"Halloween" (1978) was a horror classic by the legendary John Carpenter staring Jaime Lee Curtis as the innocent but resourceful Laurie Strode, sister of masked murderer Michael Myers. There have been a whole host of sequels, some clever in their own right and some absolutely ridiculous. It was both disappointing and angering that a new one was created - there are some films that can never be recaptured or modernized successfully. As most other horror fans would agree,"Halloween" is one of those films. But if any young writer/director knows 1970s horror, it's Rob Zombie.
Unfortunately, Zombie seems to have trouble doing anything inventive with modern horror. Zombie's "Halloween" opens with a look at the environment in which a murder is made. Sherrie Moon Zombie (Baby in Zombie's "House of 1000 Corpses" and "The Devil's Rejects") plays Michael's clueless mother - a stripper with no parenting skills but a fair amount of love for her twisted son.
While the character concept is interesting - after all, there was never any information about Michael's parents in the original - her flat acting turns what could have been a beautifully sad role into a caricature somewhat reminiscent of a less homicidal version of Baby, 10 years later. Michael's step-dad, Ronnie (William Forsythe), is an abusive jerk. His older sister, Judith (Hanna Hall), is neglectful of her younger brother and - like the rest of the family - missing all the signs that something is terribly wrong with young Michael.
The beginning, still set in the 1970s and punctuated by a clever soundtrack (Blue Oyster Cult's "Don't Fear the Reaper" has rarely been used better), is what we expect and love from Zombie. It's violent, but menacingly and interestingly so, and intelligent. The cinematography by Phil Parmet is remarkable (throughout the entire film) - choppy, out of focus shots during highly violent scenes heighten the experience, like seeing the images through crazed eyes. The plot from the original remains - Michael kills most of his family on Halloween night and is placed in an institution where he is analyzed by Dr. Loomis (played more sympathetically by Malcolm McDowell).
Once the "15 Years Later" hits the screen, everything goes down hill. The plot becomes formulaic, the killings are predictable and fairly unimaginative and the setting is far more 2007 than the 1990s. Scout Taylor-Compton is no Jaime Lee Curtis - she spends far more time screaming than thinking. Her friends Annie (Danielle Harris) and Lynda (Kristina Klebe) are so oversexed, inappropriately vulgar and annoying that it's nearly impossible to care what's coming to them. A brilliant beginning makes the film worth watching, but "Halloween" certainly leaves something to be desired.
Originally published in The Chronicle in September 2007.
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