*Originally written November 2nd, 2018*
Jesus Christ, I have to get this out the way first. How is this so hard to get hold of in the UK? Its less successful sequel is released on both Blu-ray and DVD here, while this one only got a DVD release that is out of print and is selling for around £30 on Amazon (The fuck?). I had to import this from the US only to find it was region locked, which has never been a problem for me, but for whatever reason my PS4, Xbox One or PS3 could not play it, despite being used as a multi-region player several times. I decided fuck it and just torrented it and just shelving the Blu-ray. I'm genuinely curious though, what went wrong with the distribution of this in the UK?
Onto the film, yes. Rob Zombie's Halloween. It's... interesting. Not entirely successful, but by far one of the better horror remakes that at least doesn't make the mistake of being a shot for shot remake of the original and tries to do its own thing with Zombie's typical charm and endearing characters.
From what I remember from this (I'd seen it once about 10 years ago), they explored a lot of Michael Myers childhood and sorta ruin the mystery of the character, but I much preferred the stuff with Michael as a deeply, deeply disturbed child with a rough home life and utterly disgusting family.
This is where the Rob Zombie'isms kick in. From the opening scene you know you're in for a Rob Zombie film. It opens with abrasive heavy metal music and around 30 uses of the word "Fuck" before the opening scene ends. It's hard to sympathise with a family that act like this, so when Michael inevitable kills them, it was more a relief. Zombie really knows how to create some truly awful characters with no merit.
Daeg Faerch does a good enough job as young Michael as its quickly revealed he murders small animals before setting sights on bigger targets, he mostly shines in his scenes in the mental institution with Malcolm McDowell's Dr. Loomis. Having them spend time together while Michael was young is a smart move and brings a lot more than what could have been a generic remake. McDowell's Loomis doesn't hold the same gravitas as Pleasance though, but he puts his own spin on the character and it more or less works.
Where things start to get messy however is with its second half. When Michael is grown up and escapes the mental institution, it becomes a pretty generic and uninspired slasher, which is a shame because the first half did a good job of being its own beast. I know it had to become a slasher at some point, and it's not bad at all, it just feels very samey with stuff I've seen before. Especially in regards to David Gordon Green's 2018 film, which has genuine creativity and tension.
The second half really is a blurry mess of tits and gore. Michael pretty much just goes on a rampage killing horny teenagers while trying to find his sister and kill her? I don't know, the film isn't very clear? It implies he wants to kill her as he didn't as a child, but he wastes every chance he has to the point where I'm not sure what his plan was.
Zombie at least brings a lot of graphic violence and unflinching gore to the kills. What they lack in tension, he really makes up for in brutality. There's an argument that Zombie takes thing too far, the rape in the mental institution just feels a bit off and Michael killing people that are nice to him is pretty horrible, but that at least adds to what a monster Michael is.
So yeah, Rob Zombie's Halloween has been pretty panned over the years, but for the most part I like it. It's completely different from the original while paying homage to it at times and it definitely has Rob Zombie's voice. I just wish the second half was an interesting as the first. Oh, and someone sort out a real Blu-ray release for this in the UK please.
6/10 Dans
Aside from an out of print DVD, Halloween has no release in the UK
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