Genre: Horror
Director: Rob Zombie
Cast: Malcolm McDowell, Sheri Moon Zombie, Tyler Mane, Scout Taylor Compton, Brad Dourif, Danielle Harris, William Forsythe
RunTime: 1 hr 50 mins
Released By: GV
Rating: M18 (Violence and Sexual Scene)
Official Website: http://halloween-themovie.com/

Opening Day: 25 October 2007

Synopsis:

From acclaimed musician and filmmaker Rob Zombie (The Devil’s Rejects, House of 1000 Corpses) comes an entirely new take on the highly successful film and terrifying Halloween legacy that began in 1978. While revealing a new chapter in the established Michael Myers saga, the film will surprise both classic and modern horror fans with a departure from prior films in the Halloween franchise. Audiences should brace themselves for unprecedented fear as Zombie turns back time to uncover the making of a pathologically disturbed, even cursed child named Michael Myers.

Movie Review:

If you had a child who has a fetish of strangling animals to death, smashing up school bullies to pulps, and most bizarrely, wearing masks, you should be very worried. This is why we pity Deborah Myers, because her son Michael is one such sick child. And we when people start calling you names like “Satan’s mother”, we know that it isn’t a good feeling.

Joining the league of “re-imagined” horror movies like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Hills Have Eyes, Rob Zombie’s latest work introduces the younger generation to one of movie history’s most infamous psycho, Michael Myers. We see how a 10-year-old boy morphs from a mentally unstable kid to a killing machine.

Like the other recent “re-imagined” projects (we’d think the filmmakers would not want to call their movies “remakes), this one does not offer much in terms of originality and surprises. The plot plods at a weary pace, seeing the young Myers getting admitted into an asylum after his disturbing behavior, getting treated by a doctor, getting older before escaping the asylum to continue his killing spree, getting in touch with a long lost sister, and so on and so forth. When the movie ends at the 110th minute, you’d probably have been worn out by the tiresome “plot development” (if you really had to coin a term for it).

The gore and scares are nothing refreshing either: We’d seen faces beaten into a mish-mash of flesh and blood, we’d seen how rock music has been mindlessly infused into the movie soundtrack, we’d seen brainless teenage couples having sex before getting hacked by psychos, and we’d definitely seen how these psychos refused to die despite being stabbed and shot.

There are a few victims in the movie we sincerely pity though. The first is Michael Myers’ drunkard father. Although he is a crude and useless fellow, we still sympathized with him when his son taped his mouth up before slashing his throat. Poor guy, imagine not being able to scream with all the pain from the blood spurting out of your neck. The next poor soul is a nice pretty girl who was dragged face-down around the kitchen topless (you go figure what he was doing before that) by Michael Myers. The pain must have been excruciating.

Playing Michael Myers is professional wrestler Tyler Mane (Sabretooth in 2000’s X-Men). His 2.03m height makes him the perfect candidate to play this psychopath. But he is the one we pity most of all – While we read somewhere that the Canadian watched almost all the old Halloween films to prepare for his role for this movie, the poor guy is behind an ugly mask most of the time, and frankly speaking, the intimidating demeanor of the serial killing monster does not really require all that preparation and effort.

Movie Rating:

(Instead of hiding in fear from the Boogieman this Halloween, you may end up feeling its dreariness instead)

Review by John Li