*** Official HALLOWEEN (2007) Discussion Thread (1 Viewer)

[Alf S]

My buddy and I are off to see this tomorrow night...should be interesting to say the least. I hear it's much more intense than the original (which is a classic IMO).

I've never sat through any of Rob Zombie's flicks, but it looks like he may breathe new life into the movie with some of his additional back story stuff.

 

[Michael Elliott]

The two reviews that have been posted have been very brutal towards the film. It seems Zombie is once again doing a rip of TCM only this time with Myers. I plan on seeing it this weekend but it seems that it goes against everything that the original film was.

 

[TravisR]

I loved The Devil's Rejects and I'm really rooting for Rob Zombie to make a good movie. That being said, the backstory seems unneccesary to me but it could be interesting.

One thing that I love about Halloween is that Michael killed people for no reason. There was no real explanation- no sister plotline and no Thorn curse. He just wanted to kill people and that's scarier to me than the stereotypical serial killer who as a kid kills animals because his mom's a hooker backstory.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

I agree 100%.

There's a very important distinction that needs to be made clear here, the original was an exercise in sheer mounting suspense and mood, placing the viewer there with those characters and making it feel, like Roger Ebert points out in his review, like the film is happening to us. It's very real, nothing over the top about any of it, very simple, displaying a very ordinary looking street and neighborhood and placing a psychopath there to terrorize teens who seem so real that we could have known girls just like them in school.

Now, Zombie, as far as I can tell from his past work, isn't capable of any of what i've described above, he's a lover of excess, of brutality and in-your-face bloodletting, a fan of the old 70's grindhouse theater and he approaches his films with brute force. You might look at his remake as an amped up version of the original when in fact they are nothing alike, not even in the same universe as one another, they are products of two very different filmmakers and display very different sensabilities on how they go about their business.

Zombie's a talented filmmaker to be sure, The Devil's Rejects was a masterpiece of his type of filmmaking style, i'm just not sure that he's capable of making a film like Carpenter did, I don't think he has it in him nor do I even think he necessarily wants to make films like that.

Now i'm not saying that Zombie's film won't be good, i'm simply pointing out that these factors need to be kept in mind before all of the "it's better than the outdated original" comments start to pop up, which on this board should be few and far between as many here love the original first and foremost i'm sure.

These two films should be evaluated and allowed to exist separately.

Me, I like slow mounting terror which is why Zombie's will not equal the first one for me, but i'm sure that as far as a tear-your-nuts off horror film goes Zombie will deliver on some levels.

I still don't like the new mask, though, looks like a dirtied-up version of the Halloween 4 mask which IMO is one of the worst in the entire series (the mask not the film which is quite good IMO) next to Halloween 5.

 

[JonZ]

The film has leaked. People at the imdb boards have been tearing it and Zombie apart. Even guys who were rooting for Zombie has said how bad it is.

 

[Jason Roer]

But are they comparing it to the original? This is something that struck me the other day. When I first saw the Dawn of the Dead remake, I hated it. A trusted friend said - just watch it again - and this time forget how much you like the original. Watch it as if it was its own film. The other night, I did. And you know what - I really got into it!

So tomorrow when I go see Halloween, I will not compare it to the original (which is in my top 5 horror flicks of all time resting at number 3 behind The Shining and The Omen [1 and 2 respectively]) Rather, I will consider the film on its own, as a product of the sick and twisted mind of Rob Zombie. I love his first 2 films and thought the strides he made between the two were incredible. Devil's Rejects is a truly great film. While House was fun, it was something of a mess. But I'm still surprised at how much Zombie grew as a filmmaker between his two pictures. So I do have hopes that his Halloween will succeed as its own film. I'll know for sure tomorrow morning!

Cheers,

Jason

 

[TravisR]

There may be some intelligent people over at the IMDB boards but I only ever manage to see trolls who shit on everything and high school losers who shit on everything. That doesn't mean that they're not right in this case but in my mind, they have as much credibility as AICN talkbackers (i.e. none).

 

[Malcolm R]

Doubtful, unless your only criterion for "intense" = on-screen gore.

The original was a masterpiece of suspense and intensity. There's no chance this can surpass it, based on what I've heard.

