idk, I just didn’t really get a Halloween vibe from H20 or resurrection, ever since H4 or H5 I haven’t really felt the “Halloween” feel to the films. 
Original Halloween had more than 3 kills. I count… JUDITH MYERS , The guy driving the truck that Michael stole his coveralls , ANNIE , BOB and LYNDA. Did I miss anyone. If not that makes 5 
As for Rob Zs Halloween. To me it was like watching 2 movies. The first half he took a big chance and made up his version of young Michaels life in a terrible dysfunctional home. Some fans got it and excepted it and to others it ruined the movie for them. I happen to like the fact he took a chance and gave us something new to think about. As I have said before… The ORIGINAL HALLOWEEN 1 and 2 are my GOLD STANDARD which can never be replaced or replicated. After all the miserable attempts to give a HALLOWEEN movies afterwords I think RZ knew he had to do something radical and chancy and that’s what he did like it or not. I just except it for what it is… Another Halloween movie to watch. And I liked it. I know I am not alone because H2 is right around the corner. There must have been enough of a positive response to H1 2007 or it would have just faded into the shadows. My 2 cents. Mike
Good call. Still isn’t a huge body count though, barely a handful of people.
Don’t forget about poor ol’ Lester 
Thanks man. Agreed. Each kill scene VERY MEMORABLE… JUDITH , ANNIE , BOB and LYNDA and Hardly any BLOOD at all. I don’t think I can really even recall a cuss word. That’s what makes the ORIGINAL the GOLD STANDARD!!!
its not the movie causing a split in the fanbase its the individual fans attitude and personality creating this seemingly split.
for me i love H1 and really like the remake so theres no split for me, its a win win situation.
some like chocolate, some like vanilla. some likes chocolate and vanilla.
That’s a good way to put it.
Yes, but still, we are split down the middle by this. For most, you either love it of hate it, there’s not really a middle ground. For the die hard H1 fans this movie just take a crap on all of the main principles of the original.
H20 = End of original Halloween franchise. Resurrection is non-canon
Well what about the beginning of Resurrection?
Didn’t happen.
There are few horror films that still delight as much as John
Carpenter’s “Halloween” does. Sure, there are campy characters and
silly late 70s trends dripping all over the film, but the sheer terror
of the ultimate bogeyman, Michael Myers, and the fine performances
from Donald Pleasence and Jamie Lee Curtis, all make up for the it.
The film is a classic, but that doesn’t mean a remake shouldn’t be
made. “Halloween” could be better. It could. Dr. Loomis’s psychology
could be better fleshed out, making him just as crazy as Michael.
Carpenter could have added the “Laurie Strode is Michael’s sister”
subplot in when the film was first released. Michael Myers himself
could use a little more depth–not too much more, but maybe a little
more interaction, or lack thereof, between him and Loomis. And, of
course, the corny dialogue between the teens could have used some
tweaks.
So, that brings us to Rob Zombie’s “Halloween”. Is it a remake?
Absolutely, in every sense of the word. Producers will try to bill it
as a reimagining, but every bit of psychology that Zombie (I can’t
believe I just wrote that last name in this context) gleans is based
off of hints in the original film. But Zombie, in only his junior
theatrical effort (after the awful “House of 1000 Corpses” and the
surprisingly good “The Devil’s Rejects”), is completely incapable of
this daunting project.
In sad truth, Rob Zombie’s “Halloween” is easily one of the single
worst remakes ever made. It’s an utterly abysmal waste of film, void of
the guttural emotion and terror of the original. It has absolutely no
idea what made the original scary and it resorts to shock horror gore
and violence to “scare” you. It doesn’t help that the film feels like
three movies smashed into one. It’s like taking the Hannibal Lector
films, “Hannibal Rising,” “Red Dragon” (or the superior “Manhunter”)
and “Silence of the Lambs” and cramming it into one, barely coherent
film.
The psychology of the first two acts compared to the psychology in the
final act of the film do not mix at all. The first act, you can
clearly see why Michael Myers becomes a killer. He lives with a
stripper mother (played, quite poorly, by Zombie’s wife Sheri Moon)
and an awful, obviously abusive father figure (the always competent
William Forsythe). Michael quickly becomes void of emotion and kills
most of his family save for his mother and baby sister, who he
seemingly sees as innocent. And while there is some psychology there,
it’s so obvious and cliche, it’s hardly worth your time knowing. Why
can’t Michael just be evil incarnate? Why do we need to know more?
Isn’t it more scary if Myers parents were completely normal, loving
parents and Michael was still evil?
But the psychology switches gears to the original film’s approach as
we reach the final act (yes, the entire first film is lumped into 25
minutes). Dr. Loomis once again spouts off that Myers is “absolute,
pure evil” and that “he will stop at nothing” to get his baby sister,
who Michael apparently knows despite the fact that he’s never seen her
as a young adult nor does he know that she’s changed her name! I mean,
for all he knows, she moved away and lives somewhere else now. Why
does Michael know exactly where she is? Why does Loomis think that
Michael is pure evil now? Why did the past seemingly take place in the
late 1970s, but fifteen years later it’s 2007? Why? Why!?
It just doesn’t make sense.
