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I have to give musician and film director Rob Zombie
(“The Devil’s Rejects”) points for trying and ambition.
I wouldn’t automatically think of John Carpenter’s classic
horror flick “Halloween” as in need of a remake particularly
after the violence that was done to “The Fog”. Zombie wants
us to understand Michael Myers but misses the point that
the understood monster is, well, less terrifying. Nevertheless
Zombie’s “Halloween: The Unrated Director’s Cut” has its
moments even if they are few and far between. ***
Zombie goes back to the beginning when there was life
in the Shape; we meet Michael Myers (Daeg Faerch) as a child
who is bullied at school and comes from a family as dysfunctional
as one can imagine. Michael comes out of this environment
a little disturbed to say the least—when one incident at
school brings him to the attention of Dr. Sam Loomis (Malcolm
McDowell expertly essaying the role that Donald Pleasance
played so well in the original). He cautions Michael’s mom
(Sheri Moon Zombie) about Michael’s behavior (which includes
animal torture) and, ultimately, Michael acts out precisely
as Dr. Loomis feared resulting in his being locked away
in a mental institution. Michael’s murderous rampage is
triggered by a pair of guards who rape another patient in
his room escaping to hunt down his sister (Scout Taylor-Compton)
and begin his bloody rampage. ***
The admiration I have for Zombie is simple—he wants
us to understand how Michael Myers went from a child with
some potential to a serial killer butchering anyone that
got in his way. The danger in explaining too much manages
to undermine one of the strongest elements of Carpenter’s
original film—the menacing Shape that appears with a Zen
like calm and almost supernatural ability to escape. One
of the strongest elements of the film is the interesting
casting. Zombie puts a number of B-movie and child actors
such as Clint Howard, Mickey Dolenz (from “Circus Boy” and
“The Monkees” as well as a well respected TV director),
Sybil Danning and Zombie stalwart Sid Haig. McDowell, of
course, outclasses everyone with just the right level of
intensity and cheese in his performance. ***
Zombie stages the attack and murder sequences quite
well and the cinematography looks quite good as well giving
the film a moody look that overcompensates for the film’s
predictability. Overall, the film manages to jolt the audience
on occasion but it’s a lot of loud sounds and violence that
signifies nothing. ---
Image & Sound:
A sharp, nice looking transfer the Telecine transfer
manages to capture the best visual and audio elements of
the film for the DVD. Audio has more presence than Michael
Myers in the film with a nice, moody audio transfer that
springs to life in the surround speakers for the appropriate
big scare moments. ---
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