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Halloween (2007) Given that Ressurection seemed to be the final act, it was no surprise that given Hollywood's penchant for remakes, re-boots, re-imaginings and other forms of necromancy, that at some point Halloween would be on someone's list somewhere. The gig was given to Rob zombie who kicked some spectacular ass with the Devil's Rejects. A nasty, down & dirty, low-budgeted horror-western-road movie that stripped away a lot of the universal studios backed, then dropped like a hot potato House of 1000 corpses. Given that no attempt to remake it was ever going to be popular I was actually one of the few glad to see this, especially when director Rob Zombie made it clear he would try and make his own movie rather than slavishly copy the Carpenter classic. Here we get more scenes of the life of Young Michael Myers played by Daeg Faerch as a chubby little killer in a completely dysfunctional household headed by his single mother with a poor choice in men who makes ends meet as a stripper. Pretty much seething with rage Michael kills a bully at school and then goes off the deep end, killing most of his family bar his mother and his little sister angel, seemingly the only people he gives a shit about. Taken into smiths Grove he is put under the care of Dr Sam Loomis, here played by Malcom Malcolm McDowell who wisely decides not to even go near Donald Pleasances masterful performance. Instead the Loomis here is a vain egotistical narcissist who fails his patient entirely and abandons him for the book tour circuit after he realises Myers has disappeared behind his mask forever. Myers is safely locked away until Smiths Grove decides its best to hire morons to guard the inmates and two such morons take one of their patients into Michaels room for a spot of rape because taunting seven foot tall masked psycho's is always a good idea. Michael promptly tools up and heads back to Haddonfield to go hunting for his sister who has been adopted by the strode family. While Rob Zombies Halloween is technically a remake, its better to think of it as a B-side or an entirely different mythology to its 1978 cousin. while carpenter used the story to talk about hidden evil, the nature of evil as a concept that can exist even in middle class suburbia. Rob Zombie delivers a film about family bonds that while lacking the deeper subtext of the original is still a decently told story. Its nice to see that Zombie resisted the temptation to stage stunt gag murders and delivers everything straight forward, brutal and believable. Add in the shaky hand held nature of the interior scenes and its clear Zombie has decided to go for a more cynical, more brutal and entirely different type of story to Carpenters. Certainly he retains several scenes as a nod to the fans but taken as its own film this Halloween is nowhere near as bad as some suggest. My only problem, is a fault that I find with a lot of Zombies films, he tends to lose focus in his story telling, looking at the deleted/alternate footage, the R-rated cut which is different in several key scenes and the other alternate footage there is a lot of stuff that Zombie does that ends up on the cutting room floor. Some focus might be appreciated but overall I like his work enough to welcome this into my collection. Certainly compared to other attempts at re-working Carpenters material for the big screen, The thing, the Fog, Assault on precinct 13, its a masterpiece. |
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Halloween Fri 13th Children of the corn Hellraiser Tcm and lets be fair most of them after the 3rd are pretty dire and rubbish Nightmare on elm st are just a few. |
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I'm afraid I think differently. Whereas parts 5 & 6 tried, yet failed to something different (connect Michael Myers to a Celtic cult), Resurrection is lazy, lazy, filmmaking. Not to mention that the characters in Resurrection are so sleazy. Not the fun type of sleazy you find in Joe D'Amato's films, but the "no way in hell is my daughter going with them" type of sleazy.
__________________ "We're outgunned, and undermanned. But, you know somethin'? We're gonna win. You know why? Superior attitude. Superior state of mind." |
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__________________ "We're outgunned, and undermanned. But, you know somethin'? We're gonna win. You know why? Superior attitude. Superior state of mind." |
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Halloween 2 Rob Zombie delivers a sequel that surpasses his original film, shock! I say that half in jest as most fans accept Devils Rejects was a better film than House of 1000 corpses however, and this may be controversial, I really, really like zombies Halloween 2. Essentially it kicks straight off from part 1 with Michael Myers escaping the ambulance that carries him off. He heads straight to Haddonfield hospital and it looks like we're in for a replay of the Hospital from part 2...except its all a dream, or is it. Admittedly its a flaw in the film but its never abundantly clear where the dream ends and reality begins as we re-join the now pierced and tattooed Laurie strode whose dealing with the events from part one, barely. She's pretty messed up to the annoyance of her friend Annie, played by Halloween stalwart Danielle Harris (nice to see zombie bringing her back for these.) and her father Sheriff Bracket, played by the ever awesome Brad Dourif. Meanwhile Dr Loomis has another book out and a revelation in it threatens to tear poor Lauries world apart. Even worse Michael has decided to head home and finish what he started. Part of what I like about part 2 is what I liked about part one. The violence is savage and immediate and not at all jokey or comedic like it is in a lot of the later slasher flicks. In fact if anything its more brutal and direct here with Michael becoming the embodiment of pure rage. Some nice cameos (clint howard, richard Lynch, Udo Kier in the first, Caroline williams ect here) However what takes this over and makes it my favourite is the weirder elements zombie includes here. From the imagery of the white horse and his mother guiding him to the killings which could be either just plain madness or something supernatural to the weird hallucinatory imagery including the pit of bodies in the hospital, the weird fairy tail characters feasting.. its a trippier, weirder sequel that might even be happening in Lauries head as she sits in a psych ward (just one reading of it. ) I know a lot of people hate the zombie versions and I don't really blame them but I find myslef liking them more each time I watch them and that folks is why I've not been posting so many reviews up recently.. phew! |
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I didn't like Zombie's Halloween 2 when I first saw it. But I had a grudging respect for it. It's certainly different from most slasher sequels, and I admire it's focus on how the events of the first film have damaged the surviving characters (Brad Dourif's Sheriff Brackett was one of the poignant characters in the film). In the years since I saw it, the film seems to getting a reappraisal so I'm looking forward to rewatching it.
__________________ "We're outgunned, and undermanned. But, you know somethin'? We're gonna win. You know why? Superior attitude. Superior state of mind." |
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I really like both Rob Zombie Halloween's. Yeah, he turned Michael Myers into an actual character, not just a faceless Shape like Carpenter created, but that doesn't bother me, I was happy for the change considering how much the franchise had declined in recent years (not including H20, which I think breathed new life into the series). I much prefer them than the F13 remake or whatever it is
__________________ If I'm curt with you it's because time is a factor. I think fast, I talk fast and I need you guys to act fast if you wanna get out of this. So, pretty please... with sugar on top. Clean the ****ing car! |
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