Oh Halloween, how far you have fallen
I tried really hard to be open-minded about the Halloween remake. I realized after Busta Rhymes uttered "Trick or Treat, Motherfucker!" in Halloween: Resurrection, that the franchise as I knew and loved it was dead. I understood that Halloween was going to have to go in a different direction if it were to survive, however, after the prequel/remake, I am wishing the series would have went out with a pathetic whimper instead of a violent, nonsensical bang.
From the onset, this doesn't feel like a Halloween movie. There is a quote from Dr. SamuEL Loomis to open the film up with. SamuEL??? I am a bit confused by Zombie's insistence on having Dr. Loomis be referred to as SamuEL ,when in the original he is Dr. Sam Loomis. You may argue that Rob is attempting to differentiate his film from the original and its sequels, but if that is the case, why not use different characters all together then? We get a tiny snippet from the Halloween score, and even it doesn't feel the same. Instead of the simply effective score by Carpenter, we instead get an industrialized one. It's completely over the top, which is appropriate considering that is how the movie plays out.
The film opens with a rock song, which immediately threw me out of the Halloween mood. For all the sequels' flaws, they all managed to open with a really memorable first scene. Halloween 4's opening montage of pumpkins, barns and leaves serves as the best example of this. It sets the tone for the entire rest of the movie. For this opening, we are shown the Myers residence, which smacks of white trash. As if that weren't enough, Zombie treats us to a completely pointless ten minute scene of Michael's mother and her asshole boyfriend bickering back and forth. We get it, Rob. You want your Michael to come from a dysfunctional family as some motivation as to why he kills. That's where your film first displays that this is not even going to hold a candle to the original. Michael's family in the original seems very suburban and well...normal. That's what makes it so startling. For all intense purposes, Michael should be a well-adjusted boy. Instead, for no motivation whatsoever, he snaps. It's chilling and effective. This is just stereotypical.
The original Halloween has truly likable characters. Sure, they are considered standard cliches now, but Halloween was really the first to establish them. You have the virgin, the slut, the bimbo, the asshole jock, etc. However, you still are rooting for them. In Zombie's vision, only one character is even remotely likable, and that is Danny Trejo's guard/janitor/some sort of job in the sanitarium because Zombie doesn't really care about details. Laurie and Loomis, the two characters we are supposed to care about the most, are instead two of the most obnoxious in the film.
A large part of this has to do with the pacing of the film. It's simply trying to squeeze too much into too little screen time. The first thirty to forty minutes consist of back-story. Never in my life did I think I would be able to associate the song Love Hurts with Halloween, but now I can say I can. Michael gets pissed because his mom is too busy stripping and his sister too preoccupied having sex than to take him trick or treating, and this is the catalyst in which he decides to go on a murderous rampage?
Simply put, Michael is a whiny little bitch in this film. When his feelings are hurt or he doesn't get his way, he goes crazy and kills. It seems than even Zombie himself isn't sure why Michael behaves the way he does. There is a scene in the sanitarium in which Michael tells his mother he likes to wear masks because they hide his ugliness. Rob really could have went places with that line, but instead it's just a throwaway.
Zombie decided to also include the later sequels explanation of Laurie being Michael's sister and that being his driving force to pursue her. I have to admit, Rob does have an interesting take on this relationship. Apparently, Michael feels some sort of connection to his baby sister he has dubbed Boo. It seems that Zombie is trying to have Michael kill everyone in the way of reuniting with her. Again, this is a very interesting take, but Rob just doesn't execute it right. Halloween worked so beautifully and frightfully because there was no motivation. We don't know in the original that Laurie is his sister, which makes it all the more terrifying that he is relentlessly pursuing a random target.
This Michael also doesn't feel like the Shape. Instead, he is more like Jason in a decayed William Shatner mask. Zombie's Michael is lumbering and enormous. He slams people against walls with brutal force. He also commits a cardinal sin: he grunts. Instead of the chilling semi-orgasmic breathing, we get a grunting Michael. The Shape is supposed to be a silent stalker. It seems as though Zombie was simply trying to appease hardcore fans of the original, because there are moments when Michael as purely The Shape shine through. For instance, when Bob walks right past him and he doesn't even notice. Or when Michael is standing right behind little Lindsey Wallace and studying her. However, the moments are far too fleeting and Michael's massiveness prevent these scenes from being truly effective.
