Review of Halloween (2007) by Dustin P — 30 Oct 2013

Not a bad remake, but I can't help but compare it to the original. Ultimately, it pales in comparison to the 1978 version.

The violence is a little excessive for my liking. The original was scary without hardly any gore at all. It was great because instead of showing you extremely graphic death scenes, it showed only a little bit and let your mind fill in the rest of what was happening outside the frame.

The more I've watched this remake, the more I dislike it. I don't like the story that precedes Michael becoming a killer. I think it's way scarier to have a seemingly normal kid murder his sister instead of showing a troubled kid living in a broken home that ends up becoming a murderer.

On the plus side, the soundtrack is a pretty good update of the original score mixed with some great classic rock.

They also made the mask look terrific. It looks like the original, but they improved on the deformed William Shatner design. I hated how the mask looked in many of the sequels.

Tyler Bates' size makes Michael look even more dangerous. He looks like he could plausibly grab someone by the throat with one hand and lift them off the ground. I do like that they nixed the idea of Michael being able to drive. The idea of someone at the insane asylum giving him driving lessons is laughable.

It's commendable that they tried to improve and expand upon some things rather than just remaking the exact same story with a bunch of gore added. The big problem with remakes is that it's nearly impossible to improve on a classic. Remakes work best for movies that didn't do so great and are generally forgotten. Remakes of well-regarded classics are almost guaranteed to be inferior to the original. This one takes a good stab (pun intended) at improving on its source material, but ultimately proves to be just another inferior remake rather than an exception to the rule.