Back in 1978, John Carpenter released one of his more popular movies, Halloween.
The film has often been criticized and idolized for its content and techniques along with being considered as the prototypical slasher film with many others following it and it has been often regarded as one of the best movies of that year. Sometime around 2006, Rob Zombie was picked to create the next movie in the Halloween franchise. While being a close friend to John Carpenter, Rob was requested by John to “Make it his own.†So, the remade was made which also served as a Prequel to the film as well. Being a fan of the original movie (as well as most of John Carpenter films in general,) this will definitely be intriguing to see what backstory is given for Michael.
In Haddonfield, Illinois, young Michael Myers is sent to Warren Count Sanitarium after being found guilty of first degree murder and is left under the care of Dr. Sam Loomis (Malcolm McDowell). Fifteen years later, Michael escapes the sanitarium and heads back home and then decides to stalk Laurie Strode on Halloween Night.
Since Rob Zombie was told to make the film his own, he decided to create a backstory for Michael Myers.
In the first act of the film, it focuses completely on Michael after he killed a bully when he got angry at him for being picked on, as well as his stepfather and older sister, and he has no knowledge of doing so when he first sees Loomis. He eventually loses all interest in anything after his mother dies and only cares about making Paper Mache masks, which would help explain why he just goes on a killing spree. Plus like in the monologue Loomis gave in the original, he probably couldn’t tell Right from Wrong in this version anymore.
I got to give props to Rob Zombie for this bit since I thought that Michael didn’t really have much of a personality aside from him killing his sister and being just a silent person with no care for human life. (He did in this version as well, but he at least had some humanity in the beginning of it.)
With the film being a remake, of course there are some aspects of the film that I didn’t care for. In this case, it was Laurie Strode.
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I didn’t really care much for the original Laurie, although at the end of it, she did end up fairing up to be the only character I liked in the film (aside from Loomis and Michael.) Much like the original, I didn’t care for Laurie in this film either. Plus I thought Jamie Lee Curtis gave a better performance as Laurie.
Much like the original, the other characters in the film are very bland and don’t have any motives to them other than to have sex and eventually get killed by Michael. (This actually brought up the idea in the original that Laurie was spared because she was “Pure†by not having sex. )
Surprisingly, I thought Malcolm McDowell gave a good performance as Loomis.
He was pretty much the same character as Donald Pleasance was in the original, but in this version, he did seem to grow a small bond with Michael in his younger years and did seem to care about him, but eventually he grew out of it over the years and just wanted to be away from Michael. It was one of the more likable aspects of the film, which, unfortunately, isn’t saying much.
Final Thoughts: …I’m a bit split on my feelings for this. Much like House of 1000 Corpses, I have parts of the film that I liked and I didn’t like. I didn’t care for Laurie in this version, the other characters didn’t offer much else to the film along with the new ones added in, and it was pretty much predictable since it’s a remake. Although, I liked how Zombie gave Michael some personality to him, I liked Malcolm’s portrayal of Loomis, plus it ended up being one of the better remakes I’ve seen in a while. I can’t say much about the Sequel, since I haven’t seen it, but I’ll probably see it soon.
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