Blast From The Past

September 2007

I reluctantly went to see Rob Zombie's take on the John Carpenter classic Halloween over the long holiday (Labor Day) weekend. There was nothing else playing that really grabbed my attention. Here is my review, including some spoilers.
I liked the new stuff Rob Z added about what made Michael Myers Michael Myers, but at the same time I felt that it detracted from any chance The Shape had of being scary. In fact all the creepy stuff in the beginning made me sympathize with the killer a little bit. I think Rob Zombie should have made an entire movie out of the young character and his downward spiral into killing. It would have been really scary to see a nice suburban neighborhood with a bunch of "lost" or "missing" posters nailed to telephone poles with pictures of kittens and puppies, it turns out Michael started by killing small pets, stray cats and dogs or whatever, I mean really there is a complete movie just in that aspect of this new Michael Myers. A really dark, creepy, scary movie.
I haven't seen the original in many years so I can't really say if it was ever scary to me, but my guess is that it was at least a little scary. I can't say the same thing about the new Halloween. It was not scary.
Malcolm McDowell did not do justice to the character of Dr. Samuel Loomis. I never once believed that he really feared Michael Myers. Watch the original and you can't say the same thing about the performance of Donald Pleasance.
I liked the way they showed how Michael Myers was so uncomfortable in his own skin, that he became obsessed with making masks that he could hide behind. I also liked how intensely angry and violent the new Michael Myers acted. I didn't keep count, but he killed a number of his victims with just his massive size and brute force. Did Michael Myers kill a bunch of his victims with his bare hands in the original?
I thought the movie just fell apart when it came down to the remake of Michael returning home. I thought the ending was just vague and not well done. When the girl was hiding from Michael and she went up into the attic. Who would do this? They showed Michael down below thrusting something up into the attic where she was hiding. I thought this was just lame and unoriginal. There was a total lack of suspense at the end.
It just fizzled out.
* * * * out of 10 stars.

KGD
09-04-2007