by Nia Edwards-Behi

Created on: June 11, 2009

Rob Zombie's 2007 Halloween is a very different beast to John Carpenter's masterful original. The 1978 film not only shook up the horror genre, the representation of women in film and the potential of low-budget filmmaking, but it's also a finely crafted exercise in fear and entertainment. Zombie's take on the film shows a great love for the source material and horror in general, but is neither frightening nor entertaining. Zombie is a talented filmmaker, proving his potential with previous efforts House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects. What he also proved with those films is his love of stylized, violent, potty-mouthed red necks, which ineffectively transfers to his vision of Halloween.

Zombie's Halloween is part-origin story, part-straight remake. We learn much of young Michael Myers' troubled childhood, full of unsavoury characters, which leads to his committing acts of violence and eventually the murder of his step-father, sister, her boyfriend and a school bully. He is incarcerated and placed under the care of Dr. Loomis, who, despite his best efforts, can do nothing for Michael. Years later the adult Michael escapes and returns to his hometown of Haddonfield, and begins to stalk Laurie Strode and her friends. Zombie spends a good hour or so on Michael's back story, something completely absent from the original film, barring the memorable opening scene where we witness the child Michael kill his sister. Once that hour is done, he simply retreads the original film with his characters, killing a lot more people on his way, and changing the ending somewhat.

The problem with providing back story for a character like Michael Myers is that all mystery about the character is gone. In Carpenter's film, we don't know why he's killing anyone and only very briefly catch a glimpse of his adult face. This is what makes Michael Myers so inherently frightening - he is unknowable, from the mask that obscures his face to the complete lack of back story. Sadly in Zombie's version, the horrible childhood he's inserted into Michael's past doesn't excuse any of his actions or evoke that much sympathy for the adult Myers, but it does remove any sense of enigma about the fully-grown Michael. Rather than being frightening, he's simply repulsive.

Repulsive is a word that can easily be applied to the characters from Michael's childhood. They're all so incessantly foul-mouthed and obscene, you start to wonder just why you're spending any time listening to

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