The Halloween movie franchise is perhaps one of the best in the horror movie industry. Many filmmakers and fans alike have tried to mimic the films or recreate it using fan fiction, as seen here with Halloween Resurgence. With John Carpenter, he created a piece of history, a mass murderer who we’ve all grown to know and love simply because of his mystery, his creepiness, and most of all, his motive to kill. He is Michael Myers, and he has been everybody’s favorite horror movie villain, especially mine. With Rob Zombie, is wasn’t original by any means. He took something from horror movie history and turned it into an entirely different film that has been admired by some, and hated by others.
John Carpenter’s Halloween:
In 1978 John Carpenter created Halloween and fans loved it because of its quiet evil lurking in the shadows. Michael Myers became an icon in many ways. His mask, his walk, his quiet demeanor, and his mystery drive all came together to create the perfect horror movie villain. His path to evil started when he was only six years old, and even back then no one knew what motivated him to begin killing anyone that’s linked to his bloodline. He stayed quiet, and extremely patient, and when he was angry, you knew it. This recipe to create the perfect horror movie was all done without the need for vulgarity, too much nudity, or blood and gore.
The characters created blended well with each other and were executed perfectly by the actors and actresses. Who says you can’t create a masterpiece with a limited budget? The score is another thing that is the most unique, because when you hear it, you know Michael Myers is coming. Even though there were many styles in which the mask was made, the original one, taken from a Captain Kirk mask (William Shatner) is actually the best one. The white spray paint, the ripped side burns and the messed up hair has been seen in many of my dreams and nightmares. You hate it and love it at the same time because it’s so scary and it’s fun to be scared, especially when the holiday comes around.
Rob Zombie’s Halloween:
Most wouldn’t even call it “Rob Zombie’s Halloween.” Personally, I’m not too sure what led to Rob Zombie of all people to remake this classic, but I think it was a big mistake. For one thing, I’m not a fan of remakes, and I always say, if you’re going to do a remake, especially to a classic, it HAS to be done the right way. The Halloween remake wasn’t done the right way.
It’s understandable wanting to delve deeper into an original story, and wanting to further explain what drives a killer, especially one such as Michael Myers, but some of that mystery that made him who is he should have stayed that way. The story told in the remake didn’t make sense to the true essence of Michael Myers. The original story has much to do with the curse of the thorn, while the remake made it seem like he had some sort of violent mental illness. That alone changes everything about, not only Michael Myers, but the entire story and characters involved.
A lot of people, mainly filmmakers, would say that a remake is still a separate movie, an entity that should stand on its own. While this is true to a certain degree, you have to remember that it’ll never be completely separate because a remake is taken from a story that already existed. It should pay homage to that story. The Halloween remake didn’t do that in the least.
The character Michael Myers was an entirely different person, with a different drive and motivation resulting from an entirely different upbringing. His family was more (for lack of a better word) trashy. Not only that, but the dialogue in the script was more trashy as well. It was a complete misinterpretation of all the characters made worse by having the wrong actors and actresses portraying these characters. The original Halloween was able to stand apart from blood and gore, and while many people like that type of horror, it should never have been associated with the Halloween remake. The only good thing you can say about it was the involvement of Brad Dourif as Sheriff Brackett, and Danielle Harris as Annie. Pretty clever, but that where the “clever” ends.
Rob Zombie felt that this was a great opportunity to be involved in one of the most famous franchises but it ended up being more of a reflection of his other films and it shouldn’t have went that far. Another thing to dislike?……the decayed and decrepit mask. It just wasn’t working. Many fans of Rob Zombie did nothing but praise him for his work, and there are many others who like what he did. What I can give him credit for is staying true to the score because that is one of the most iconic things about Halloween in general. As a filmmaker, I see how remakes are done all the time. I’ve seen many successes and many failures and going through all the facts surrounding the remake, it was a failure.
There’s a new Halloween coming out soon. Let’s hope this will be a turnaround.
For more information on the Halloween franchise and remake, visit here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween_%28franchise%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween_%282007_film%29
