SYNOPSIS:
Rob
Zombie reinvents the ultimate slasher classic unleashing Michael
Myers for a bloody rollercoaster of a rampage like fans have
never seen. Include a retelling of the original story that unfolds
at a breakneck pace as well as a chilling new introduction that
finally reveals the secrets behind Myers' disturbing childhood.
MOVIE REVIEW:
Disclaimer: Although this reviewer had been follower
of Freddy Kruger’s Nightmare on Elm Street franchise,
he had given Michael Myers’ Halloween franchise a miss
till now.
After
the endless churning of “remakes” (specially from
Asian region), the horror department of Hollywood has a new
cash cow to milk and that cash cow is “reboot”.
A no brainer formula as if it works in the past, with some
modification updates, there is new victims audience
to trap / lure / attract.
This
Halloween movie by Rob Zombie (that guy who made the successful
transition from Heavy Metal Music scene to Movie Horror land)
is one of those reboots. The thing is that while some other
reboots seems to be strictly out for the money bags, Rob Zombie
gave the impression that he truly care about the material
at hand. However fandom and the best intention don’t
necessary mean that it will beneficial to the Halloween franchise.
As a reimagining reboot, the first thing added for Halloween
franchise was the origin story for Michael Myers (the iconic
badass slasher that inhabits this franchise). While most origin
stories screw up the mystic aura that the characters had build
up in their first appearance, this Halloween reboot did a
fairly decent job. Some fans of the original series complained
that it was hard to accept that growing up in a white trash
family environment would cultivate a serial murderer but I
felt otherwise.
From the manner that the origin was told, it wasn’t
the family environment that caused Michael Myer to become
what he had in the future. To a degree, his dad had been verbally
abusive and not exactly the model dad around but what I got
from this origin story was that there already something sinister
about young Michael. His mannerism and expression had this
demonic infestation with him that made it believable evil
was within him all along and the scary bit would be that he
himself wasn’t able to differentiate it. Another thing
that went well with this origin story was that it’s
not overly explained. We get to see what happen to him back
when he was a kid and this film was smart that it didn’t
try to explain what made him tick (unlike that Hannibal story).
After
the origin story, the next enjoyable aspect of Halloween was
… well a picture speaks a thousand words and I will
let the following pictures explain the enjoyable aspects.
Although
the brief nudities are probably a tame experience with the
young crowds these days, you must understand that this reviewer
came from an era when nudity was an automatic cut by the censorship
board. He hasn’t been able to appreciate the true spectrum
of a horror slasher flick until now and thankfully Halloween
had plenty of them (more than he had expected and those who
revealed their assets are pretty hot).
With
his juvenile desire satisfied, it’s time to pick up
faults with this film and there are a couple that stood out
as sore thumbs.
This slasher flick does not really take its time to build
up any decent suspense for homicidal killer. Instead we get
big size guy going after his victims as clumsily as what we
get from the wrestling ring. It just can’t get any scarier
if you can see that guy coming.
Then there is this loophole about the adult Michael Myers’
bloodthirsty quest that took up the bulk of the movie. Without
giving out too much spoiler for those who haven’t seen
this or the original franchise, it make one wonder how does
incarcerated know about things going on the outside that even
his physician wasn’t aware of. The most unfathomable
bit was that Michael Myers’ doctor discovers the fact
after speaking to the only person involved and that person
was unwilling to reveal it in the first place. So unless Michael
Myers has some sort animal high detecting senses, it really
made no sense on how was Michael Myers able to seek out the
correct person.
As someone who is new to this franchise, I didn’t have
that baggage of “how good it was back in the past”
with me and it played out to be a rather enjoyable slasher
flick. The origin story wasn’t that bad and I finally
got to appreciate the unwritten horror rule about staying
chaste in a horror movie that been mention in Scream. The
big loophole and lack of suspense was a bit of letdown but
it will do fine for some brainless entertainment.
SPECIAL FEATURES :
Be careful what you wish! For the longest time, we
had been lamenting that our local dvds does not even come
with any making of or extra feature. Now, local Dvds like
Halloween comes with extra but to our nightmare, it’s
felt like the rejects from the editing room.
Soundbites
Interview segments with the director and various personals
that were involved with this reboot. It’s unpolished
piece of interview section with the question flashed before
the interviewee answered them. Watching this segment make
me appreciate those proper making off segment that took the
effort to weave the chunks of interview moments into one.
B - rolls
Another questionable effort in bringing extra feature
to this Dvd. B – rolls played out like someone took
a video camera to the filming set and film whatever he or
she think it’s interesting. As again, the lack of editing
stood out as a sore thumb.
Comes
with Halloween and The Mist Trailers.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
Michael
Myers looks ominously at the Scorpio East logo as if he didn’t
like it too.
It’s
looks like Scorpio East will be flashing their logo in all
their videos from now on. Both Asian and Hollywood movies
won’t be spared. It just don’t make sense for
this kind of branding as the American market won’t do
this to their consumer and the only distributors that does
that are in the China market. It make one wonder are we competing
with the China distributors and for that, I wonder how low
are we going to go (with price).
This
is a very dark video (the brightness aspect, not the material
aspect) and this video presentation did well to present the
details in the darkness. Audio is sharp and clear.
MOVIE RATING:
 
DVD
RATING :
Review
by Richard Lim Jr
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