‘The evil has returned.’
Halloween is a 2007 American slasher film written, directed, and produced by Rob Zombie. The film is a remake/reimagining of the 1978 horror film of the same name, the first in the rebooted Halloween film series and the ninth Halloween film in total.
The movie stars Tyler Mane as the adult Michael Myers, Malcolm McDowell as Doctor Sam Loomis, and Scout Taylor-Compton as Laurie Strode; Daeg Faerch portrays a ten-year-old Michael Myers. Rob Zombie’s “reimagining” follows the premise of John Carpenter’s original, with Michael Myers stalking Laurie Strode and her friends on Halloween night.
Zombie’s film goes deeper into the character’s psyche, trying to answer the question of what drove him to kill people, whereas in Carpenter’s original film Michael did not have an explicit reason for killing.
Working from Carpenter’s advice to “make [the film] his own”, Zombie chose to develop the film as both a prequel and a remake, allowing for more original content than simply re-filming the same scenes.
Despite mostly negative reviews, the film, which cost $15 million to make, went on to gross $80,208,039 worldwide. Rob Zombie followed the film with a sequel, Halloween II, in 2009.
On Halloween in Haddonfield, Illinois, having already shown signs of psychopathic tendencies, ten-year-old Michael Myers (Daeg Faerch) murders a school bully named Wesley (Daryl Sabara). Later that night, Michael murders his older sister Judith (Hanna R. Hall), his mother’s boyfriend Ronnie (William Forsythe), and Judith’s boyfriend Steve (Adam Weisman).
After one of the longest trials in the state’s history, Michael is found guilty of first-degree murder and sent to Smith’s Grove – Warren County Sanitarium under the care of child psychologist Dr Samuel Loomis (Malcolm McDowell).
Michael initially cooperates with Dr Loomis, claiming no memory of the killings; his mother, Deborah (Sheri Moon Zombie), visits him regularly. After a year, Michael becomes fixated on his paper-mâché masks, closing himself off from everyone, even his mother. When Michael kills a nurse (Sybil Danning) as Deborah is leaving from one of her visits, she can no longer handle the situation and commits suicide.
For the next fifteen years, Michael (Tyler Mane) continues making his masks and not speaking to anyone. Dr Loomis, having continued to treat Michael over the years, attempts to move on with his life and closes Michael’s case. Later, while being prepared for transfer to maximum security, Michael escapes Smith’s Grove, killing the sanitarium employees and a truck driver (Ken Foree) for his overalls, and heads to Haddonfield.
On Halloween, Michael arrives at his old home, now abandoned, and recovers the kitchen knife and Halloween mask he stored under the floorboards the night he killed his sister…
Reviews:
“Here’s where Zombie failed in his mission: Attempting to inject a gritty realism to a film that is, by definition, too fantastic to be real. There is much that is unbelievable in this film, from the dialogue of the high school girls to the weird lack of any real police presence when Meyers shows back up in town.” eSplatter.com
“Flaws aside, it’s a rare late-franchise entry that looks and feels totally different to any previous episode, and at its best captures a true sense of threat and terror that has been almost entirely absent from the Myers films since the original.” Horrorscreams Videovault
“Zombie’s poor script extends to some truly awful dialogue (made only palpable by genre veterans Malcolm McDowell and Brad Dourif), and languid, disjointed pacing. Scout Taylor-Compton as Laurie Strode makes do with a limited lead role, while the supporting cast (made up of predominantly pretty twenty-something girls) is a collection of cliched characterisation and Kevin Williamson-style, angst-ridden dialogue.” Top 10 Films
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Trailer:
