Rob Zombie's Halloween
I just watched John Carpenter's Halloween (JCH) and the leaked work print of Rob Zombie's Halloween (RZH) back to back. Let me start out by saying that I'm looking forward to seeing RZH in a movie theater, and I feel it's high time someone pointed out a few problems with the old emperor's clothes.
If I told you I just saw an old school slasher film that was directed by a recent film school graduate, that was co-written and produced by his girlfriend, shot on a minimal budget, with most of the cast & crew having little to no experience making features, would you expect a film that was even watchable?
What if I told you that the killer, with little in the way of back story or motivation, stalked and killed some sex-obsessed teenagers?
What if I told you that I was talking about John Carpenter's Halloween?
Much has been made of Rob Zombie not "getting" that Michael Myers (MM) was scary because his back story and motivation weren't fleshed out. I chalk it up to newbie filmmaking on the set of JCH.
Where are all of the people who complain about reading into things a writer never intended when you need them?
If MM was locked up for 15 years, from when he was 6 years old, how did he know how to drive a car? Even better, how did he navigate 150 miles from Smith's Grove to Haddonfield? When the head of the mental hospital pointed this out to Dr. Loomis, he just dismissed it and hopped in another car (Whose?). To say this is unsatisfying is an understatement.
Lots of people are complaining about the characterization of young MM's parents and sister. Aside from owning a nice suburban house, we can't really speculate much about MM's parents in JCH, though it seems inconsistent imagining that a warm and loving family created a monster like MM, and a daughter that, instead of taking MM trick or treating, decided to go upstairs and screw her boyfriend - just like in RZH.
I saw the boyfriend in RZH wearing the mask that MM would later wear as a nod to the beginning of JCH with the clown mask. This played off well later in the film. It's easier to believe that MM would find and use his old, hidden stash than it is to believe that he's capable of successfully robbing a hardware store. One that conveniently also happens to carry butcher knives and Halloween masks. Remember, MM was locked up for 15 years, from when he was 6 years old, which doesn't seem as if it would lend itself to knowing how to rob stores without getting caught.
People have also been complaining that Laurie's friends aren't sympathetic in RZH. At what point in JCH did they do anything sympathetic? In JCH, Annie is so inconsiderate that after she bitches out Laurie and Lynda because they didn't wait for her, and they point out that they waited 15 minutes, it doesn't even occur to her to apologize. When Laurie (in confidence) tells Annie about a boy she likes, Annie turns around and tells him, and then uses it as a bargaining chip to get Laurie to baby-sit Lindsey so that Annie can screw her recently available boyfriend.
This is after Annie made the following sympathetic statement - "Terrific. I've got three choices. Watch the kid (Lindsey) sleep, listen to Lynda screw or talk to you."
If anyone I knew tried that kind of B.S., I'd tell 'em where to go and how fast to get there, and it wouldn't involve coming over and dropping off their responsibility either.
Lynda complains about how busy she is - having to learn new cheers, getting her hair done, and going to the dance. She then tells Laurie that she doesn't feel sorry for her for never having anything to do. Lynda points out how she always "forgets" her textbooks, and finally checks with Annie that it's still OK to screw her boyfriend at Lindsey's parent's house. After screwing in this stranger's house, Lynda sends her boyfriend Bob off to raid their refrigerator for beer.
Personally, I couldn't wait for them to get killed. They're about as sympathetic as rocks.
That's kind of unfair to rocks. Some rock formations can be interesting.
I did like some of the other nods to JCH in RZH, like the "ghost with glasses" and tombstone scenes. In fact, I liked the "ghost with glasses" scene better in RZH.
Back to JCH. After killing people all night, how did MM miss stabbing Laurie, and wind up ripping her sleeve? After she falls over the railing, tumbles down the stairs and then takes off (instead of being knocked out), notice how quickly MM moves down the stairs after her. He moved pretty quickly when he came out of the closet and nailed Bob to the wall (symbolism anyone?) when Bob was scrounging for beer too. Complaints about MM not being slow and lumbering all of the time in RZH don't really hold up when compared to JCH.
I've also seen complaints about MM in RZH breaking through a wall. Didn't Laurie break through the same decrepit wall just a few seconds prior? And how is this inconsistent with MM breaking through a door in JCH.
What door? The door with the deadbolt that Laurie locks behind her as she tries to escape through the kitchen. Because every suburban home has a door with a deadbolt connecting the kitchen with the rest of the house. (?)
When Laurie is running around and screaming for help, not only does everyone ignore her, but one neighbor turns on the light, looks out the window, and then turns off the light and goes back to ignoring her. I wanted MM to kill the unsympathetic neighbors too.
Towards the end of JCH, how did Mr. Slowpoke, casually strolling across the street towards Laurie, have time to take down the phone line connected to the roof before Laurie was able to call the police (after Tommy finally let her in)? The phone was working before she went across the street to "meet" MM.
When people complain about movies ending multiple times before the final credits roll, I guess we can thank JCH. The first false ending comes when she stabs MM in the neck with a knitting needle. The second is when she stabs him through the closet door. The third is when he RUNS up to Laurie (from behind), grabs her, and gets shot by Dr. Loomis.
