#Literally the Rob Zombie halloween Michael Myers escape scene

[fullonpostal]

Rameel Eisheth uh

[brokehorrorfan]

Free as a Bird: The Devil's Rejects at 15

Rob Zombie has been one of the most polarizing figures in the horror community since making the leap from musician to filmmaker. He made his feature writing and directorial debut with House of 1000 Corpses in 2003 - after being purchased by Lions Gate when its original studio, Universal, shelved it three years prior due fears of it receiving a dreaded NC-17 rating. Corpses fell victim to many issues faced by first-time directors, but the end result remains potent. It's apparent that Zombie was unsure if he'd ever get the opportunity to make another movie, resulting in an anarchic melange of ideas and influences.

Despite the troubled production and an unfavorable critical response, the film turned a healthy profit, giving Zombie the sinister urge to make a sequel as his sophomore effort. The Devil's Rejects was released via Lions Gate 15 years ago today; July 22, 2005. It introduces a realism to the previously exaggerated world created in Corpses. The horror elements are present, but the follow-up also incorporates aspects of exploitation, western, road movies, and even comedy. Zombie’s refined approach allows him to blend the tones more smoothly this time around.

The Devil’s Rejects kicks off with a literal bang. Set in 1978, the murderous Firefly clan introduced in House of 1000 Corpses - collectively responsible for more than 75 deaths - have been tracked down by the vindictive Sheriff Wydell (William Forsythe, The Rock). A shootout between the family and state troopers ensues, with Baby (Zombie’s wife, Sheri Moon Zombie) and Otis (Bill Moseley, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2) narrowly escaping. They meet up with Baby’s estranged father, local celebrity Captain Spaulding (Sid Haig, Spider Baby), who helps them flee from the law. The fugitives’ reign of terror continues on the lam.

Zombie creates a fascinating and challenging dichotomy between protagonist and antagonist. Although the Fireflys' actions are reprehensible and Wydell’s vengeance is justified, the former villains are presented as heroes for whom the audience is encouraged to root. Boldly set to Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Free Bird,” the poetic climax is among the most effective uses of a popular song in cinema, as far as I'm concerned.

Captain Spaulding is still a vulgar curmudgeon but spends most of the movie sans his iconic clown makeup, as the desperate times have forced him to assume the role of patriarch of the Firefly clan. Otis is no longer the gangly albino introduced in Corpses, instead portrayed as a deranged, bearded, lunatic in the mold of Charles Manson, leading to a career-best performance by Moseley. Similarly, Baby's sweetly sadistic tendencies are presented in a more grounded manner. The ironically named Tiny (Matthew McGrory, who passed away shortly after the film's release) doesn’t have much screen time but plays an important role in the story.

In addition to the characters evolving, several changes were made on the casting side between Corpses and Rejects. Mama Firefly was recast with Leslie Easterbrook (Police Academy) after cult favorite Karen Black reportedly demanded too much money to reprise the role. While Black's magnetism is impossible to match, Easterbrook admirably sinks her teeth into the unhinged matriarch. The hulking Rufus was recast from one former professional wrestler to another, as Tyler Mane (who went on to play Michael Myers in Zombie’s Halloween films) took over the role originated by Robert Mukes. Grandpa Hugo was written out of the script due to actor Dennis Fimple dying before production. The mad Dr. Satan (Walter Phelan) appeared in a gory scene that was deleted because Zombie - rightfully - felt the character was incongruous.

As he’s known to do, Zombie populated the Rejects cast with cult actors in roles both large and small, including such recognizable faces as Ken Foree (Dawn of the Dead), Michael Berryman (The Hills Have Eyes), Elizabeth Daily (Pee-wee's Big Adventure), Priscilla Barnes (Three’s Company), Geoffrey Lewis (Double Impact), comedian Brian Posehn, Danny Trejo (From Dusk Till Dawn), wrestling icon “Diamond” Dallas Page, Tom Towles (Night of the Living Dead), Dave Sheridan (Scary Movie), P.J. Soles (Halloween), Mary Woronov (Chopping Mall), adult film star Ginger Lynn, and an uncredited Kane Hodder (Friday the 13th Parts VII-X).

