Issue 158

Film Review: Halloween

22nd October 2007

Release Date: Sept 28 2007
Cert 18
Rating: **

Produced and directed by Rob Zombie (House of 1000 Corpses, The Devil's Rejects), this film indefinitely promises gore, a rocky soundtrack and nudity, but disappointingly fails to deliver on much else.

The first half of the film is a form of prequel to John Carpenter's 1978 original which offered little explanation behind Michael Myers' psychoticism. In Zombie's version, the opening half builds a type of psychiatric profile of the young Michael (played very well by a creepy Daeg Faerch) and his motives to kill, predominantly his abusive alcoholic stepfather and bullying at school. It is a capturing portrayal of the reasoning behind the monster that Michael becomes, and the events leading up predictable massacre of his stepfather, sister and her boyfriend; and the consequent admittance to a psychiatric institute where he meets Dr Loomis, his child psychologist.

The second half of the film (when Michael escapes the institute) is where it loses its appeal. The violence is overly gory, and relies on visual shocks alone, despite Carpenter's acclaimed original, demonstrating how successful suspense is in slasher movies combined with less actual gore in creating anticipated fright.

The film is overall a sketchy remake, though its focus on Michael in the first half is well done and an asset to the overall film, but the second half lets it down, with too much blood, a few unnecessary killings and an unrealistic adult version of Michael (enormous and dark haired despite the child being small and blonde). Another problem with Zombie's version is the two halves are contradictory: Carpenter's original deliberately neglects to examine Michael's problems to emphasise he is purely evil. In Zombie's version the second half mirrors this, but the first undoes it by highlighting his humanity and victimisation as causal factors in his blood thirsty insanity. Zombie delivers on the gore fest we all expected but offers limited substance and too much contradiction for a successful remake.

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