With such a promising tagline and spine-chilling movie trailer, Halloween, would seem, at first glance, to be a perfect movie to watch now, especially for the fervent celebrants of the yearly ‘trick or treat’ ritual. But don’t place your expectations too high if you’re a fan of the classic John Carpenter’s Halloween, for this Rob Zombie remake might just leave you feeling a tad befuddled.

Rob Zombie’s much anticipated ‘remake’ 

When you take a timeless film and remodel it, you run the risk of not coming up to mark, much less surpassing the original. But heavy-metal rockstar Rob Zombie is keen to point out that his film is simply not a remake of the 1978 thriller. Zombie, who also has 2 other horror films under his directing belt (House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil’s Rejects) explained to Halloweenmovies.com, “I am basically making a prequel and a semi-remake of the first film all in one. So really in theory there will be more original content than remake content. That’s why I don’t like the word ‘remake.’”

While the original film lacked insight into the history and childhood of Michael Myers and also the story behind the prominent mask worn by the psychotic killer, Zombie opens his set with a raw and unnerving glimpse of Michael’s dysfunctional family which slowly kickstarts the sequence of events that follow.

Delving into Michael Myers background

Michael, raised in a problematic and dysfunctional family in Haddonfield, Illinois, with his mother, Deborah, (Sheri Moon-Zombie), a stripper, who is constantly subjected to verbal abuse by her useless live-in boyfriend (William Forsythe) who mocks Michael for his feminine features, and his disturbing penchant for killing and torturing animals.

Michael, the middle child sandwiched between 2 sisters, shows only the slightest of compassion towards his baby sister and mother. His blood-shedding foray begins in school where one of his school bullies torment him about his mother’s nightclub activities. This edges Michael on to follow him to a forest where the bully gets brutally beaten to death. Michael then returns home and bizarrely kills his mother’s boyfriend, his sister and her boyfriend. Bathed in blood, he carries his baby sister to the porch where he awaits judgment, on Halloween night.

“Evil is here, it is walking amongst us”
Sentenced to life imprisonment, Michael is sent to counseling for 15 years under Dr. Samuel J. Loomis (Malcolm McDowell), a child psychologist who unfortunately is never really able to understand the complex mind of the fearless murderer. In jail, Michael develops the habit of wearing a mask, which becomes his trademark throughout the show. The 7-footer breaks free from his chains on route to being transferred to a maximum security site. Michael goes back to his childhood home where he retrieves a Halloween mask and begins his hunt for his younger sister, Laurie Strode (Scout Taylor-Compton), his only living relative. Many more pointless killings ensue as total strangers are being slashed repeatedly to death and dragged so clichéd-ly across the hallway, leaving a trail of blood behind. If you’re thinking,” huh?” you know exactly how I felt. But you’ve got to see it to believe it.

Overall, this film is over-done and painful to watch

If it wasn’t classified in the ‘horror-suspense’ genre, it could well go under the ‘comedy’ section. Halfway through the movie, several people got up from their seats and never returned, while the rest who remained, seated fought to control their laughter every time a new character was killed and screamed hysterically. It was not chilling and not the least engaging.

Trying to paint a ‘humane’ character for Michael Myers obviously failed tremendously as the audiences were unsure if his revisit was to re-united with baby sister or to kill her. The annoying and predictable escalating thump on the keyboard music as Michael approaches each character is comical and cheesy but what took the cake was the infamous liner from the original film rehashed in Zombie’s version, “Was that the boogeyman?” which got the crowd in stitches. Make other plans this Halloween, because this is more of a cheap trick than a treat.

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Movie Details

Opens: Oct 25

Running time: 109 mins

Language: English

Cast: Malcolm McDowell, Danielle Harris, Daeg Faerch

Director: Rob Zombie