handgun like a lunatic? You won’t see any of that here, as played by Malcolm McDowell. His Dr. Loomis is a psychologist with a huge ego. He’s written a book about Michael and the Haddonfield murders. He’s capitalizing on the horrific crimes and exploiting the grief of the victims’ families. In other words, Dr. Loomis is a complete pompous ass.
I don’t recognize these characters; these aren’t the people with whom I grew up. They are so far removed from the characters in the original Halloween movies that they seem to belong in another movie. This is only a partial criticism; it’s actually more of an observation. It’s just unsettling to see these particular characters with all new personalities.
One thing that I do like about Halloween is the wild casting. Zombie definitely assembled a unique cast for this movie. Dourif, one of my favorite character actors, always brings a weird edge to any role he plays. Having him play Sheriff Brackett (originally played by Charles Cyphers) is a stroke of genius. I love that Zombie got Danielle Harris to play Annie Brackett here. As I’m sure you recall, she was the little girl who played Jamie Lloyd in the fourth and fifth chapters of the series. Although the actress is about 30 years old, she does okay as a high schooler.
Other noteworthy cast members include Ken Foree (Dawn of the Dead) as a trucker, Sybil Danning (Howling II: Your Sister Is a Werewolf) as a nurse, Dee Wallace (The Howling) as Mrs. Strode, Daniel Roebuck (River’s Edge) as the strip joint owner, Sid Haig (House of 1000 Corpses) as the cemetery caretaker, Danny Trejo (Machete) as a janitor at the hospital, Udo Kier (Blade) as the hospital administrator and Ron Howard’s little brother Clint (Evilspeak) as another psychiatrist at the hospital.
This version of Halloween is like a wild amusement park ride through a haunted house. It’s one of the better horror movie remakes in recent years. I will always prefer the original 1978 masterpiece from John Carpenter, but Rob Zombie’s version isn’t all that bad. It’s just a different version of a movie that many of us know by heart. At least it’s not a shot-for-shot remake like the woefully misconceived Psycho. That just would have been blasphemy.