 

[Zack Gibbs]

The leaked copy is the workprint though and is supposed to be quite different from what's coming out tomorrow. That being said, I've seen it and its not bad at all, but I could see why they weren't finished.

The movie was 1h. 45m. long, and almost the entire first hour of that was all new origin material. So basically the story told in the original is done very briskly here, I'd bet that's one of the big things they addressed with the re-shoots. It'll be very interesting seeing the finished film this weekend.

Also, the workprint made it very clear there won't be a sequel, wonder if they changed that?

 

[Michael Elliott]

I heard the first thirty minutes was a remake of the storyline brought up in part 2. I believe the workprint is five minutes shorter and the "new" footage being released tomorrow features more kills and gore.

 

[JonZ]

The leaked version is a workprint. Some that have seen both actually prefer the workprint to the theatrical version.

The 2 major differences seem to be: minor spoilersthe rape scene is cut and Myers now has a new escape as well as a new ending were done during reshoots.

 

[TravisR]

It's safe to assume that the remake is going to be much more graphic than the original and trade the suspense for gore. However, Carpenter and Zombie have very different styles. I'd rather see Rob Zombie's version of Halloween (even if it's bad) than see him just try to copy John Carpenter's Halloween (like the sequels tried to do).

 

[BrettGallman]

The only sequel that attempted to be anything like the original in terms of style was the second one, and even that one was bloodied up with added gore at the hands of Carpenter himself.

All the rest of the Halloween films (save part III, obviously) were just Friday the 13th clones, if anything.

 

[JonZ]

Wow.

I didnt have any faith in RZ. I talked about this pretty clearly in the older thread (maybe they shoudl be merged).I absolutely hated his first 2 films, but Im suprised how much those who liked his first 2 efforts have disliked it.

James Bs review....
http://www.reelviews.net/movies/h/halloween2007.html

 

[MattFini]

The Devil's Rejects was one of my favorite movies the year it was released.

And by contrast I don't think I'll dislike any movie more than this one this year.

And for the record, regarding the conversation above, I think Halloween 4 is hands down the best sequel and comes the closest to capturing Carpenter's atmosphere and suspense.

 

[BrettGallman]

Over the years, I've slowly begun to believe that Halloween 3 is actually the best of all the sequels. I hesitate to move it above the second film (which manages to be a great sequel), but Halloween 3 deserves better.

Overall, I'd have to say that the Halloween series went downhill with each release, with the exception of Parts 6 and 5, as I prefer the former. All in all, I think 1, 2, and 4 are pretty strong films, with the first being one of the greatest movies committed to film, ever. Everything else is just plain mediocre (5,6) or downright terrible (H20, HR).

Also, I actually like both films that Zombie has done so far, but I've maintained from the start that he's all wrong for Halloween, and it looks like that's going to be validated this weekend.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

I thought that maybe the reviews wouldn't be the greatest in the world but i'm still surprised at how bashed this film is getting.

Now, for those who've seen it, I need to know one thing, you can even pm me the answer if you'd like but I NEED to know...does Michael speak as was reported long ago? If so than I tend to believe all the bad mouthing.

 

[Michael Elliott]

What worries me the most is a lot of the horror sites haven't posted their reviews even though they saw the movie last week. That tells me they weren't impressed and they're trying to keep their negative reviews off since Zombie has always been friendly to their sites and horror fans in general.

Edit to add:

www.fangoria.com/ghastly_review.php

www.dreadcentral.com/inde...nt&id=1608

www.bloody-disgusting.com/review/591

 

[MattFini]

John, I've sent you a PM.

It's funny though, I can remember Halloween 5 being reviled upon its initial release...by myself included.

But I've really come to love that one over the years. It's deeply flawed, yes, but I don't think you can top the sheer mean-spiritedness of the last 40 minutes. It's pretty much Michael trying to kill his little niece, and we spend an eternity watching Jamie run, scream and suffer. I think there's some pretty scary stuff there.

I also love how H5 killed off Rachel at the beginning. It was a pretty smart way to take away Jamie's "safety net" pretty early on. As a result I think the movie has a solid amount of suspense later on.

Not a great film, but I do think it's gotten better with age.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Thanks, Matt for the swift reply.