The Michael of the original is also very cunning and manipulative. Again, there are brief scenes scattered here and there which seem to indicate that Zombie wants this of his Michael as well, as indicated in the scene in which he appears to let Danny Trejo's character handcuff him. For the most part, however, he comes across as a dumb, hulking beast.
There is simply too much time devoted to the prequel aspect of the film, and it does drag. So when the action does pick up, it comes at an absolute breakneck pace. We don't get enough time to like Annie or Lynda, they were simply there to serve one purpose: to be killed by Michael in a brutal manner. Yes, the original is slow, but that's why it works. The whole movie plays out like a cat and mouse chase. The cat has escaped and is in hot pursuit of his mice. The cat is also being hunted by another cat, that of Dr. Loomis. It makes for a very exciting movie. This just feels disjointed and almost like two entirely different films.
Because of the disjointedness, none of the characters can be properly balanced. Loomis runs around in a few scenes spouting his usual crazy ramblings about Michael, but he isn't used nearly as much as he needs to be. He is supposed to be Michael's antithesis, and yet Zombie chooses to have Loomis tell Michael he is his best friend. The Loomis of the original has literally been driven mad by his failure to reach Michael, and this Loomis just seems to make money off him. Laurie isn't nearly as likable as she is in the original. That Laurie truly loved and cared about her charges, enough to sacrifice herself if she needed to. This Laurie taunts the children and really seems to be only concerned with herself.
Why is Michael allowed to have a metal fork in a sanitarium? For that matter, why is he allowed access to staples and glue in which he makes his masks with? Why does he go from being a chatty Cathy to suddenly going completely silent? How does Loomis get the sheriff's car when we last saw him running towards the Myers place? Why is it supposed to be in the late 90's, and yet people are still dressed from the 70's and using cell phones from the 00's? Little things like this really distracted me from the film.
The ending itself is another matter. Simply put, there isn't one. The original is brilliant in that Michael gets shot, vanishes and then is heard breathing everywhere. Evil never dies, period. We are supposed to believe that this Michael can be shot multiple times, but a lone bullet to the head will bring him down? I guess evil never dies unless it gets a .357 to the skull then....
From the onset, this doesn't feel like a Halloween movie. There is a quote from Dr. SamuEL Loomis to open the film up with. SamuEL??? I am a bit confused by Zombie's insistence on having Dr. Loomis be referred to as SamuEL ,when in the original he is Dr. Sam Loomis. You may argue that Rob is attempting to differentiate his film from the original and its sequels, but if that is the case, why not use different characters all together then? We get a tiny snippet from the Halloween score, and even it doesn't feel the same. Instead of the simply effective score by Carpenter, we instead get an industrialized one. It's completely over the top, which is appropriate considering that is how the movie plays out.
The film opens with a rock song, which immediately threw me out of the Halloween mood. For all the sequels' flaws, they all managed to open with a really memorable first scene. Halloween 4's opening montage of pumpkins, barns and leaves serves as the best example of this. It sets the tone for the entire rest of the movie. For this opening, we are shown the Myers residence, which smacks of white trash. As if that weren't enough, Zombie treats us to a completely pointless ten minute scene of Michael's mother and her asshole boyfriend bickering back and forth. We get it, Rob. You want your Michael to come from a dysfunctional family as some motivation as to why he kills. That's where your film first displays that this is not even going to hold a candle to the original. Michael's family in the original seems very suburban and well...normal. That's what makes it so startling. For all intense purposes, Michael should be a well-adjusted boy. Instead, for no motivation whatsoever, he snaps. It's chilling and effective. This is just stereotypical.
The original Halloween has truly likable characters. Sure, they are considered standard cliches now, but Halloween was really the first to establish them. You have the virgin, the slut, the bimbo, the asshole jock, etc. However, you still are rooting for them. In Zombie's vision, only one character is even remotely likable, and that is Danny Trejo's guard/janitor/some sort of job in the sanitarium because Zombie doesn't really care about details. Laurie and Loomis, the two characters we are supposed to care about the most, are instead two of the most obnoxious in the film.
