It was first announced in June of 2006 that rocker-turned-filmmaker Rob Zombie would be at the helm of a new Halloween film. Bob Weinstein had set up a meeting, hoping Rob had some interest in penning the follow up to Resurrection. Having absolutely none, he considered doing a remake, something years earlier the director adamantly believed to be pointless cash grabs.
Rob initially pitched it as two movies to be shot back-to-back like the Back to the Future sequels. The first film would be a prequel, ending with him escaping from the sanitarium. The sequel would be more of a remake of the 1978 original. Unable to get anyone on board with it, Zombie began working on a script that crammed both together, and the following year on August 31st, Rob Zombie’s Halloween was released to theaters.
Rob Zombie’s love of the 1970s is evident in every film he’s done to date. It’s not a bad thing, the 70s is a fantastic era, at least as far as cinema, television and music goes. Right as the film opens and we meet a 10 year old Michael Myers, he’s listening to God of Thunder by Kiss. Not only that, but he wears a T-shirt that features the Destroyer record cover printed front and center. Meanwhile, downstairs his mother Debra (Sheri Moon Zombie) is in the kitchen making breakfast, Peter Frampton’s Baby, I Love Your Way. In the background of one of the rooms, there’s the iconic Farrah Fawcett (Majors) red swimsuit poster and of course, later Judith Myers can be seen listening to Blue Oyster Cult’s (Don’t Fear) The Reaper. Even though Rob deliberately wanted the film to be dateless, based on the aforementioned collection of pop culture references from 1976, the first half hour is probably between ’76 and ’78.
Daeg Faerch brought a strange vulnerability to the role of Michael that, over the course of his part, gradually grew to a much darker, far more menacing character than Will Sandin’s portrayal of 6 year old Michael in the original – and that’s perhaps the point. To the casual moviegoer, this may come off directly as a standard nurture vs. nature debate.
Sandin’s character had way less to do, so we don’t quite know much about his upbringing. We assume it was typical and decent. There’s more of an emphasis on the character’s life here and what flusters people the most about it is that it takes away from the Rashomon effect of the original Halloween; where audiences can and have created their own understanding of why he’s evil. I don’t think Daeg’s Michael is bad simply because he has an abusive home life. I think it merely escalated it. I think it weakened his will to the point where, due to his anger and sadness, he couldn’t find a way of confronting and taming his demons.
After the massacre, this film shifts gears to mostly Stanley Kubrick-esque shots of Debra visiting her son and Dr. Loomis (Malcolm McDowell) at the sanitarium. The first half of the film’s tone is heavy and there are moments where it’s pretty sad, but before you have time to fully invest in anything, the dialogue ruins it. None of the characters are particularly likable, with the exception of Debra Myers, but because she keeps an abusive asshole of a boyfriend around, it’s difficult to feel sympathetic for her.
Michael escapes from Smith’s Grove Sanitarium and stumbles upon the world’s filthiest gas station, in which he conveniently finds his signature coveralls. He later completes his appearance by heading home and finding the iconic mask. He somehow managed to bury it under the floorboards of the house.
Scout Taylor-Compton’s Laurie Strode is much different than Curtis’, which is somewhat disappointing. It’s good that she’s not a carbon copy, but for such an important role, one would assume the character wouldn’t suggestively moan and finger a bagel. Still, it’s a much cleaner breakfast scene – no one’s getting called a “fucking whore” or threatening to “skull fuck” anyone at the table during breakfast. I suppose this qualifies as a wholesome, old fashioned family dining experience.
Playing Annie Brackett is Danielle Harris, and Kristina Klebe is Lynda. Their portrayals are really nothing different than what you’d expect from a slasher film. For most of the movie, they seem like the same character. In the first film, especially the TV cut, you sort of get a feeling that maybe Lynda and Annie didn’t quite get along so well, which is even more present in this take on the characters.
From this point forward, the film gets into some familiar territory. It doesn’t stray too far away from the source material, like 2008’s Prom Night remake, nor does it copy and paste the original like 1998’s Psycho remake. Rob deliberately wanted there to be a healthy medium between doing something new and also keeping what worked so well. Delivery, however, is another story.
While I do like his take, I don’t think it’s as good as it could have been. A lot of his film relied on gore and jump scares, totally missing the point of what makes Halloween so incredible. None of the victims in this film are particularly likable, except for maybe Dee Wallace or Danny Trejo, but they’re not developed enough for you to really care.
By the end of its opening weekend, Halloween brought in a little over $30 million, and to this day, still holds the record for biggest Labor Day opening weekend for 10 years. Do you think it’ll stay on top for an 11th? In its entirety, the film grossed a reported $80.2 million at the box office. Successful as it was financially, both audiences and critics proved to be understandably divided by Zombie’s take. Being that this was my first horror movie experience at the theater, I have fond memories of it. Still, I’d hoped it would be scarier.
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