Rob Zombie's music is enjoyable for me personally, but even from the start his movies have been rather hit or miss. I personally enjoy 'House of 1000 Corpses' more than others but it's not hard to see how flawed it is. 'The Devil's Rejects' is still to date his best film and shows his strong eye for a unique visual look and even though the dialogue can be crude, the characters are more developed here and the film just works. Zombie has shown great love for John Carpenter's 'Halloween' through various interviews and even in his music, so it was safe to assume that during the hype for 2007's remake most people were excited. Then the film came out, and what started as a strongly divisive film has somewhat been given a little more hate than warranted. Don't get me wrong, it's not a great film, and far from being a great remake but aspects of the film do work and the film's visuals are pure Zombie which are at least interesting.
The worst part of 2007's 'Halloween' is actually not the remake aspect, but rather the first 40 minutes that act as a sort of prequel which was the original intention for the film as I understand. This prequel section attempts to show why young Michael Myers ended up stabbing his sister on Halloween night and it's the laziest way to tell a serial killer origin story. His family is stereotypical trailer trash that are vile and whorish and they can't speak a single sentence without dropping at least four F-bombs. The film gets even worse once Michael is committed because now we have abusive nurses and orderlies that rape their patients. All these characters severely undermine Michael because everyone is evil or messed up and they all make Michael seem like the least violent character in his own movie. When the film kicks into the second half when it begins to remake the Carpenter film it starts to salvage itself a little. Annie and Lynda are still obnoxious and slutty, but now so is Laurie, being way to over the top and hyperactive with Scott Taylor Compton's performance.
Thankfully, I did enjoy Malcolm McDowell's Dr. Loomis and gives his own performance while still honoring Donald Pleasance's portrayal. I also enjoyed seeing Brad Dourif as Sheriff Brackett as he always fully commits making these two the best characters in the film but sadly they're not in it as much. Tyler Mane is okay as Michael Myers. He does what is needed of him but his height and overall bulkiness really takes away his creepiness rather than increasing it. Michael was just a man of normal build but with no personality or seemingly any emotion or soul within him, hence why he's called The Shape. Making him a giant and giving him an over-stylized look doesn't work and it's strange that Zombie chose such a drastic look for him. Tyler Bates's score is really dull here, sounding like every horror film during this time. The film also throws in some rock and pop songs, some from the original films like 'Mr. Sandman' but these are mostly odd and out of place choices such as Rush's 'Tom Sawyer' which is a good song, but being placed in a scene in which a man is crapping in a truck stop bathroom makes no damn sense.
As I stated before, Rob Zombie's films all have a good visual style to them and 'Halloween' is really no different. Granted, it's the least interesting as his other work going for that grimy fluorescent look that the 'SAW' franchise would adopt but here I think it works a little better. Zombie seems to be going for a grind house or 42nd street theater flick with lots of grime, blood, and sex and visually at least I think he got his idea across well. It's just a shame that he couldn't do a similar film, but without the 'Halloween' outline. It might have worked on its own at least in a way that'd be entertaining, but despite people's best attempts it's difficult to not compare the original with this one which makes these drastic changes stand out too much. Rob Zombie's 'Halloween' isn't as bad as I remembered, but it wasn't as good as I first thought when I went into the theater. It's definitely better than some of the previous sequels, especially 'Resurrection' but it doesn't do enough to differentiate itself from other horror flicks during that time. It's simply okay and very forgettable compared to Zombie's other work.
2/5
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