Whereas Corpses drew influence from 1970s horror classics like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Hills Have Eyes, Rejects adopts a gritty tone akin to the era’s exploitation movies. It’s matched with a grainy aesthetic and a lot of handheld camera work, with cinematographer Phil Parmet's (Zombie's Halloween) documentary background proving useful for emulating the cinéma vérité style. Zombie is careful to balance the brutality - such as the intensely uncomfortable motel scene, which initially earned the picture an NC-17 rating - with levity. Supporting characters, such as those portrayed by Foree, Berryman and Posehn, are the primary sources of comedic relief, but even the Firefly family earn a few laughs (“Tutti fucking fruity!”).

Zombie has continued to make interesting, if divisive, choices as a filmmaker, but I believe The Devil’s Rejects remains his strongest work on the whole. (The Lords of Salem is vastly underappreciated, but that's an article for another day.) The film is relentless and emotionally draining, but it’s also entertaining and endlessly quotable. In striking that unique tonal balance, the characters were cemented as bona fide horror icons. While Zombie undermined his own efforts with last year's superfluous 3 from Hell, The Devil's Rejects saw the filmmaker acting as free as a bird.

The Devil's Rejects is available on Blu-ray and DVD via Lionsgate.

[robkirbycomics]

I did Twitter’s #31HorrorFilm31Days challenge again this year - at the outset I thought it would be really hard to accomplish this time around, but it wasn’t - I finished with days to spare. Of course now I won’t be able to watch another horror movie for another month at least. This year I went heavily 80′s, rewatching several favorite old chestnuts and finally catching up with never-seen-before perennials like Return of the Living Dead. I also saw some good newer stuff like Creep 2 & the new Halloween. Gotta mix it up at least a little, right? Anyway, read my full list with their accompanying twitter comments below, and happy Halloween! 

1. CREEP 2 ('17) Female filmmaker doesn't *flinch* when guy she’s filming tells her he's a serial killer, thinks he’ll make for fab material. Good luck with that. 

2. HELLO MARY LOU: PROM NIGHT II (’87) Who was that who said "Hell hath no fury like that of a 50′s prom queen scorned by being burned alive who reappears in the 80′s as a vengeful spirit supported by lots of FX"? Whoever said that, they are vindicated.

3. MR JONES ('13) Film-making couple has neighbor who is either (A) a famous reclusive artist ("like Banksy!") or (B) a guardian between us & a nightmare realm. I'm gonna go with (B)

4. THE BIRDS (’63) Our fine feathered friends become our fine feathered foes in this classic Hitchcock thriller. 

5. HOLIDAYS (’15) Featuring 8 short tales, each on a different holiday. It's hit or miss but u may well enjoy imagining Mitch McConnell as the male character in K. Smith's gruesome anti-misogyny revenge fantasy - I sure did. 

6. GOD TOLD ME TO (’76) Randos begin killing randomly, claiming "God told me to!" But what's reeeeally going on? Cop w/ personal issues is on the case. Solid, wacko B flick features tons of late 70s NYC goodness

7. THE BEYOND (’81) Woman inherits hotel in New Orleans which turns out 2B one of the 7 Gates to Hell! The hotel offers lovely amenities such as murderous walking corpses & eyeball eating spiders

8. THE BLACK CAT ('81) Title cat goes full-out serial killer in small English village, also manages to get bricked up behind a wall b/c you know, that's the classic black cat behavior 

9. PROM NIGHT (’80) Jamie Lee Curtis & group of teens are stalked by vengeful masked killer. Everything comes to a head (literally) at the disco prom. Sample music lyrics: “Prom night/Everything is alright!”

10. HALLOWEEN (’78) The boogeyman comes to Haddonfield with a big knife and a nasty attitude, but Final Girl extraordinaire Jamie Lee Curtis is having none of it

11. THE FOG (’80) Title fog + ghosts + vengeance + death = total entertainment. With this we conclude the Jamie Lee Curtis trilogy portion of this year's #31HorrorFilms31Days

12. DEADLY BLESSING (’81) Wes Craven’s overstuffed tale of sinister goings-on in a Hittite community includes interesting moving parts, incl a young Sharon Stone & a bonkers ending. Sample Hittite dialogue: "“You are a stench in the nostrils of God!”

13. DEADLY FRIEND (’86) Cute brainiac plants an AI chip in his murdered girlfriend's brain and she proceeds to go on murderous rampage because in good times & bad times that's what Deadly Friends are for  

14. RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD (’85) A genuinely funny horror comedy w/ pitch perfect performances by a stellar cast of B-movie pros + a killer soundtrack. A fan fave for good reasons, glad I finally saw it!