Regardless of Zombie’s terribly written dialogue and two-dimensional
characters (why are there Texas-inspired hillbillies in Chicago
suburbs), the film is fairly well directed in the first two acts,
despite the genuine lack of horror. The final act falls apart, as
Zombie plays to the spirit of the original, only more violent and less
intense. Characters, who we loved in the original, are introduced
slightly, only to be killed off 10 or 15 minutes later. Why did
Zombie think this would work?
Zombie’s remake is a complete mess of a movie–a movie with so many
ideas and so little time to expound upon them. The movie is part
backstory and part remake, but neither gel when combined. I do not
believe that Michael Myers came from a broken home with an abusive
step father and a stripper mother because, down to the very core,
that’s just not scary at all. It’s tragic and sad.
Perhaps that’s what Zombie is trying to say, but that message is
totally lost in the rubble. And why does he think people would want to
see that anyway?
The film does have a few shining spots. There is a lot of inspired
casting from Malcolm McDowell to Brad Dourif to Danielle Harris (who
once played Laurie Strode’s daughter). Scout Taylor-Compton’s
portrayal of Laurie Strode is also top notch though she’s given very
little screen time and bad dialogue.
I really have no idea who’s going to like this film. If you’ve never
seen the original, I can’t imagine this film will work for you as it’s
incomplete in almost every way. And if you have seen the original, I
can’t imagine you’d enjoy it as it tarnishes the mystique and allure
that made the first film so terrifying.
Which leads me to believe that this film was made for two people:
people who hated the original film and producer Malek Akkad, who knows
he’ll grab a few dollars from the folks who don’t know what they’re
getting themselves into.
It’s really sad that remakes get such a bad name as a remake could
really be an opportunity to refine a classic, reintroduce it to a new
generation or turn a bad movie into a good one. But with obvious cash
guzzlers like “The Fog,” “The Hitcher,” “Black Christmas,” “When a
Stranger Calls” and now “Halloween,” it’s easy to forget their
potential.
Film Scorecard
As entertainment: D
As a film: F
Overall:
D-
dren dont you ever insinuate im not a die hard H1fan! this is where my hostility comes from, people saying im not a “die hard” or “true” H1 fan because i like the remake. didnt my post say i love H1 and like the remake? doesnt my signiture contain a quote from H1? ive got 13 myers masks and there all H1’s! there might be an imaginary line in the sand for you but for me there is middle ground. i dont have to cast stones from either side. im tired of taking shit for liking the remake and for you to say im not a die hard H1 fan if i dont think the remake took a crap on the original is very insulting to me. i know there has post or two where the author stated if you dont like the remake your not a true Halloween fan but those posts WERE NOT written by me. thats an abserd thing to say. i would never tell you your not a die hard or true H1 fan and i expect the same respect from you.
My apologies. That was worded wrong. What I meant was die hard (H1 only, no remake) fans VS. those who like either or.
its cool dren.
Many of you know that I have defended RZ’s Halloween.
I LOVE HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES and DEVILS REJECTS. I think they are two of the best horror films of the past 15-20 years. Ive also been a fan of Rob Zombie since the late 80’s when WHITE ZOMBIE was just a local NYC squatter band obsessed with horror. The point is Ive always been aware of the love for horror and its history that Rob has had and quite frankly I like the guy. He’s a multi talented artist and I really enjoyed his first two forays into film.
When I first heard they were remaking Halloween and that Rob was at the helm I was not happy. Not necessarily that ROb was hired but that HALLOWEEN is the holy grail of horror and there was NO reason to “remake” Halloween. I knew it would be doomed to fail. I dont even think a director of the caliber of Scorcese could have done a great job with it. No matter what we’d always compare it to the original.
So…when I first saw RZ’s Halloween I didnt like it. I went a week later and liked it more. Then it grew on me more and more.
Rob chose not to mimic the supernatural Shape and went the course of human social dysfunction. He presented Myers the sociopath. A brutal killer who was layered with problems. I thought Tyler Mane was incredible; several of the actors were annoying; i liked Brad Dourif; I loved Ken Foree…and Ioved the kills…the brutality and the honesty of the murders. It was a different take than the original.
Ruin the franchise? hardly. H20 and Resurrection blow. They are wannabe films that were trying to be like “I KNOW WHAT YOU DID…” and those style of “WB” horror films. While H2-H6 tried to keep up with the joneses like F13th…7 and 8 did the same but to worse films.
opinions on movies and art are subjective. i dont have ANY problem with people not liking RZ or his Halloween. But some of the lengths people have gone to just to discredit him and his films is unbelievable. Most recent has been the objection to violence and nudity…“the original didnt have it”…ok…so what?
It’s the extremity of it. That stuff belongs in a Friday the 13th or something else. Rob would have been better off just making his own slasher movie based around Halloween.
Exactly, this series had a lot more integrity then some of the others. If you rely on violence and expletive laden dialogue to tell your story, because whatever you write just isn’t as effective without it, says something about your skill as a filmmaker.
Dambella i find it strange (some might say hypicritical) that you denounce the remake yet you have chosen that specific clip for your avatar.
you must find some entertainment from the film since you say one thing yet display another.
The avatar is from when I was actually looking forward to the film, before it was released. I’m just to lazy to change it.