Review of Halloween (2007) by Jesse M — 09 Aug 2013

I commend Rob Zombie for being ambitious with the project, and not playing it safe by making a carbon copy except updated with cellphones and xbox. He truly made the iconic material his own.

For the most part it's an intense and grueling experience. Not so much suspenseful which was what made the original so good. This Michael is no killer shark. He's a rhino on pcp. A hulking monster.

Rob developed Michael in an admirable way and gave him a slowburn descent into what he would later become. I love the idea of this angelic looking child with a demonic inner working.

What I don't care for is the excessive use of profanity, sexually depraved dialogue. Just comes off tacky and sleazy which was never a Halloween trait. The amount of sex in the film serves no purpose storywise or characterwise. It is also a bit unrealistic that everyone speaks that way. Just too gratuitous.... and I'm no prude mind you. I just don't find it necessary or entertaining to be THAT disgustingly vulgar.

Also what's with most of the characters having long dingy hair even when the "present" day comes about? Could there not be a happy medium? Again a tad unrealistic that teenagers would still look like they were stuck in the tacky 70's.

I know it's Rob's style to make everything with a hillbilly 70's touch, but he could still be true to himself without turning Haddenfield Illinois into sweet home Alabama.

Overall it's an admirable effort to be more than just a typical Halloween or remake. Its an intense horror saga thats also too intense with trailer trash and vulgarity.... but I digress.

On a side note I hated that Rob changed the effective escape scene to a rape scene on the director's cut. I hate rape scenes. why on earth would he prefer that over the other better one?