15. THE HOUSE THAT DRIPPED BLOOD (’71) As the poster advertises you get Vampires! Voodoo! Vixens! Victims! But no dripping blood, TBH

16. SUSPIRIA (’77) Dario Argento’s baroque classic stars Jessica Harper, a coven of e-vil witches, and fabulously over-the-top sets, cinematography & score. 

17. NIGHT OF THE SEAGULLS (’75) Nice Dr. & wife move to crusty seaside town of rude, fearful villagers + band of murderous dead blind knights, and learn what niceness gets you in this world

18. THE WITCH (’15) Puritan family runs afoul of witches in ye olden tymes: death, madness, & corruption of the innocent ensue, in pretty much that order. 

19. MALATESTA’S CARNIVAL OF BLOOD (’73) Uncommonly weird, original little grindhouse item recommended to that certain type of fan who responds 2 made-on-the-fly auteurist nonsense. And yes: that *is* Tattoo from Fantasy Island! 

20. THE PREMONITION (’76) whackjob lady has her eyes on nice lady's cute lil adopted daughter & plans to take her but the nice lady has THE PREMONITION and things escalate from there

21. SWEET, SWEET LONELY GIRL (’16) Titular sweet  n lonely 70′s girl goes 2 stay with ailing recluse aunt, meets a hot mysterious other girl and things proceed from weird 2 weirder. 

22. WE GO ON (’16) Young man terrified of life offers big $$$ to anyone who can prove existence of an afterlife, comes 2 regret what he learns. Fine cast + scary, thoughtful story: this gets the Sincere Rob Recommendation (tm) 

23. TERROR TRAIN (’80) Crazed madman vs obnoxious fraternity members aboard New Yr’s Eve party train. With the exception of Jamie Lee Curtis, who ably performs final girl duties, you'll root for the killer

24. RE-ANIMATOR (’85) Jeffrey Combs is fabulous as a wacky med student who discovers a way 2 re-animate dead tissue in this funny, gory (somewhat Bro-y) '80's cult classic

25. STAGE FRIGHT (’87) Enjoyable Italian fromage features an escaped psychopath in an owl mask vs. a locked theater full of actors rehearsing a play. Co-starring: a stormy night, unintentional laughs

26. THE NESTING (’81) Agoraphobic writer from the city rents a spooky old house in the country which A. was once a brothel & B. was the scene of a massacre, leading to C. Complications.

27. THE NINTH GATE (’99) Filthy rich dude hires Johnny Depp to acquire rare satanic book. Predictably, satanic things then begin to happen

28. HALLOWEEN (’18) Michael Myers returns after 40 yrs 2 reprise his gr8st hits from the original & its sequel, H20, & even the R. Zombie sequel (the PTSD stuff). Still - SURPRISE! - none of it compares to the original '78 classic.  

29. FRIEND REQUEST ('16) Facebook-inspired horror. I'm srsly unfriending it unliking it & wish I could unwatch it 

30. FIEND (’80) Supernatural entity possesses a dead man and proceeds 2 Fiendishly strangle neighbors b/c that's what Fiends do. Amateurish but endearingly sincere production was apparently made for $39.99 + some coupons

31. ALL THE BOYS LOVE MANDY LANE (’06) Unappealing teens go 2 ranch  4 fun & sex & 2 be killed off one by one as usual, but wait there’s a twist! But wait again you’ve figured it out already.

[geek-gem]

2nd viewing on Halloween 2018

As of now just texted my mom I've been out of the theater for a few minutes. This post is gonna contain spoilers and reveal I guess why I felt the way I did the first time. Now just some seconds ago a lady who works at this McDonald's just wiped my table. I decided to go to the McDonald's so I can feel more comfortable in a spot I know.

Let me be honest about the film the more I think about it and me seeing it again. Especially a day after the 40th anniversary of the original Halloween I like it more and more.

It is honestly the best film after the original. Especially seeing this time even before I saw it again I understood some stuff which I feel could be deep yet it might just be me. Yet other people have thought so too.

Also for some reason two ladies decided to bring to small girls to see it. They weren't really bothersome I just wondered why they were seeing the movie and I was trying to think of reasons why maybe the kids wanted to see it or someone couldn't watch them. They were mostly quiet and not bothersome. Just during towards the end of the film three times I think it was the same girl saying mom I'm scared(or I'm so scared most likely the first part) the point is I wonder why stuff like this happens. But mainly it was fine.

