Halloween (2007)

Just another bad Halloween sequel that can’t come close to the original shady slasher thriller in bringing some type of originality to such garbage, though it sure does try. It’s too long, dry, manipulative, not funny, poorly shot and edited (comes with a ridiculous false ending), and pointless.

Dennis Schwartz said in his review, “Director Rob Zombie ("The Devil’s Rejects"/"House of 1000 Corpses") in 1985 founded and sang for the group White Zombie until their disbandment. He now sings solo and makes films.” Rob Zombie’s 2007 remake of John Carpenter’s 1978 independent slasher/horror film, a cult film classic that’s said to have started the genre of teen slasher movies, is interested in scaring its audience at the expense of any detail or shooting for any type of psychological tension or making things horror film scary. Zombie likes to think his “Halloween” as a re-imagining, as he puts his own stuff on the film by filling it with an overdose of graphic violence and a new take on the infamous killer child for evil, Michael Myers. Schwartz noted, “He resurrects the slasher killer and has him now with an unbearable loveless white trash family, a penchant for wearing multiple masks, having fun with animal torture and someone who in childhood talks back to express his anger with his family and the world when there's still a slight chance of reaching him.”

When we first meet the scary 10-year-old Michael Myers, played by Daeg Faerch, he’s part of a dysfunctional southern family that is high with abusive behavior. He’s also bullied at school by higher grade boys. His dancer mother, Deborah (Zombie’s wife, Sherri Moon Zombie), not capable of being a mother, is a prostitute and her boyfriend, Michael’s stepdad, Ronnie (William Forsythe), is a stinking alcoholic who is evil and bullying and enjoys calling him a “faggot.” Michael’s obnoxious uncaring horrible teenage sister Judith, played by Hanna Hall, treats him like dirt, while his baby sister Laurie is the one in the family he seems to like only. One Halloween day in the 1960s, Michael puts on a clown mask and in the woods corners and beats to death with a think piece of wood a school bully who recently picked on him. Next, after he returns from a trick-or-treat outing in his clown mask, he ties with duct tape the sleeping drunk Ronnie and cuts his throat with a kitchen knife. After that, he takes a baseball bat to Judith’s boyfriend Steve, played by Adam Weisman, and beats him to death. Finally, he stabs Judith to death by inserting a knife into her abdomen. The only ones to survive the murders are his mother, who was working in the adults club at the time, and his infant sister Laurie.

Michael is sent for a life sentence to the Smith’s Grove Sanitarium under the care of Dr. Sam Loomis, played by Malcolm McDowell. Loomis at first gets Michael talking but a later murder with an attendant makes the treatment impossible as Michael turns to the dark side and doesn’t speak a word for 15 years. He even shows up at his therapy sessions wearing a mask.

Michael Myers, now played by Tyler Mane, has spent 17 years in an asylum, alone in his cell, when he escapes by seriously killing all the cops (one of the janitors that was good to Michael is played by Danny Trejo) transferring him to a different building. The institution wanting to prevent any bad press keeps his escape quiet from the public. To the rescue comes Loomis, who heads to Haddonfield, Illinois, because he still feels guilty of not treating Michael after all those years of therapy and wants to right a wrong by stopping Michael before he goes off murdering more people. The extremely dangers 6’10” murderer finds his old family house is abandoned and boarded up and used by teens as a place to make out. His baby sister Laurie, played by Scout Taylor-Compton, is now a ditzy high school senior. He doesn’t realize she’s been adopted by a more normal small-town family. Her mom committed suicide a few years after the infamous Halloween incident. Soon Michael finds Laurie (don’t ask how, since it’s never explained. Don’t ask how Michael gets by walking through town with a big knife in his hand without being stopped by the police) chatting with her desperate boy-wanting girlfriends. Both Laurie and Annie (Danielle Harris), Sherriff Brackett’s (Brad Dourif) daughter, are babysitting this Halloween and Annie wants to drop the kid (Jenny Gregg Stewart) off at Laurie’s so she can be alone to sleep with her boyfriend (Max Van Ville). Kristina Klebe plays Laurie’s other friend. The body count soon begins to increase in the town as Michael returns home in murdering mode and his later meeting with Laurie turns into a scary blood-covered family reunion.

Schwartz said, “Zombie's vision is a misguided effort to be all splatter.” He makes Michael a victim of his childhood and environment, and focuses completely on Michael as someone who was pushed over the edge to become a heartless murderer. Schwartz mentioned, “It leaves room to be nothing else but a misogynistic and sadistic offering of "torture porn," where it shows all the violence but can't tell anything about such a crazy dude that means much.” The silence is too much.

Even though the negative stuff I have to say seem to outweigh the positives, I still think you should check it out because if you like grindhouse-style films, then this one is for you. You might think the killings seem comedic since Michael isn’t “ninja-like” with it anymore, and the Halloween theme is used too much and too early. I didn’t care if Michael killed anyone in this film, seeing how the characters, even Laurie herself, didn’t come off as likable. Also, Sid Haig is in this movie. This is not one remake that I liked, but I still say check it out. I know it may be considered trash, but just think you're watching good old-fashioned trash.

If you can believe it, Rob Zombie actually came out with a sequel to this film. Stay tuned tomorrow for the finale of my “Halloween-a-thon” when I look at the final film in the franchise in this year’s “Halloween Month.”