This version of the Halloween story was released in 2007 and was produced on a budget of $15m which went on to make $80.4m which is a success in my eyes. I am trying to work out if this is classed as a reboot or a remake as this is another version of the original movie. This is the story but through the eyes of Screenplay writer, producer, director and heavy metal icon Rob Zombie. This has very mixed critical view summed up by the scores as IMDb gave this a 6.1/10 whilst Rotten Tomatoes hated this movie with a score of 26%. This movie starred Malcolm McDowell, Sheri Moon Zombie, Tyler Mane, Scout Taylor-Compton, Brad Dourif, Danielle Harris & William Forsythe and I was just about to start my summary but I will move on to the plot now and hopefully remember what I was going to start with.
The plot has basically the same story as the original movie but with a slight twist here and there. They go down the Geoffrey Dahmer type serial killer since a child route with Michael Myers (the villain of the piece), where Dahmer collecting dead animals when he was young. This movie has Michael unable to cope with the school bully mocking his mother and then goes on a killing spree when aged 10 (nothing like Kevin from home alone then!). He kills his bully, his older sister (Judith), her boyfriend and his mother’s boyfriend as well. Michael is eventually sent to Smith’s Grove Sanatorium for murder and put under the care of Child Psychologist Dr Loomis. Michael claims to have no knowledge of the murders and is visited by his mother regularly as well. Over time Michael slowly withdraws from the doctors support and internalises and withdraws from the outside world. His only desire is masks that he makes from papier-mâché. His mother commits suicide as Michael kills a nurse on her final visit and then he waits for 15 years. Dr Loomis is told to move on from Michael’s case just as Halloween rolls around and Michael breaks out and heads back to Haddonfield where his murderous activities can continue. Heading back to his original and now abandoned home he reclaimed the large knife and goes off to test it out. Enough? Yes, I think so.
I have mentioned on many occasions on this list that I am a huge Halloween fan and love the original (Spoiler alert you will have a long wait for the original movie review in this list). As a fan I was not convinced this franchise needed a reboot version of the original. I do remember hearing that there was a new Halloween movie coming and getting excited then reading that it was going to be a remake of the original story I thought to myself why ******* bother. I was not best pleased. Hearing Rob Zombie was working on it who had had conversations with John Carpenter about it and JC had basically said make it your own film don’t copy mine. To be fair it is the same story again, however, it is definitely a Rob Zombie movie. It is gritty & gory and Michael is not the same one as before. In this version he is a man mountain, huge and fearsome. JC’s killer was stealthy he would appear from nowhere kill and was almost lifeless. RZ’s Michael is a large stalking monster that kills without concern, reason and seems to take pleasure in it. No care for the victim just the kill. The scares in this version are not subtle they are there to be seen and they are in your face. This movie says be scared and here is why. Do I recommend this movie? Yes, I would but given a choice between this one and the original one there is only one winner and it ain’t this movie. The success of this movie did prompt a sequel which ignored the original movies sequel and went off on its own tangent and was not liked by me at all. Rotten Tomatoes gave that sequel 22%. The first two Halloween movies are so much better than these but this one is not a bad movie to enjoy but personally I would tell you to avoid the second Zombie Halloween movie.
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