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 8th September, 2008 |
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Halloween (2007) DVD Review
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Halloween (2007) Synopsis:
Rob Zombie's vision of this film is an entirely new take on the legend and will satisfy fans of the classic "Halloween" legacy while beginning a new chapter in the Michael Myers saga. This new movie will not only appeal to horror fans, but to a wider movie-going audience as well. It will not be a copycat of any prior films in the "Halloween" franchise.
Halloween (2007) DVD Review:
DEAD ON ARRIVAL
Rob Zombie’s re-imagining of Halloween is kind of like getting a razor blade in your candied apple. There are parts of it that are really good, and other parts that leave you bleeding and begging for the pain to stop. Before I get too far, let me just say that I am a huge fan of the original Halloween, despite its few flaws, and so a remake of any sort is going to have a very high bar to get over.
That being said there were things in this version that worked really well. I think that establishing the existence of the younger sister in the beginning of the film bypasses that one WTF moment that occurs in the original when we discover that Laurie Strode is actually Laurie Myers and that the Myers parents died in a car crash. The color palette and production design are interesting and appropriate. I could feel the subtle shifts in color as the story changed location and progressed.
However, in most other respects, the film fails. Unlike the deliberately tense pace of Carpenter’s version, Zombie’s film tends mostly to drag. Much of the anxiousness the viewer feels is attributed to waiting for the killing to begin. Additionally, by spending so much time with Michael and his family at the beginning of the film, the audience forms a bond with Michael that humanizes him to the point that he becomes the protagonist, the one we are rooting for, so to speak. This humanization also removes the aspects of the Shape that made him so frightening in the Carpenter version. He is no longer the embodiment of evil, a pure supernatural being whose strength, cunning, and power are derived from someplace wholly other. Rather, Michael Myers remains a psychopath, evil to be sure, but a human evil nonetheless. This left me questioning how he was able to be so inhumanly strong, withstand knife and bullet wounds, walk so many miles, etc.
If one were to view it completely separate from the original, and remove as many of those aspects as possible, I believe the film would still fail, at least, in the genre of horror. Zombie spends an inordinate amount of time establishing the pathos of Michael Myers. For nearly an hour we are subjected to views of his family life, his first murders, and his ineffective therapy at Smith’s Grove. Further, his therapist, Samuel Loomis, loses any sympathy with this viewer when he chooses to capitalize on the boy by writing a book about him. Finally, at that hour mark, the action of the story begins, and for the next forty or so minutes feels rushed and roughshod. Take off your clothes. Have sex. Die. Next. Take off your clothes. Have sex. Die. Next. Okay, hunt Laurie. Find Laurie. Take Laurie home… There was never a point where I felt any real tension. And if one allows for this proposed separation from the source material, that would include the music, which was just about the only thing that was helping this film develop any sort of tension at all. At the end of the day, I think with a little tweaking, this film could be an excellent, and haunting, character study of a psychopathic killer. The bond he establishes with the baby, whom he calls boo, is one that pulls the so-called heart strings, and makes the deleted ending so much more sympathetic, and in my opinion, appropriate to the overall tone of the piece.
For the genre fans out there, this film reads like a who’s who of classic horror flicks. With names like Ken Foree, Ben Moseley, and Adrienne Barbeau fans will have a great time pointing out all of the myriad cameos. Unfortunately with so many recognizable faces, the willingness to suspend disbelief is sometimes jeopardized.
But ultimately this is still a re-make of John Carpenter’s immortal classic. And, as such, will be judged on whether or not it met or surpassed those aspects of the original that made it great. I think it’s safe to say that Rob Zombie neither met, nor surpassed, the standards set in 1978. The new music cues worked much better in the Resident Evil and Silent Hill video games. The pacing, while attempting to emulate the master, drags. The attempt to humanize Myers ultimately detracts from what made him frightening to begin with. Tyler Mane’s portrayal is much too brutal and physical. It lacks the languid relentlessness that the Shape possessed in the past.
Outside of its successes and failures as a Halloween film, the gore effects work well. I separate these from my discussion of the film for two reasons. First, the original Halloween was less about the gore and more about the suspense created by the implied gore. Second, as the film is only a moderately successful horror film, and much more suited to being a more psychological piece, the gore is secondary. One of the make-up fx artists makes a comment about Zombie’s aesthetics: too much blood looks too unreal. This is a statement that many horror film makers would do well to listen to, and serves the film immensely. The masks are well done and especially creepy in many instances. I particularly liked the jack-o-lantern-like mask Michael wears during his escape. All in all, the gore and blood works extremely well, and is laid out with a subtlety that lends itself to the much sough after creep factor.
The technical specs of the DVD stack up okay. Unfortunately the transfer left much of the interlacing visible. This became another thing that made it difficult to suspend disbelief. The sound is adequate. Unfortunately, the special features lack a great deal of depth. The first disc offers an interesting commentary from the writer-director himself. However, much of that commentary is devoted to discussing the more technical aspects of the film making rather than focusing on the story and the branches he chose to explore above and beyond the source material. The second disc features several deleted scenes with optional commentary, an alternate ending with optional commentary, a blooper reel, several featurettes, and some extra trailers. The featurettes include “The masks of Micheal Myers”, and “The Re-imagining of Halloween”, both of which have the potential to open doors with regard to understanding Rob Zombie’s choices for this version. Unfortunately they tend toward the more EPK style, short, quick, and flashy, with little real substance. All in all the special features are adequate if unimpressive. To be honest, I was hoping for something much more in-depth.
I was pleasantly surprised overall with this Rob Zombie effort after sitting through the torture that was House of 1000 corpses. As a matter of fact, I am looking forward to his future efforts as a film maker. He is developing a style that I think will have a definitely positive impact on horror, taking as he does from other films. If only he could lose the whole white trash aesthetic that he uses like a crutch.
The Breakdown:
*All values out of 5*
Film:
Overall: 3.5
Story: 1
Cinematography: 4
Prod. Design: 4
Acting: 3.5
Gore: 4
Amount: 4
Quality: 4
DVD:
Overall:3.5
Specs. 4
Extras:3
Halloween (2007) DVD review written by: Joe Burns
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