Yet what I like about this and beware spoilers like I said is the whole idea of people trying to get Michael or understand him.

Especially the first meeting with Laurie with Aaron and Dana who aren't bad people but they just don't get it. Along with this doctor character Sartain with this I felt was a stupid twist and I'll talk more on that. I had to go to IMBD to spell the doctor's name right it wasn't on Google where I checked the theater times before that.

But this twist and I hated this twist which I thought it was stupid. The idea the possibility this doctor might of been the reason instead or Michael himself got Michael out. When I feel it should be Michael but watching it I don't know if I could confirm if that's what happened.

Yet what he says and his role is. I get it and I feel like he is basically the people who keep trying to understand what makes Michael tick. The idea that why Michael is and what he is and he talks about Michael in a way that I pretty much go with what's going on with Michael.

But also I feel like it's also what they were trying to do is no matter how many times you try to ask it's simple.

Michael Myers simply became the embodiment of evil, he knows what he's doing, he is literally the God damn boogeyman. Their is no need to explain because John Carpenter's intention was to have Myers as a force of nature.

He was once a person but not anymore. Especially Samuel Loomis himself explained it so much. Just purely and simply evil.

Especially a comparison from me Michael is a literal demon. He does things because he wants to. Including this old thing from some old Halloween novel that Laurie reminded him of his sister Judith makes more sense then the whole sibling thing. While I don't hate it but I'm okay without that.

Including the whole death scene of Sartain is just fucking brutal, and feels like in a way to me no offense a saying of, "Shut the fuck up, stop asking what makes Michael tick, he's just evil" it feels like a answer to all this idea.

So okay Mom texted me she says all is good here. But basically the idea again it's simple. Which is why while I've been rethinking about the 2007 reboot and their is some stuff I don't mind. But Rob Zombie didn't seem to understand while even if John told him to make it his own. It just feels like Michael is a different character and I know it's a different interpretation. Especially it has it's fans and that's fine. But I'll always prefer the original 1978 film to that of the 2007 film.

I wanna say Sartain's death let me be honest. The face stomp death in Rob Zombies Halloween 2 is brutal and I feel like I wonder if I was scared by that. Yet I was young and I don't seem to mind it. But Sartain's death is easily the best kill in the 2018 film, especially it's just so fast and more brutal that the last time I saw it I thought I heard a squish maybe like a pumpkin or whatever. Yet also he's killed by the same Michael from the first film. Who is probably just sick and tired of everyone wanting him to say something.

Now let me say something and this is a death I wanted. It was Allyson's boyfriend or ex boyfriend Cameron this little mother fucker I wanted to get killed by Michael in some way yet he doesn't. Especially originally I wanted Michael to go at the party and start killing some youngsters but heard they police evacuated the party. But I can do without or whatever I wouldn't mind it, but in the next movie I want that Cameron kid to be gutted.

Again Michael and Laurie are the best things about the film. Yet seeing the film again I don't mind characters like Karen and Ray. Also Allyson is nice too.(also Hawkins was cool I'm on the part of Michael can survive being burnt)

Especially her friends and that part with Vicky and Julian honestly it's funny. Hoping that Julian made it out okay.

Now let me talk of why I acted how I was when I first saw the movie. Basically I was surprised because of some directions they took. Especially the understanding of the show Laurie went through in the original film I understand and how the other characters are important like how Laurie is.

Including well I was expecting and I'm gonna sound silly. I was expecting more like, "Michael's shanking folks and doing his usual bullshit, and him and Laurie have an epic battle". Yet it's weird just the word epic can be used in many ways. Okay text but I should remember Michael is 61(yet he basically doesn't give a damn he's still strong and can still keep going) and Laurie is 57.

Especially I had this weird expectation that they were both gonna die or mainly Laurie. Now the ending and this is where I said I was confused.

I seriously thought until I looked up stuff and thought of it more. It makes it seem like Michael actually died. Especially I remember last week when I saw this film with my bro and his friend, my bros friend said he didn't want Michael to die and I honestly felt like that. Including mentioning this Halloween is done by John Carpenter yet I never read it. Along with me staying during the entire credits.

