Day 290 of the challenge! God helped me I watched Rob Zombies’ Halloween…I can’t even man…
Saying this now: I am not a fanboy. I’m not one of “those” guys that automatically hates remakes of classic films. I give everything a fair shot to prove me wrong and stand separate from the originals, and Halloween is no different.
Personal feelings aside about what I think makes a good Michael Myers Halloween movie, I have very little tolerance for Rob Zombie movies (this is the first Zombie film I’ve seen all the way through). Zombies’ brand of brutal, mean spirited horror just isn’t my thing, and about 2 minutes into his self righteous “reimagining” of Halloween, I had already hit my wall. There’s just so much to unpack…
Zombie seems to thing making characters over the top spiteful and unlikable is the same thing as making them interesting. It really isn’t. Same goes for his tendency to make everything as shocking and exploitation as possible. Quick, cheap thrills won’t make up for a half-baked story, half assed characters, or a complete lack of tension.
As for my thoughts on this film as a Halloween fan, I think turning Michael Myers, the literal Boogeyman, into a troubled kid that I could see bring a gun to school, is the worst creative decision ever made in this franchise (even worse than the damn Druid cult and symbols from part 5 and 6). Anytime Michael did his thing, all I could see was that poor weirdo kid with problems. Kinda kills the point the the blank, expressionless mask don’t you think? That might have worked in another, non Halloween slasher flick, but misses the point here.
Also, if you have Brad freaking Dourif and Malcolm McDowell in the same movie, you take advantage of that pairing, not waste it! C’mon!! Danielle Harris also deserved much more than what she was given.
Let’s see how part 2 does….