| Review | Halloween (2007) | Director | Rob Zombie |
|---|---|
| Writer | Rob Zombie |
| Cast | Malcolm McDowell, Scout Taylor-Compton, Brad Dourif, Daeg Faerch, Sheri Moon Zombie, Tyler Mane, Danielle Harris, Hanna Hall, Kristina Klebe, Dee Wallace, Pat Skipper, Danny Trejo, William Forsyth, Richard Lynch, Udo Kier, Clint Howard, Ken Foree and Lew Temple |
“Michael’s downward slide into this hellish abyss continues. I feel he’s on the verge of completely shutting down” – Dr. Samuel Loomis
10 year old Michael Myers (Faerch) is in a bad place. Growing up in dire circumstances with a mother, Deborah (Moon Zombie), who’s forced to make ends meet as a stripper at a bar and who’s shacked up with borderline psychopath Ronnie (Forsyth). Michael also has two sisters; 17 year old Judith (Hall) and a little baby simply called “Boo”. Michael’s psyche is on a downward spiral as he enjoys torturing and killing animals and is also being bullied heavily in school. With this inner turmoil and outward conditions, it’s only a matter of time before something snaps. Which it does on October 31st when Michael viciously beats and kills a bully on his way home from school. During that Halloween evening Michael proceeds to kill his sister Judith, her boyfriend and Ronnie before calmly sitting down on the front steps of his home with baby “Boo” in his arms.
Michael is sent to Smith’s Grove Sanitorium and put in the care of Dr. Samuel Loomis (McDowell). Loomis tries to reach young Michael but as time passes Michael seems to slowly slip into a walking comatose state. He’s clearly dangerous as evidenced by a brutal attack one day on a nurse and it’s clear he’s more and more becoming merely a shape of his former self. A distraught Deborah commits suicide and Michael remains incarcerated.
15 years pass. Michael (Mane) has grown up to be a very large man and hasn’t spoken a word for all that time. His room is littered with masks which he uses to hide his face. Loomis gives up and awaits his next chapter in life; which is as an author who’s profiteering on his studies of Michael which Loomis calls a manifestation of pure evil. One night a couple of really loathsome orderlies at Smith’s Grove accidentally awaken the killer inside Michael who proceeds to escape from the sanitorium and head back to his old hometown of Haddonfield. Another night of gruesome carnage awaits on Halloween and Michael has set his sights on 17 year old Laurie Strode (Compton).
One thing before I begin delving into Rob Zombie’s “Halloween” I feel I must make clear. There are two versions of the film; the theatrical cut and a director’s cut. I haven’t seen the theatrical cut since ´07 but I’ve seen Zombie’s preferred director’s cut a number of times and it’s the one I’m sharing my thoughts on now. There is one really big difference; the scene where Michael escapes from Smith’s Grove. In the IMDB credits you’ll see listings for Leslie Easterbrook and Bill Mosely (as prison guards) but they’re nowhere to be seen in the director’s cut.
In John Carpenter’s “Halloween” (1978) not much is really known about Michael Myers. At age 6 he killed his sister, spent 15 years locked up and escaped just in time for Halloween. Came back to his hometown, dug up his sister’s gravestone and set his sights on a house where he killed one babysitter to stage a ritual of sorts. Other people got in his line of fire and consequently 5 people were killed on that fateful night. If it hadn’t been for an unexplained ending which clearly hinted at something supernatural that would, possibly, have been it. But “Halloween II” (1981) was set in motion and screenwriter Carpenter invented the brother/sister angle for Michael and Laurie to give the boogeyman a bona fide reason to continue his chase for babysitter Laurie.
It was never an explanation that made a whole lot of sense but it certainly set the stage for a lengthy and enjoyable horror franchise. It spawned two separate timelines with Michael and Laurie as siblings and one where they’re not related. Sandwiched between was a re-imagining by Zombie that examined Michael’s backstory a great deal and made it clear in the beginning that he had a baby sister.
I’m a fan of Rob Zombie. He makes hard hitting films that are tough but enjoyable to watch, has a definite and very appealing visual style and is truly spectacular at creating violent set-pieces that pack a punch. He has a knack for creating interesting and memorable characters. And he contributes some great music too. The overindulgent use of profanity takes some getting used to and I wish he’d get some assistance at smoothing out character’s dialogues ‘cause they have a tendency to sound…not that good.
Michael is a character that really grabs you. Marvellously played by Faerch, too. His troubled family life is laid on a little thick, though, with conditions that are somewhat of a tough sell. Deborah is a stripper and that in itself is all right but her relationship with psychopath Ronnie just looks, and feels, way too forced to create a shitty environment. Forsyth is a good actor but he’s too overblown in this part and his mere presence in the family household puts a real strain on selling Deborah as a seemingly caring and normal mother (despite outward appearance), which seems to be what the film’s going for. It would be one thing if he was the little baby’s father but he has a different last name so that seems unlikely. But Act I works well overall. Michael’s horrible deed is a powerful sequence, brutally executed and gut wrenching. Faerch’s performance sells it well and that blank stare coupled with the first and very early appearance of the infamous Shape mask (a very nice touch) make for a good opening.
Act II is really the Smith’s Grove Sanitorium scenes, Michaels descent into a walking comatose state and the introduction of Samuel Loomis. The lofty and pretentious dialogue about pure evil uttered by Donald Pleasence and concocted by Carpenter in the original gets quite a working here but a lot of additional scenes give Michael and Loomis a relationship only hinted at before.