I seriously thought they killed off Michael for good. Yet it's most likely he escaped and seriously Michael's been burnt alive he can handle that shit. My mindset basically felt like a kid because it was an ending that made it feel like it's over no more films.

Especially I even thought that day I'm thinking shit like this.

"What about Freddy Vs Jason Vs Michael?" Despite they would have to share rights, and whatever the hell is going on with Elm Street and the fucking crap Friday The 13th is going through with this God damn lawsuit. It's a crossover I want my favorites trying to kill the fuck out of each other. Especially let's add Laurie's reaction being, "HOW MANY MORE FUCKING PSYCHOPATH'S ARE IN THIS WORLD OR EVEN DIMENSIONS!?" Suggesting other characters.

Yet also this thing I remember from I think the Halloween Resurrection special features that some sort of I guess contract Michael can't die, no seriously by some sort or paper thing he can't die. That's why we have bullshit like Halloween Resurrection and whatever.

But anyway they are gonna make a sequel anyway this film has made so much money it's amazes me and makes me happy that a horror film like this especially a slasher made a lot. Especially I don't wanna spread rumors it could be only a year we can wait or whatever I don't wanna spread false stuff.

Tags dealt with basically I wanted to share that with you all. I'm gonna get some food and I basically liked the film.

[whitehousefilmreviews]

Halloween (2007)

In this remake of the 1978 classic, a young boy, Michael Myers slaughters his family and after many years in a mental institution, escapes and returns to find his little sister, murdering anyone who gets in his way.

The Good: In a remake, the decisions on what elements to change and what elements to recreate are obviously important. What I think is often misunderstood is that a remake should only really be created if there exists a new angle or perspective to explore that the original work did not. That’s the strength of this film. The ‘78 Dr. Loomis explains through exposition that he tried to help Michael at the institute, but this time around we get to SEE it happen. The first third to half of the film is Michael as a child covering his school and home life prior to the murder spree that changes everything. At the institute we get to see the sessions between the two. I loved this part of the movie. That whole legendary, demon child stuff Loomis talks about in both films is a bit more justified now. The actor portraying young Michael, Daeg Farch, is really quite good.

The film looks great. The lighting and costuming pays homage to the original quite well. The mask is old this time, not stolen brand new and the kills imply knowledge of the original without copying it. Even the famous knife-sticking-guy-to-the-wall scene takes place in a slightly different location and is more intimate and close.

Myers is a beastly presence. The actor is 6′8″ and dominates the screen. There are a few shots where he literally encompasses the entirety of a door frame as he chases a victim, or only requires minimal strength to strangle someone. The character is even more menacing for it.

The Bad: The focus on Myers adds to the character, but then the choice to give Michael a protective attitude towards Laurie makes a little less sense. If I recall the original correctly, he is attempting to kill her just like everyone else. (If that’s wrong, I’m sorry...) But there is some clashing of motivation regarding his psychopathic nature and this affection he holds for his sister. A bit strange.

Speaking of clashing....there is still a really sloppy transition in Loomis’ character. For over a decade he is trying to help this kid and even on the final day he speaks with Myers, he calls Michael his “best friend, in a way”. Sure he says this line as a bit of self deprecation, but that would be a real shitty thing to say sarcastically to a psychotic patient. This is followed with Loomis returning to his “these are the eyes of pure evil” character. What the hell?

Perhaps the biggest plot hole is this...how did Myers FIND Laurie? Sure she’s still in the same town, but her name was changed when she went into foster care and Michael wouldn’t recognize her because she was only a baby when Michael last saw her....it just doesn’t add up.

Rating: B+    ....I was really surprised how much I liked it. It’s tough to beat a classic, but I think Rob Zombie makes a handful of really good choices to differentiate the film.

Spoilers: While all the main beats of the film are the same, this film changes a few elements about the ending compared to the original. Recall that in the original, Myers injures Dr. Loomis, but Loomis is definitely alive because Loomis is the one who fires many bullets into Myers, eventually sending him over the terrance of the house onto the lawn below. When as the movie ends, it is revealed that Myers is in fact alive, as his body is no longer there. In the remake, Myers seems to kill Loomis (or at the very least it’s heavily implied) and the final shot of the film displays Laurie shooting Myers in the head. I haven’t looked into it, but my guess is Rob Zombie wanted the ending to be more definitive, as he may not have known whether a remake of the sequel was coming. This choice is executed well, but is an interesting artistic decision none-the-less.