Does anyone else think it's inconsistent that have a bookworm who's afraid to ask a boy to a dance would have it in her to kill someone twice in one night? And how did cute little blond-haired MM grow up to have dark curly hair - and a tan? I thought he was supposed to have been locked away for 15 years...
The ending of JCH doesn't make sense either. Why would MM run off after he was shot twice and fell out of a second story window? Every other time he was killed, he went right back to what he was doing before (or whom he was killing before).
As for RZH, (based upon the work print):
The white trash background seems consistent with his characterization.
I enjoyed seeing young MM's defiance in the early scenes of the film.
The soundtrack worked better than I expected.
I was wearing the same KISS T-shirt as young MM in the beginning of the film. thumbs up
Rob Zombie couldn't have made a film more predictable than the comments people have made about the film. Besides the usual paradox that the remake both borrowed too much from the original and was too different from the original, there were the cheap shots against Sheri Moon Zombie (SMZ).
I guess it's easier to bitch about her being in another of Rob Zombie's films than it is to point out how her character can be screaming and cursing at someone while she's comforting her baby at the same time, or how her tone of voice and demeanor changes when she's talking to young MM as opposed to how she is with everyone else. I also noticed how she appeared to be holding back tears while telling young MM that everything was fine at home.
In another nod, the ad for the bar where SMZ's character works has the same name as the matchbook the nurse throws on the dashboard in the beginning of JCH.
Young MM's torture of animals could indicate that he was born a "force of evil", rather than being a product of his environment, especially considering his step-dad's comments at the breakfast table.
In MM's first human kill, I thought it was a nice touch having him stop, raise his mask, take the ad with his mother's picture away from the bully, lower the mask, and move in for the kill. I also noticed how the bully stopped pleading for his life when MM pulled the mask down and started crying, because he knew what the mask represented.
I thought Tyler Mane was great as MM - brooding, intimidating and menacing - what else do you expect?
I didn't mind that some of the dialogue was similar to JCH. Again, I saw this as nods to JCH, from one fan to the others (in the audience).
How does MM get to Haddonfield? Did he walk? It's no less believable than him driving 150 miles after being locked up from when he was 6 years old.
How did MM find his sister? Her father sent her to MM's door, and he stalks her and her friends, just like in JCH. Since she still has the same first name as his baby sister, in his mind it's his sister. This makes no less sense than serial killers who kill girls who fit the same general physical description as their mother/girlfriend/infatuation/whatever.
I thought the ending of the work print was great. I'm not looking forward to it being changed based upon test audiences or studio demands.
Commence flaming.
If I told you I just saw an old school slasher film that was directed by a recent film school graduate, that was co-written and produced by his girlfriend, shot on a minimal budget, with most of the cast & crew having little to no experience making features, would you expect a film that was even watchable?
What if I told you that the killer, with little in the way of back story or motivation, stalked and killed some sex-obsessed teenagers?
What if I told you that I was talking about John Carpenter's Halloween?
Much has been made of Rob Zombie not "getting" that Michael Myers (MM) was scary because his back story and motivation weren't fleshed out. I chalk it up to newbie filmmaking on the set of JCH.
Where are all of the people who complain about reading into things a writer never intended when you need them?
If MM was locked up for 15 years, from when he was 6 years old, how did he know how to drive a car? Even better, how did he navigate 150 miles from Smith's Grove to Haddonfield? When the head of the mental hospital pointed this out to Dr. Loomis, he just dismissed it and hopped in another car (Whose?). To say this is unsatisfying is an understatement.
Lots of people are complaining about the characterization of young MM's parents and sister. Aside from owning a nice suburban house, we can't really speculate much about MM's parents in JCH, though it seems inconsistent imagining that a warm and loving family created a monster like MM, and a daughter that, instead of taking MM trick or treating, decided to go upstairs and screw her boyfriend - just like in RZH.
I saw the boyfriend in RZH wearing the mask that MM would later wear as a nod to the beginning of JCH with the clown mask. This played off well later in the film. It's easier to believe that MM would find and use his old, hidden stash than it is to believe that he's capable of successfully robbing a hardware store. One that conveniently also happens to carry butcher knives and Halloween masks. Remember, MM was locked up for 15 years, from when he was 6 years old, which doesn't seem as if it would lend itself to knowing how to rob stores without getting caught.
People have also been complaining that Laurie's friends aren't sympathetic in RZH. At what point in JCH did they do anything sympathetic? In JCH, Annie is so inconsiderate that after she bitches out Laurie and Lynda because they didn't wait for her, and they point out that they waited 15 minutes, it doesn't even occur to her to apologize. When Laurie (in confidence) tells Annie about a boy she likes, Annie turns around and tells him, and then uses it as a bargaining chip to get Laurie to baby-sit Lindsey so that Annie can screw her recently available boyfriend.
This is after Annie made the following sympathetic statement - "Terrific. I've got three choices. Watch the kid (Lindsey) sleep, listen to Lynda screw or talk to you."
