Halloween - Unrated Director's Cut (Widescreen Two-Disc Special Edition)

Rob Zombie has made a career of all things horror. From the musical group White Zombie to his own solo career, in comics with his monster fighting character El Superbeasto and into films. His first two forays, HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES and THE DEVIL'S REJECTS tied into one another nicely with the second film being a sequel to the first. But with his third film, HALLOWEEN, Zombie falls short of offering not only scares but signs of a developmental director.

Everyone already knows the tale of Michael Myers, the psychopath from Haddonfield, IL, who murdered his sister only to be committed to an institution he would later escape from with the intent of more killings back home years later. While that is the basis for Zombie's film, it is not a remake but more of a retelling, a reinvention of the same character.

Here we are offered young Michael and the household he grows up in that forms his life. Michael's mother (Sheri Moon Zombie) is a stripper, saddled with a new husband (William Forsythe) who is disabled and a neer do well more interested in yelling at the kids than in offering any sort of role model. Michael's sister is a trashy sleep with anyone teen who dresses provocatively and does little else. All of this is not lost on Michael who spends his time killing his pets and taking photos of them. What we are being offered is a textbook glimpse as to why a youngster becomes a serial killer. The nice middle class family shown in the original is tossed aside for this new group. And in this first portion of the film, the problems Zombie has are apparent.

Zombie has filled three films now with the same characters. Sure, they may have different names and different small time characteristics, but the fact remains that he focuses on the dysfunctional family and their housecleaning inabilities. Yes, it seems that all families in Zombie's world can't clean to save themselves. Not only that but they all have the same dingy look to their living quarters as well as references to pop culture. The house Michael grows up in could be a home that the Firefly family would feel comfortable in. It all looks the same and that detracts greatly from the viewing experience, unless of course you'd never seen another Rob Zombie film.

Comparisons to the original film are inevitable and this will most likely be the downfall of the film in the long run. Michael goes overboard with his murderous rampage as a child in this film unlike the original. Where no blood was seen in that film, it flows freely now. Perhaps this is due to the changing times, but it adds nothing to the scares of the film or the character. It does make him a more brutal killer, leaving him one without a touch of sympathy. But the mindless killer from the original is replaced by someone we feel absolutely nothing for now.

Once finished with the whole back story of young Michael, his family and the kindly Dr. Loomis (Michael McDowell) who takes care of him at the institution, we move forward 15 years to when Michael escapes and heads back home. The body count increases once more as he kills everyone he comes into contact with their, including a worker who had befriended him. Once out, the story becomes more familiar, almost a duplicate of the original shot from different angles, with different actors and focusing less on the character of Laurie Strode, the central character in John Carpenter's version.

Laurie and her friends are nothing more than meat to be slaughtered by Michael in this one. There is no development of character, no reason for us to think of them as more than teens in peril that we have seen in hundreds of other slasher flicks. While we cared about the original teens, this time around they seem less human and placed in our way for two reasons: to be killed by Michael and to offer more exposed flesh than the first.

By the film's end we are offered the traditional sliced and diced teens, gratuitous nudity and enough blood to make a special effects company weep for joy at the size of their bill. But we have gained nothing in the iconography that is Michael Myers. While we are given more background on him, we care less about him than we ever did.

Worst of all is the fact that Rob Zombie, a director that showed such great potential before, seems to be telling us after only three films that this is all he has to offer. Stories told from the same world, a world that blasts apart the whole FATHER KNOWS BEST world we would all like it to be. In his world, there is no caring parent. And when they are caring, they are twisted in some revolting way.

I haven't given up on Zombie yet though. Having recently signed a two picture deal with the Weinstein's, perhaps he will show us he has more tricks up his sleeve than he let on. But if he returns to the carnie soiled world he's offered in three films to date, then it looks as though he's a one note director. Let's hope he offers us more. It's in there somewhere.