[cinemaasimage-blog]

Halloween (2007): Zombie’s Mix of Brutality and Empathy

It cheapens a remake to dislike it for being made, and that’s why I feel Rob Zombie’s 2007 Halloween remake was given a bit of a cheap reception. Lambasted upon release- fans wouldn’t accept, didn’t want to accept, Zombie’s reimagining- what’s become clear, especially in the context of the past decade of horror remakes, is how clear and personal this film is. Zombie takes the framework of the original John Carpenter Halloween- masked killer slaughtering teenagers on Halloween night- and adds to it, develops it- now Michael is a product of a certain kind of environment, a negative environment. Interestingly, where seemingly in the Carpenter film Michael Myers came from a middle-class suburban environment, in Zombie’s film he comes from a low-class, white trash family. His stepfather is an abusive alcoholic and his older sister is negligent. 

When Zombie first introduces young Michael Myers, he’s killed his pet mouse. Later, at school, the principal and the psychologist Samuel Loomis show his mother a dead cat as well as pictures of other animals that Michael has murdered, evidence of psychopathy, “much deeper issues��, as Dr. Loomis says. What’s more, less than ten minutes into the film, Michael slaughters a school bully with a tree branch. Zombie’s talent here, then, is in showing the abusive environment as one of the root causes of Michael’s psychopathy. Zombie shows evil as systemic- though Michael has already become a young, psychopathic killer when he is first shown to us, he has sprung from a corrupted home, a home broken by poverty, by capitalism, by abuse- Zombie’s posturing of Michael here makes him a sympathetic character. Despite his outwardly vicious actions, on the inside he’s a young kid from a destructive environment. 

Zombie shoots the film with as many handheld shots as possible, grounding it in a realist aesthetic. That isn’t, however, to say that the film feels less cinematic- from the editing, especially the editing in of titles, and the cinematography by Devil’s Rejects cinematographer Phil Parmet, Halloween feels distinctly cinematic, distinctly stylish. While it is a common criticism, and perhaps one that does make sense, that Halloween (2007) shows these psychological, psychoanalytic events in a somewhat surface-level manner, Zombie is a far too interesting, and too layered director for that. His staging of sequences in this film shows an acute attention to both cinematic detail and psychoanalytic themes- as Michael literally destructs his own home, slaughtering his stepfather, as well as his sister and her boyfriend, Zombie shoots it all especially carefully- playing out each murder in complete, grotesque violence. Even as a child, Michael Myers is attracted to masks, as ways to hide his own identity, to distance himself from the trauma of his personal life, to escape into the landscape of his own mind, and this preoccupation with masks allows for Zombie to blur the lines between Myers the child, and Myers the killer. 

Zombie, alongside his interest in psychoanalysis, has always been a filmmaker uniquely consumed by the effects of the trauma experienced by his characters, and has always attempted to figure out ways to showcase those feelings onscreen. This artistic impulse has allowed for him to transition into one of the boldest, most interesting genre filmmakers of the modern era- with his later films- Halloween II and The Lords of Salem-  being especially major works. Over the course of his career, from House of 1000 Corpses onward, Zombie has been interested in the emotional effect of editing, in cutting, piecing together different sorts of footage for thematic, as well as visual effect. This extends here too, as he edits in a news report, adding to the horrific feeling of loss felt by Michael’s mother (played by Sheri Moon Zombie), as she comes home to her family having been murdered by her son. 

The first fifty or so minutes of Halloween (2007) are entirely Michael’s story. He receives the most character development, he’s, to Zombie’s credit, the pseudo-protagonist. Despite his evil deeds, he’s the main character. Zombie shows Myers grow up, his eventual transition into the silent, hulking monster, his mother’s suicide (an impactful scene because of the choice to splice in 8mm home video-footage of Michael as a child, over Deborah Myer’s death). 

Eventually Myers has grown into an adult, complete with a fascination with masks, long hair, and a giant, muscular frame. By this point, he’s completely compulsive to watch. Even as he escapes the hospital by killing guards in cold blood, he’s still positioned as the protagonist, the main character. Zombie, an expert visual craftsman, finds some absolutely stunning, expressive images, and stages Michael’s murders in grisly, violent, fashion, grounded and realistic. 