If anyone I knew tried that kind of B.S., I'd tell 'em where to go and how fast to get there, and it wouldn't involve coming over and dropping off their responsibility either.
Lynda complains about how busy she is - having to learn new cheers, getting her hair done, and going to the dance. She then tells Laurie that she doesn't feel sorry for her for never having anything to do. Lynda points out how she always "forgets" her textbooks, and finally checks with Annie that it's still OK to screw her boyfriend at Lindsey's parent's house. After screwing in this stranger's house, Lynda sends her boyfriend Bob off to raid their refrigerator for beer.
Personally, I couldn't wait for them to get killed. They're about as sympathetic as rocks.
That's kind of unfair to rocks. Some rock formations can be interesting.
I did like some of the other nods to JCH in RZH, like the "ghost with glasses" and tombstone scenes. In fact, I liked the "ghost with glasses" scene better in RZH.
Back to JCH. After killing people all night, how did MM miss stabbing Laurie, and wind up ripping her sleeve? After she falls over the railing, tumbles down the stairs and then takes off (instead of being knocked out), notice how quickly MM moves down the stairs after her. He moved pretty quickly when he came out of the closet and nailed Bob to the wall (symbolism anyone?) when Bob was scrounging for beer too. Complaints about MM not being slow and lumbering all of the time in RZH don't really hold up when compared to JCH.
I've also seen complaints about MM in RZH breaking through a wall. Didn't Laurie break through the same decrepit wall just a few seconds prior? And how is this inconsistent with MM breaking through a door in JCH.
What door? The door with the deadbolt that Laurie locks behind her as she tries to escape through the kitchen. Because every suburban home has a door with a deadbolt connecting the kitchen with the rest of the house. (?)
When Laurie is running around and screaming for help, not only does everyone ignore her, but one neighbor turns on the light, looks out the window, and then turns off the light and goes back to ignoring her. I wanted MM to kill the unsympathetic neighbors too.
Towards the end of JCH, how did Mr. Slowpoke, casually strolling across the street towards Laurie, have time to take down the phone line connected to the roof before Laurie was able to call the police (after Tommy finally let her in)? The phone was working before she went across the street to "meet" MM.
When people complain about movies ending multiple times before the final credits roll, I guess we can thank JCH. The first false ending comes when she stabs MM in the neck with a knitting needle. The second is when she stabs him through the closet door. The third is when he RUNS up to Laurie (from behind), grabs her, and gets shot by Dr. Loomis.
Does anyone else think it's inconsistent that have a bookworm who's afraid to ask a boy to a dance would have it in her to kill someone twice in one night? And how did cute little blond-haired MM grow up to have dark curly hair - and a tan? I thought he was supposed to have been locked away for 15 years...
The ending of JCH doesn't make sense either. Why would MM run off after he was shot twice and fell out of a second story window? Every other time he was killed, he went right back to what he was doing before (or whom he was killing before).
As for RZH, (based upon the work print):
The white trash background seems consistent with his characterization.
I enjoyed seeing young MM's defiance in the early scenes of the film.
The soundtrack worked better than I expected.
I was wearing the same KISS T-shirt as young MM in the beginning of the film. thumbs up
Rob Zombie couldn't have made a film more predictable than the comments people have made about the film. Besides the usual paradox that the remake both borrowed too much from the original and was too different from the original, there were the cheap shots against Sheri Moon Zombie (SMZ).
I guess it's easier to bitch about her being in another of Rob Zombie's films than it is to point out how her character can be screaming and cursing at someone while she's comforting her baby at the same time, or how her tone of voice and demeanor changes when she's talking to young MM as opposed to how she is with everyone else. I also noticed how she appeared to be holding back tears while telling young MM that everything was fine at home.
In another nod, the ad for the bar where SMZ's character works has the same name as the matchbook the nurse throws on the dashboard in the beginning of JCH.
Young MM's torture of animals could indicate that he was born a "force of evil", rather than being a product of his environment, especially considering his step-dad's comments at the breakfast table.
In MM's first human kill, I thought it was a nice touch having him stop, raise his mask, take the ad with his mother's picture away from the bully, lower the mask, and move in for the kill. I also noticed how the bully stopped pleading for his life when MM pulled the mask down and started crying, because he knew what the mask represented.
I thought Tyler Mane was great as MM - brooding, intimidating and menacing - what else do you expect?
I didn't mind that some of the dialogue was similar to JCH. Again, I saw this as nods to JCH, from one fan to the others (in the audience).
How does MM get to Haddonfield? Did he walk? It's no less believable than him driving 150 miles after being locked up from when he was 6 years old.
How did MM find his sister? Her father sent her to MM's door, and he stalks her and her friends, just like in JCH. Since she still has the same first name as his baby sister, in his mind it's his sister. This makes no less sense than serial killers who kill girls who fit the same general physical description as their mother/girlfriend/infatuation/whatever.
I thought the ending of the work print was great. I'm not looking forward to it being changed based upon test audiences or studio demands.
Commence flaming.
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