Halloween ala Zombie

IMDB

As I get caught up on movies released in the past few years, I finally got to see Rob Zombie's 're-imagining' of the classic "Halloween". People who don't appreciate the genre may not realize or have forgotten that John Carpenter's original 1978 "Halloween" is a classic. It was the first true movie of it's type and at the time very scary. We've become so saturated with horror flicks copying it's style (Jason and Freddy don't exist without Michael Myers coming first) that we've forgotten that these types of flicks can be original and scare the pants off of you. The horror genre needs more movies like this after going on a several year run of simply spitting out 'torture porn' which isn't scary, just nasty. We watch horror movies because we want to be scared; in the right way.

Despite what most purists say, Zombie made a super fun movie without disgracing the original material. He took what John Carpenter produced and expanded several story lines while maintaining the big scares. This time around when you see Michael wandering out in the open, during the day, on the streets of Haddonfield, you have deeper understanding of what makes him the way he is and what he is capable of. Dr. Loomis went from being the obligatory white knight who would show up shortly after Michael had done his thing and make a profound statement to being a conflicted man who potentially is only involved with Michael to land a book deal. Yet despite his possible ulterior motives, he alone knows Michael's make-up and what Michael truly is.

The best part of the way Rob Zombie makes a scary movie (and I believe this to be the case with "The Devil's Rejects" as well) is that he's able to marry the disturbing and gory elements of what you see in horror a lot these days, yet he does it with a grin and an air of campiness. The movie is, for lack of a better word, fun. You are scared, watching some scenes through your fingers, but at the end you are completely satisfied and leave with a smile on your face. Zombie's affinity for old-school scary movies makes it's presence known in the way he pieces together the film. This makes me want to see more movies from him because let's face it, yes we're there to see something scary, but don't we want to have as well? He also maintains several of the important elements found in most typical slasher flicks: gratuitous nudity, having sex gets you kill and the chaste protagonist makes it through to the end.

If you are into scary movies and have not already, see this flick. Put aside the importance of the original and don't go into Zombie's flick ready to compare the two. That's not fair to this one, which can stand on it's own. Definitely looking forward to seeing the sequel...on DVD of course.