The second half of this film lost me the first time I viewed it, about a year ago. At around the fifty-minute mark, the film smash cuts to Laurie Strode, living a comfortable suburban life in Haddonfield, Illinois. Interestingly, this second section is, according to Zombie, much less his own personal vision and much more what the producers forced him to include, pretty much what the “fans” seemingly asked for- an almost shot for shot remake of the original. This time, however, it worked for me in a different way that it hadn’t before. Zombie has less of an interest (in this film) in Laurie than in Michael, and therefore she receives much less character development than he does. If a viewer hadn’t seen, or wasn’t familiar with the original John Carpenter Halloween, they’d most likely be completely confused as to who Laurie even is! But, perhaps most interestingly, this lends the second half of the film, for the most part, a completely different feeling than the first. Where the first fifty minutes of the film are incredibly personal and harrowing in a sense that we can relate to because of Zombie’s interest in Michael and his mother, his altogether lack of major interest in Laurie and her friends lends this half of the film a feeling of brutal objectivity. 

Michael’s shift in character mirrors this shift in narrative as well. Myers at the opening is brutal, but also personal. Zombie still shows him as a kid. But as an adult, Michael has stopped talking. He hasn’t said a word in twenty years. He’s become much more of an objective figure of evil, the sort of figure he was in Carpenter’s original. We as an audience understand the depths of MIchael’s psychology, but Laurie and her friends, his victims, see him as the “boogey-man”, the sort of evil that has no explanation, a faceless, objective evil. Zombie’s technical craft in the second half is just as refined as in the first, and this detached feeling towards characters lends a feeling of complete brutality to Michael’s killings. One of the most interesting elements of Carpenter’s original film is that Michael Myers interrupts idyllic, suburban teenage life with violence and death. The victims in Halloween have no experience with violence, they’re interested in sex, prom, and alcohol. Zombie doubles down on this; his especially vicious, violent, brutal way of shooting these scenes of murder make them feel all the more interruptive to the simple, easy, privileged way of life these characters experience- the sort of life Michael, coming from a low-class environment, was never able to feel. There’s an interesting shot at about the seventy-five minute mark where Annie, attempting to escape Michael, is dragged back into the house. Michael slams the door, and Zombie cutting to a wide shot of the house, holds for a few seconds, emphasizing this feeling that all of the terror that is happening is happening within this idyllic suburban environment. 

This is, ultimately, the point Zombie is attempting, largely successfully, to get across with his remake. That horrors occur, and are ignored, by the general public. That people look away when bad things are happening. That, oftentimes, there isn’t help to be found for those in need, there is no end to suffering. Suburbia covers up these horrors to the best of its ability, these systemic horrors that are impossible to escape from, the sort of horror that suburbia makes seem impossible. Compare the above two shots to the following two shots near the beginning of the film.

Here, by showing Michael, before killing his stepfather, unobserved by suburban kids, Zombie has showcased the same point- violence is covered up by suburban life. Trauma is hidden underneath the comfy sheen of suburbia. It’s possible that Michael, on a deep, psychological level, resents that Laurie, who is eventually revealed to be his sister, has grown up in a privileged, middle-class environment. That she has been given chances that he never got to have. His trauma was covered up by the same suburbia that has granted her a comfy, easy life with nice, pleasant parents. At the end of the film, he kidnaps her and attempts to bond with her, by showing a photo of them as children, but she rejects him, and eventually attacks him- suburbia has erased their connection.

Halloween (2007) isn’t quite a perfect film- the final twenty or so minutes, with Laurie attempting to escape Michael, begin to grow a little stale, and most, if not all of the scenes with Dr. Loomis in the second half are somewhat perfunctory and expository. But Zombie is a remarkably interesting genre craftsman, one who cares deeply about things that other filmmakers, even those outside of genre, don’t seem to pay attention to. Originally I found Halloween to actually be his weakest film, largely because I heavily disliked the second half, but this time around I found it to largely work, and work surprisingly well. One of my largest personal issues with horror, especially modern horror, is that the filmmakers seem to pay no attention to the psychological effects of the horrors they are depicting. Too often characters lose friends, family, and seemingly have no emotions, no feelings. Zombie allows characters to feel full emotions. He’s consumed by the psychological effects of horror, he’s obsessed with it- and his cinema reflects it, to his credit, through his expert craft, he shows it through image, through reflection. Halloween represents the beginning of the current, interesting stage in Zombie’s career, and I hope that he’ll be allowed to keep making films and sharing his personal visions.