As the 15 years pass we’re on to adult Michael. For years I have been obsessing/complaining over how Myers’s escape is orchestrated. The two barely human orderlies who enter Michael’s room attempting to rape a female patient in front of him always seemed to me like a cheap scene to shock…and subsequently Michael just happens to escape. This is so different from the mythology created in Carpenter’s original where it’s always implied that Michael waited patiently for 15 years for some silent alarm to go off. In the context of that one film is worked like a charm, with the second where the brother/sister angle kicked in it was fairly contrived and subsequent sequels involving the Thorn storyline (“Halloween´s 4, 5 and 6”) made it part of their supernatural twist involving the alignment of the stars. Which, ironically, is probably where it worked best. But Zombie’s vision is different altogether.
Said scene is quite disgusting with the orderlies but it does awaken Michael’s violent (and up-to-here dormant) homicidal impulses. And once awakened they don’t shut down so easily as this isn’t a 10–12-year-old we’re dealing with anymore. Once this realization kicks in it’s not only acceptable but also fairly plausible how Michael came to escape. But it is fairly ironic that adult Michael’s Halloween carnage can be attributed to the carnal desires of a lowly Smith’s Grove orderly named Noel (Lew). That’s certainly a lot different from Loomis’s 1978 version´s claims of Michael “looking past the wall, looking at this night, inhumanly patient, waiting for some secret, silent alarm to trigger him off”. Nope; here it’s a guy named Noel.
Most of Act III is basically “Halloween” (1978) remade in a jiffy. Michael heads to his old place in Haddonfield which is basically in ruins and teens go there to screw and get stoned. The same scenario with Lauire babysitting little Tommy and her girlfriend Annie (Harris) asking her to take her babysitting chore Lindsay off her hands so she can get it on with Paul is on hand here. Lynda (Klebe) and her boyfriend meet similar demises here but Annie’s ordeal is different. Michael’s visit to Haddonfield is also a lot more to the point from the outset as he viciously heads home to Laurie’s parents and greets them in a brutal manner. Loomis comes racing to Haddonfield and goes on the prowl with Sheriff Brackett (Dourif). All this culminates in a brutal, and very violent, showdown between brother and sister.
Again; although this is where the remake factor is most evident, Zombie stages things impeccably. The atmosphere conjured up is very impressive and not unlike what Carpenter achieved in the original. Laurie, Annie and Lynda come off well and we get a glimpse into Laurie’s family life. Zombie copycats a few visuals and he does it well…and a few here even culminate in some surprises. You get a feeling he’s somewhat rushing things but I do believe the extra bit of runtime in the director’s cut slows this part a bit down compared to the theatrical cut.
All in all I do think Zombie’s re-imagining of “Halloween” is successful. He set out to flesh out Michael Myers and he does is quite well. He juxtaposes Carpenter’s original with his own vision and while this version de-mystifies Michael a bit there’s no escaping the supernatural tint inherent with the character and Zombie ends the film at exactly the right time. The next chapter, “Halloween II” (2009), went wild with a truly Zombie-esque vision and that’s a film I truly appreciate and hope to share my thoughts on soon.
Another thing Zombie does extremely well and that’s casting his films. McDowell is just perfect as Loomis and the veteran actor really nails the part. Weather it’s playing somewhat low-key in his one on one scenes with Michael at the sanitorium or channeling Pleasence when Loomis goes a little nuts; he’s simply terrific. Compton is very appealing as Laurie, Faerch is magnificent as young Michael and Dourif is a good Sheriff Brackett. It was a great move bringing back Danielle Harris and she’s really good as Annie. The actress played in “Halloween 4” (1988) and “Halloween 5” (1989) but was unceremoniously rejected for a return in “Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers” (1995) so it was great to see her back here. Danny Trejo makes an impression as a janitor in Smith’s Grove and a host of familiar genre vets like Richard Lynch, Clint Howard, Ken Foree, Sid Haig and Udo Kier pop up in good supporting roles.
I sorta’ feel like Rob Zombie’s “Halloween” has gotten an underserved bad reputation. It’s very good as a standalone movie as it has a pretty definitive ending. Zombie’s “Halloween II” takes things into another direction entirely and, while I think very highly of it, it divided franchise fans even further.
Physical Copy
My copy of “Halloween” is part of a 15 disc Blu-ray Collector’s Edition released by Scream Factory way back in 2014. It only has the director’s cut of the film and it’s A/V quality is superb throughout. As is the norm with most of Zombie’s films there’s quite a lot special features to go through. Most interesting I thought was going through the deleted and alternate scenes and the alternate ending. In viewing them you get the feeling that Zombie hadn’t entirely mapped out the film and ultimately decided in the editing room how it eventually turned out. Then there’s also a commentary (which I’ve only partially gone through) and a whopping four and half hours! making of documentary.
Why physical copy?
I always encourage the acquisition of physical copies as I dread the day when films will only exist as files on computers and through streaming services. The companies that put the effort into making the discs, create new artwork or reproduce the originals, issue booklets and much more deserve all the financial support they can. Therefore I will always mention the Blu-rays or DVD’s (and yes; also if I review something streamed through Netflix or the like) even though I gain nothing from it personally.
