by Manny The Movie Guy

Created on: October 20, 2007   Last Updated: October 21, 2007

A friend of mine once asked if there's a horror film remake that far surpassed the quality of the original. She's a horror fan and was excited to see Rob Zombie's re-imagining of John Carpenter's "Halloween." Film snobs might answer her question with a scream-inducing no.

From "The Amityville Horror" to "The Omen," recent crop of horror remakes failed to match the creative superiority of their inspiration. These rehashed films were mostly inferior and produced for one thing only to capitalize on their famous brands. But good news folks, the new "Halloween" can proudly kill side by side with the 1978 original.

Jamie Lee Curtis became a household name because of the slasher classic, and this time, 18-year old Scout Taylor-Compton plays the film's scream queen, Laurie Strode. In this All Hallow's Eve in Haddonfield, Illinois, she's being stalked by a mysterious man in a William Shatner mask. Later, she'll be running around the neighborhood, trying to get away from the quintessential boogeyman of this generation, Michael Myers (Tyler Mane played him as an adult).

But rocker/director Rob Zombie is not just interested in remaking "Halloween." In this day and age of intellectual psycho-babble, Zombie opted to shine light on the origins of Myers. Call it "Michael Myers the Early Years" or "Michael Myers Rising."

The film opens with the Myers clan one early morning. We get a quick overview of little Mikey's (played by the creepy Daeg Faerch) dysfunctional family. Stepfather (William Forsythe) is mentally abusive and older sister Judith (Hanna Hall) doesn't care for her brother or their baby sister (yes, that's Laurie Strode y'all the heroine and the villain are siblings just like in the original). Only mom (the wonderful Sherri Moon Zombie) cares for Michael, even though her reputation as the town's stripper does not help matters.

So Michael busies himself by killing his pet rat, and later that day, he will get his first taste of killing a human the school bully.

Psychologist Sam Loomis, played by Malcolm McDowell (Donald Pleasance memorably played this character in the original and the succeeding sequels), steps in to help Michael. But it's too late. That Halloween night, Little Mikey will eventually kill his stepfather and his sister, sending him to the asylum where he will escape 15 years later to find his baby sister.

Cue in the famous Casio Halloween theme written by John Carpenter (Zombie uses this theme, thankfully).

Zombie brilliantly crafted a horror remake (he

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