A large part of this has to do with the pacing of the film. It's simply trying to squeeze too much into too little screen time. The first thirty to forty minutes consist of back-story. Never in my life did I think I would be able to associate the song Love Hurts with Halloween, but now I can say I can. Michael gets pissed because his mom is too busy stripping and his sister too preoccupied having sex than to take him trick or treating, and this is the catalyst in which he decides to go on a murderous rampage?
Simply put, Michael is a whiny little bitch in this film. When his feelings are hurt or he doesn't get his way, he goes crazy and kills. It seems than even Zombie himself isn't sure why Michael behaves the way he does. There is a scene in the sanitarium in which Michael tells his mother he likes to wear masks because they hide his ugliness. Rob really could have went places with that line, but instead it's just a throwaway.
Zombie decided to also include the later sequels explanation of Laurie being Michael's sister and that being his driving force to pursue her. I have to admit, Rob does have an interesting take on this relationship. Apparently, Michael feels some sort of connection to his baby sister he has dubbed Boo. It seems that Zombie is trying to have Michael kill everyone in the way of reuniting with her. Again, this is a very interesting take, but Rob just doesn't execute it right. Halloween worked so beautifully and frightfully because there was no motivation. We don't know in the original that Laurie is his sister, which makes it all the more terrifying that he is relentlessly pursuing a random target.
This Michael also doesn't feel like the Shape. Instead, he is more like Jason in a decayed William Shatner mask. Zombie's Michael is lumbering and enormous. He slams people against walls with brutal force. He also commits a cardinal sin: he grunts. Instead of the chilling semi-orgasmic breathing, we get a grunting Michael. The Shape is supposed to be a silent stalker. It seems as though Zombie was simply trying to appease hardcore fans of the original, because there are moments when Michael as purely The Shape shine through. For instance, when Bob walks right past him and he doesn't even notice. Or when Michael is standing right behind little Lindsey Wallace and studying her. However, the moments are far too fleeting and Michael's massiveness prevent these scenes from being truly effective.
The Michael of the original is also very cunning and manipulative. Again, there are brief scenes scattered here and there which seem to indicate that Zombie wants this of his Michael as well, as indicated in the scene in which he appears to let Danny Trejo's character handcuff him. For the most part, however, he comes across as a dumb, hulking beast.
There is simply too much time devoted to the prequel aspect of the film, and it does drag. So when the action does pick up, it comes at an absolute breakneck pace. We don't get enough time to like Annie or Lynda, they were simply there to serve one purpose: to be killed by Michael in a brutal manner. Yes, the original is slow, but that's why it works. The whole movie plays out like a cat and mouse chase. The cat has escaped and is in hot pursuit of his mice. The cat is also being hunted by another cat, that of Dr. Loomis. It makes for a very exciting movie. This just feels disjointed and almost like two entirely different films.
Because of the disjointedness, none of the characters can be properly balanced. Loomis runs around in a few scenes spouting his usual crazy ramblings about Michael, but he isn't used nearly as much as he needs to be. He is supposed to be Michael's antithesis, and yet Zombie chooses to have Loomis tell Michael he is his best friend. The Loomis of the original has literally been driven mad by his failure to reach Michael, and this Loomis just seems to make money off him. Laurie isn't nearly as likable as she is in the original. That Laurie truly loved and cared about her charges, enough to sacrifice herself if she needed to. This Laurie taunts the children and really seems to be only concerned with herself.
Why is Michael allowed to have a metal fork in a sanitarium? For that matter, why is he allowed access to staples and glue in which he makes his masks with? Why does he go from being a chatty Cathy to suddenly going completely silent? How does Loomis get the sheriff's car when we last saw him running towards the Myers place? Why is it supposed to be in the late 90's, and yet people are still dressed from the 70's and using cell phones from the 00's? Little things like this really distracted me from the film.
The ending itself is another matter. Simply put, there isn't one. The original is brilliant in that Michael gets shot, vanishes and then is heard breathing everywhere. Evil never dies, period. We are supposed to believe that this Michael can be shot multiple times, but a lone bullet to the head will bring him down? I guess evil never dies unless it gets a .357 to the skull then....
posted by Ash at 5:20:00 PM
1 Comments:
I don't suppose you could correct "for all intense purposes" to "for all intents and purposes"?
Sorry, it's a pet peeve. Along with people making questions "mute".
Post a Comment
<< Home