But I know everyone will.
Myself included.
Zombies take on the original is fresh, fun and VERY disturbing.
It's gross, VERY gross.
Apart from that, I walked out of the theater with a very bad taste in my mouth.
Why?
The movie isn't just gross, that doesn't really bother me.
The movie is RAW!
Raw you ask?
RAW!!!!!!!!
Now that I've bought it on DVD I can say it's just a hair below the original version.
The two are just so different, it's almost impossible to compare the two.
Zombie is BRILLIANT. And his version is strong enough to stand on it's own ANY day.
Truly making the original into something so disturbing I had a hard time watching it.
I'm glad he didn't turn the film into the usual Satan mumbo jumbo like parts 3- 6.
He made very good sense of Michael's childhood and the extended version FOR ONCE has scenes that should have been in the theater version. Those scenes further explain Michael's childhood and how he became what he became.
The one scene in the hospital, with the girl and the two guards??? YUCK!!!!!!!!
I'm glad he cut that scene and I wish he would have left it out of the uncensored version.
I guess I'm torn though.
Is this what horror movies have become.
The original was less horror and more thriller and it still scares even to this day.
Every sequel became more gory and less scary.
Has horror come to this? That movies have to border on disturbing to get a scare out of the audience?
Have we as horror fans become so desensitized to onscreen violence that it HAS to border on reality for it to be scary?
I think Zombie's vision is brilliant and the second best Halloween movie in the franchise.
But I think, more importantly, it raises some interesting questions as to what direction the genre is heading.
This movie is not for the easily offended, and PLEASE parents use your discretion. This movie is NOT for the young ones.
For adults and old cynical fans of the original Halloween?
Highly recommended.

There's far more Rob Zombie bashing in these reviews than is needed so I'm going to twist it back. John Carpenter may have came up with a great idea with "Halloween" but his version was always an overrated horror classic and a blatant ripoff of the original "Black Christmas". Bashing Zombie for remaking a "classic" in his own way is like bashing Carpenter for remaking "The Thing" in his own way. The major difference is "The Thing" is the only good Carpenter movie. Had he only written "Halloween" and let someone else direct it and had a better cast for it, it might have been a classic. Some common complaints with my rebuttal:

Malcolm McDowell vs Donald Pleasence: McDowell is criticized for overacting? You're joking! What has every role Pleasence has taken on been? Good drama? You can tell he started as a stage actor and he should have stayed there. Don't worry, Don, we get the point that only you can understand why Michael Myers is doing what he's doing and we can also understand why no one will listen to you when you're acting more like a lunatic than a doctor.

Scout Taylor-Compton vs Jamie Lee Curtis: JLC was never the scream queen as far as I was concerned and I commend her for realizing that so early in her career and getting out of horror. Does anyone care to remember Prom Night? I doubt she does. She did an okay job in Carpenter's "Halloween" and you didn't want to see her get killed but Scout Taylor-Compton was far more convincing in Zombie's "Halloween". It could have been the way her character was written, though, because she has no idea that Myers is her brother and, in the end, she fights harder and shows more fear than our heroine did in the original movie.

Sluts vs Sluts: People have complained about the "sluts" in Zombie's version. Times have changed, people, and there's not much we can do about it, but let's not forget that there were sluts in the original version also, and back then no-one complained. I fail to see the point in this argument. Read the rating on the back of the DVD and it will tell you why the movie is Rated R or 18A. You shouldn't be shocked then when you watch the film.

Rob Zombie vs John Carpenter: Zombie has shown more style and promise with "The Devil's Rejects" and "Halloween" than I could have predicted. He's cutting edge and definitely knows how to push buttons. Carpenter has had his shining moment(s), "Halloween" (to some) and "The Thing" but that's a long time ago. But I'll give him this saving grace: He always wrote better music than Rob Zombie or White Zombie ever did.

All in all, I found Zombie's version very suspenseful and fearful, and I've enjoyed repeated viewings to the same degree. I can understand why this movie might be too much for some people, but to call it garbage because there's too much gore...well, you might as well call Carpenter's "The Thing" garbage for the same reason.

This is a great movie, I really loved how they focused on Michael from childhood up. If your a fan of horror/blood and guts then I highly recommend buying this movie. It is well worth $13 at Wally World.

I never really liked any of the movies in the halloween series because I just never understood what was so menacing about michael. This film gives a much closer look into what forms michael and how almost completely inhuman he becomes. I think it is much better made a lot of people give it credit just because they don't like Zombie. This film was very well done and actually makes michael more then just a stalker in a mask.