Halloween
DIR: Rob Zombie • WRI: Rob Zombie • PROD: Malek Akkad, Andy Gould, Rob Zombie • DOP: Phil Parmet • ED: Glenn Garland • DES: Anthony Tremblay • CAST: Tyler Mane, Scout Taylor Compton, Malcom McDowell, Daeg Faerch, Sheri Moon Zombie, Danielle Harris, Hanna Hall, Danny Trejo, Udo Kier, William Forsythe, Kristina Klebe

So Rob Zombie is at the helm for the arduous reimagining, or should that be almost an entire reinvention, of John Carpenter's grandfather of stalking evil, man-in-a mask slasher franchise? After Zombie's debut movie, the carnivalesque catastrophe that was the gaudy House of 1000 Corpses, I avoided the follow-up The Devil’s Rejects until a friend convinced me to just watch it. This film was a graphic, searing nightmare interspersed with grotesque humour, a film that would undoubtedly give one an insight into the inner workings of a sick depraved mind. Halloween, on the other hand is no such animal.
 
Zombie fleshes out the origins of The Shape. Apparently Michael Myers came from a disadvantaged background (the reek of social welfare was almost palpable}. His mother was a stripper, his sister was a slut, and his stepfather was a lecherous pervert (Zombie obviously had the A-Z of Serial Killers at hand when putting the script together). Little Mikey passed the time by mutilating rats and wearing masks, which didn't make him popular with his peers at school who would taunt him about his mother’s line of work. That is until the school principal calls Deborah Myers (Sheri Moon Zombie) in and presents her with one of Michael’s grisly trophies – a mutilated cat. The only solution, it would seem is to bring in an OTT psychiatrist Doctor Samuel Loomis (Malcolm McDowell in fine comic form). But Mikey sneaks off; when he meets one of the bullies he bludgeons him to death and returns home to butcher the rest of his family (excluding Deborah, who is pole dancing to Love Hurts, and his baby sister, who he calls Boo).  

Mikey is placed under the supervision of Doctor Loomis in a sanitarium, and seems to have little recollection of his crimes. He spends his days wearing masks and talking to the ridiculous Loomis. One day Mikey murders a nurse and slips into a catatonic state. Sheri Moon Zombie’s turn as Deborah Myers is the film's only redeeming feature; she kills herself when brought to the realisation that her baby is a monster who cannot fight his nature.

Fifteen years later and Michael Myers (Tyler Mane) is a towering brute. When Loomis decides to stop seeing him, he escapes and returns to Haddonfield. He cuts a swathe through everybody he meets (Dee Wallace and Ken Foree being two of his choices) in search of his baby sister Boo, now called Laurie Strode (played by an irritating Scout Taylor-Compton). Of course, instead of confronting his sister first, he targets her adoptive family and friends (Danielle Harris, star of Halloween 4 and 5 makes an appearance as Annie Brackett), butchering her friends mid-coitus and Laurie's stepmother with a picture frame.
 
Halloween was a no-brainer, enjoyable at times but let down by an appalling final act. It is brutal at times, but never once disturbing. Malcolm McDowell is sublimely ridiculous and I almost peed myself everytime he was on screen. Scout Taylor-Compton and Danielle Harris give the worst performances I've ever seen in a slasher film, and that really is saying something. Sheri Moon Zombie is really good at portraying pathos; her performance in this film reminded me of Elisabeth Shue. Yes, both actresses look alike, but I think Sheri Moon Zombie, given the proper outlet, could be a brilliant actress. In short, Rob Zombie’s Halloween is better then the sequels – hardly a glowing endorsement, but there you have it.

Alan Kelly
(Read biog here)

Rated 18 (see IFCO website for details)
Halloween is released on 28th September 2007
Halloween – Official website