Halloween (2007)

Director:

Rob Zombie

Writers (WGA):

Rob Zombie (screenplay)
John Carpenter (1978 screenplay) ...

Release Date:

31 August 2007 (USA)

Genre:

Horror

Tagline:

Evil Has A Destiny

Plot:

After being committed for 17 years, Michael Myers, now a grown man and still very dangerous, escapes from the mental institution (where he was committed as a 10 year old) and he immediately returns to Haddonfield, where he wants to find his baby sister, Laurie. Anyone who crosses his path is in mortal danger.

Plot Keywords:

Boyfriend | Stripper | Dysfunctional Family | Teenager | Suicide

Awards:

1 nomination

US TV Schedule:

Wed. Jan. 6

1:30 AM

SHOW

Cast

Malcolm McDowell	...	Dr. Samuel Loomis
Scout Taylor-Compton	...	Laurie Strode
Tyler Mane	...	Michael Myers
Daeg Faerch	...	Michael Myers, age 10
Sheri Moon Zombie	...	Deborah Myers
William Forsythe	...	Ronnie White
Danielle Harris	...	Annie Brackett
Kristina Klebe	...	Lynda
Skyler Gisondo	...	Tommy Doyle
Danny Trejo	...	Ismael Cruz
Hanna Hall	...	Judith Myers
Tom Towles	...	Larry Redgrave
Bill Moseley	...	Zach 'Z-Man' Garrett
Leslie Easterbrook	...	Patty Frost
Steve Boyles	...	Stan Payne

Also Known As:

Hall9ween (USA) (working title)
Halloween 9 (USA) (working title)
Halloween: Retribution (USA) (working title)
Rob Zombie's Halloween (USA) (complete title)
Untitled Rob Zombie Halloween Project (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for strong brutal bloody violence and terror throughout, sexual content, graphic nudity and language.

Runtime:

109 min | USA:121 min (unrated version) | Brazil:83 min (cut version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | SDDS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Canada:16+ (Quebec) | Canada:18A (Alberta/British Columbia/Manitoba/Nova Scotia) | Ireland:18 | UK:18 | Canada:18A (Ontario) | Netherlands:16 | France:-16 | Singapore:M18 | Australia:R | Norway:18 | Hong Kong:III | Taiwan:R-18 | Finland:K-18 | Germany:18 (cut) | Philippines:R-13 (cut) | Argentina:16 | Italy:VM14 | USA:R (certificate #43755) | Portugal:M/18 | Germany:18 (SPIO/JK) (uncut) | New Zealand:R18 | Japan:R-15 | South Korea:18 | Australia:MA (cable rating) | Iceland:16 | Singapore:R21 (director's cut) (cut) | Brazil:14 (heavily cut)

Filming Locations:

Altadena, California, USA

Company:

Dimension Films

Trivia:

The inclusion of the plot line about Michael Meyers' early days at the mental institution under the care of Sam Loomis is a nod to a plot line added in by John Carpenter for the TV viewing of the original Halloween (1978). As told by Carpenter, when the original film was first sold to TV, they demanded added scenes to replace the edited portions of the murder scenes. So Carpenter recalled 'Donald Pleasance', the original Sam Loomis to film scenes of him at the hospital taking care of Michael.

Goofs:

Continuity: Laurie is dropping off the envelope for her father and you see here pretend that someone is in there taking the envelope from her and then you see her drop it through the mail slot. She then turns to talk to the little boy but when she turns back to the house you see her drop the envelope through the mail slot again.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Michael Myers - Child: Come on, sweetie pie. Morning, Elvis. You're a pretty Elvis, aren't you? Yes, you are.

Movie Connections:

References Halloween II (1981)

Soundtrack:

That's When I'll Stop Loving You

Somewhat disappointing...

Like many of the horror fans out there I went through my phase of being angry and disgusted that they would remake Halloween and especially that Rob Zombie would be the director to do it. This eventually wore off and I came to terms with it. I am a fan of Rob Zombie and as it got nearer to the release date I came to believe that I would probably enjoy the movie, although I figured it still wouldn't compare to the original. Hell, I was even pretty excited to go see it (It's rare these days that we get to see horror films out of Hollywood made by people who actually give a sh*t about the genre, which is why I like Zombie even though I don't find him to be a genius director or anything like that.)

Unfortunately, I was pretty disappointed with what I saw. For the most part, the first half of the movie was interesting and held my attention but once it became night time, the whole film went downhill. Essentially, like many "slasher movies" today, the last 30 minutes or so of the film turned into a string of boring chase sequences. Don't get me wrong, chase sequences are essential to these kinds of movies, but they can't carry a movie for half an hour.

It seemed to me that one of the main problems was that Zombie seemed to drop the ball when Michael Myers completely turns into a silent killer. His talent as a writer is in creating interesting characters (i.e. house of 1000 corpses & the devil's rejects), but with no personality left in his killer, the script and other characters become boring. Rob Zombie is not a suspense director and the attempts he made at it during this film were pretty lame. It wasn't scary and none of the "jump scares" worked. This isn't to say that he is a bad filmmaker, he just seems to be out of his element with this movie.

Although I thought the back story was decent and entertaining enough, I still tend to find Michael Myers a more interesting character with less back story and more mystery like in the original.

I appreciate the effort put into the movie and I have given it a rating of 5 because I still think it was probably better than what they would have made with a different writer and director, but this movie just didn't work for me.

Luckily I got to see this at a drive-in theater along with the original Halloween and Grindhouse, so the night was still pretty great.