by David Magini

Created on: September 05, 2007

When I first out that there would be a new Halloween movie, I quivered. John Carpenter's 1978 version is the standard of the horror genre, it's a classic period. When I found out that Rob Zombie was going to step on hallowed grounds and direct the remake, my interest is peaked. In my mind though, I still thought it was a bad idea.

It's safe now to say that I was wrong, and that Zombie's Halloween is a good film, a film that should stand on it's own merit and should not be compared to the original.

The film is broken up into three parts. The first part, and the best in the film, follows Micheal Myers when he is a young boy. Micheal's family is trailer park trash: the slutty sister, the stripper mom and the mother's abusive boyfriend. To make matter's worse, Micheal is picked on at school by the local bully because his mom is a stripper. Things don't look good for the young tyke, who finds solace only in his caring but absent mother and his baby sister. We also see that Micheal hides behind his various masks that he has. It is here that we witness Micheal's descent into madness, the sequence where Micheal kills his family and the school bully is truly horrific and disturbing.

The second part of the film takes place at the hospital, where Micheal falls under the care of Dr. Loomis. Loomis thinks Micheal can be saved. But as Micheal plunges furthur into darkness, Dr. Loomis knows he is fighting a losing battle. Dr. Loomis did not want to give up on Micheal, but Micheal had not spoken to the good doctor for fifteen years. The sequence where Micheal escapes from the hospital and leaves a trail of bodies behind is as bloody as you can get.

The third, and least interesting part of the film, is Micheal who decides to come home where it all began and to find his baby sister who's all grown up. We are now in remake territory, where the first two acts of the film could be called a re-invention, the third act is truly standard slasher sadism and misogyny. Zombie adds a few nice touches, but the third act feels drawn-out and repetitious. Sacrificing character development for nudity, the third act resembles a Friday the 13th sequel.

In the end though, I felt the film is solid. Rob Zombie had a vision and he streamlined it. Giving Micheal Myers a back-story lets the audience put a face on this terrible evil. If Zombie had only tightened the third act, we, the audience, would be watching something more memorable and scary.

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