Rob Zombie's 2007 remake of the horror classic Halloween was met with plenty of skepticism. Perhaps rightfully so. Hollywood hasn't exactly been kind to the Halloween franchise over the years. And when the reviews started pouring in for Mr. Zombie's go at it, they were less than flattering. Hell, it only scored a 23% from rottentomatoes.com.
To put that into perspective, 23% is only 19 percentage points higher than what House of the Dead (Uwe Boll's insult to both gamers and moviegoers everywhere) scored from the same website, and it is actually 16 points LOWER than what Freddy vs. Jason scored.
It's hard not to be influenced by numbers like that when you go to watch a movie, but I tried. And you know what? The 2007 Halloween remake really wasn't all that bad.
Sure, it had some faults, but most movies have at least a few of those. First of all, nearly a third of the film was spent tracking young Michael Meyers. So much time was spent developing the Michael-as-a-kid storyline that, by the time he finally grows up and starts stabbing people, you almost feel like you're supposed to identify with him on some level. I don't know, maybe that was intentional. Rob Zombie did ask you to identify with sadistic murderers in The Devil's Rejects. But come on. This is Michael Fucking Meyers. He's a force of nature. You can't identify with that. And he certainly doesn't need explanation beyond "he had a real bad childhood and now he stabs people a lot."
Another thing that kind of bugged me was the sheer size of Michael in this movie. He was played by 6' 8" WCW star Tyler Mane. This was a little excessive if you ask me. I know Michael Meyers is supposed to look large and commanding, but in many of the shots, he looked like ... a professional wrestler in a Michael Meyers mask.
Yet despite its flaws, there is one major thing that this movie does right where all of the previous Halloween sequels have failed: it does a pretty good job of capturing the feel of the original. I mean, after the whole Michael-as-a-kid bit, anyway. Obviously no movie will ever recreate that feel perfectly, but this one takes a mighty swing at it.
I think the biggest reason for the poor reviews of the new Halloween is that many of the reviewers are naturally comparing it to the original. Well, you just can't do that and expect to get a fair reading. You have to view this as a standalone film in order to appreciate it. While the other Halloween sequels fail while standing either beside the original or alone, this one can stand on its own feet. Well, again, after the kid Michael part.
I guess what I'm saying is that, if you can forget that the first Halloween existed, you'll get at least two-thirds of a good movie when you watch Rob Zombie's remake. And that's better than what you get from most movies.
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