THE RATING
THE LAIR EXPERTS
Matt: Wow, where do I begin? From the opening cords of KISS' 'God Of Thunder', I knew this was going to be a totally different experience. Rob delivers a white-trash backstory of Michael Myers that just wasn't necessary. Part of what makes Michael scary is that he came from a typical, middle-class family with a good upbringing. Michael doesn't need a reason to do what he does. This approach gave him a humanity that just takes away from the mystique of his legend. Despite that, I was reeled in enough to at least see the story through. But then, after Michael escapes, Zombie TOTALLY lost me! It looks like Rob got about halfway and suddenly realized, holy shit, I still don't have any re-make material in there, so let's fly through it the rest of the way. It was like he tried to insert a straight re-make of the entire original film into the second half of the movie, and it just doesn't work.
The character development in this film (outside of Michael and Dr. Loomis) leaves a lot to be desired. Maybe that was what Rob intended, because after all, he said he wanted to make Michael Myers the main character. I would have liked to have seen more development of the Annie and Lynda characters, because they just were not that layered at all. I had less sympathy for them as characters when the attacks finally did happen. Still, the performances by Tyler Mane and Sheri Moon-Zombie were top notch with what they were given, and Malcolm McDowell played the role as Rob had it written-- and I can respect that.
There were far too many needless cameos in this film, and it dragged down the final product. It would have been a much stronger film with less characters and more development, as I stated earlier. The musical score in this film was not that great, either. It sounded like a recycled 'Devil's Rejects' score, with only bits of Carpenter's original genius included. Rob should have thrown that score out entirely and stuck with versions of Carpenter's chilling classics. After all, it was Carpenter's music that added the suspense and terror to the original film. Without that element in this one, it essentially lacked a main character.
The actual soundtrack itself was odd, but then again, that's expected in a Rob Zombie film. The first time I saw Michael sitting on the front steps as a kid in the theater and Nazareth's 'Love Hurts' came on, I laughed. Clearly not what Rob intended. It seemed like Rob just went through his music collection and found a compilation of songs to fit his narrative. Throwing in Blue Oyster Cult's 'Don't Fear The Reaper' was a nice touch, but the music in general did not work. In the end, if Rob would have stuck to his guns and did a total re-make, who knows what direction this movie would have gone? And WHY all the different versions? WHY?! There are way too many questions to garner a higher rating. 5 out of 10.
A.J.: This is probably the hardest review I ever had to write, partly because of all the hype leading up to the movie, but mainly because there are so many versions of this movie that are all very different from one another, it is hard to come to a consensus of a fair rating that will do the movie justice. So with that being said I decided to rate the Unrated Director's Cut DVD, because that is what most everyone has and will ultimately be the way this movie is remembered in the future.
I loved Rob's new vision in Halloween, and going back to Michael's childhood was nothing short of brilliant. However, once the movie jumped to the present time, I thought everything was crammed together and key elements of the plot were lost. Overall, the acting was great with the exceptions of Lynda and Sheriff Brackett. This movie does not compare with John Carpenter's original Halloween, but then again it was never supposed to. 8 out of 10.
THE FANS
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