Halloween (2007 film)

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Halloween
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Rob Zombie
Produced by	Malek Akkad Rob Zombie Andy Gould
Written by	2007 Screenplay: Rob Zombie 1978 Screenplay: John Carpenter Debra Hill
Starring	Malcolm McDowell Sheri Moon Zombie Tyler Mane Scout Taylor-Compton Daeg Faerch
Music by	Tyler Bates
Cinematography	Phil Parmet
Editing by	Glenn Garland
Distributed by	USA: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Dimension Films Canada Alliance Films UK: Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	August 31, 2007
Running time	109 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$15,000,000[1]
Gross revenue	$78,103,432
Preceded by	Halloween: Resurrection
Official website
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Halloween is a 2007 remake of the 1978 slasher film of the same name. The film was written, produced, and directed by Rob Zombie. The film stars Malcolm McDowell as Dr. Sam Loomis, Tyler Mane as the adult Michael Myers, and Scout Taylor-Compton as Laurie Strode; Daeg Faerch portrays a ten year old Michael Myers. Rob Zombie's "reimagining" follows the premise of Carpenter's original, with Michael Myers stalking Laurie Strode and her friends on Halloween night. Zombie's film goes deeper into the character's psyche, trying to answer the question of what drove him to kill people, whereas in Carpenter's original film Michael did not have an explicit reason for killing.

Working from Carpenter's advice to "make [the film] his own",^[2] Zombie chose to develop the film as both a prequel and a remake, allowing for more original content than simply refilming the same scenes. Despite mostly negative reviews, the film, which cost $15 million to make,^[1] went on to gross $78.3 million worldwide.

[edit] Plot

On Halloween in Haddonfield, Illinois, having already shown signs of psychopathic tendencies, ten year old Michael Myers (Daeg Faerch) murders his sister Judith (Hanna R. Hall), her boyfriend Steve (Adam Weisman), his mother’s boyfriend Ronnie (William Forsythe), and a school bully. After the longest trial in the state’s history, Michael is found guilty of first degree murder and sent to Smith's Grove Sanitarium under the care of child psychologist Dr. Sam Loomis (Malcolm McDowell). Michael initially cooperates with Dr. Loomis, claiming no memory of the killings; his mother, Deborah (Sheri Moon Zombie), visits him regularly. After a year, Michael becomes fixated on his papier-mâché masks, closing himself off from everyone, even his mother. When Michael kills a nurse during one of her visits, Deborah can no longer handle the situation and commits suicide. For the next fifteen years, Michael (Tyler Mane) continues making his masks and not speaking to anyone. Dr. Loomis, having continued to treat Michael over the years, attempts to move on with his life and closes Michael’s case. Later, while being prepared for transfer to maximum security, Michael escapes Smith’s Grove, killing the sanitarium guards and a truck driver (Ken Foree) for his clothes, and heads to Haddonfield. On Halloween, Michael arrives at his old home, now abandoned, and finds a kitchen knife and Halloween mask he stored under the floorboards the night he killed his sister.

The story shifts to Laurie Strode (Scout Taylor-Compton), and her friends Annie Brackett (Danielle Harris) and Lynda Van Der Klok (Kristina Klebe) on Halloween. Throughout the day, Laurie witnesses Michael watching her from a distance. That night, she heads to the Doyle residence to watch their son Tommy (Skyler Gisondo). Meanwhile, Lynda meets with her boyfriend Bob (Nick Mennell) at Michael's childhood home. Michael appears, murders them, and then heads to the Strode home, where he murders Laurie's parents. Having been alerted to Michael's escape, Dr. Loomis comes to Haddonfield looking for Michael. After obtaining a .357 Magnum handgun, Loomis attempts to warn Sheriff Brackett (Brad Dourif) that Michael has returned to Haddonfield. Brackett and Dr. Loomis head to the Strode home, with Brackett explaining along the way that Laurie is actually Michael Myers' baby sister.

Meanwhile, Annie convinces Laurie to babysit Lindsey Wallace (Jenny Gregg Stewart), a girl Annie is supposed to be watching, long enough so she can have sex with her boyfriend Paul (Max Van Ville). Annie and Paul return to the Wallace home; during sex, Michael murders Paul and attacks. Bringing Lindsey home, Laurie finds Annie on the floor, bloodied but alive, and calls 911. She is attacked by Michael, who chases her back to the Doyle home. Sheriff Brackett and Loomis hear the 911 call and head to the Wallace residence. Michael kidnaps Laurie, and takes her back to his home. Michael approaches Laurie and tries to show her that she is his younger sister. Unable to understand, Laurie grabs Michael's knife and stabs him before escaping the house; Michael chases her, but is repeatedly shot by Dr. Loomis. Laurie and Loomis are just about to leave when Michael grabs Laurie and heads back to the house. Loomis intervenes, but Michael attacks him by squeezing Loomis's skull with his hands. Laurie takes Loomis' gun and runs upstairs; she is chased by Michael, who, after cornering her on a balcony, charges her head-on and knocks both of them over the railing. Laurie finds herself on top of a bleeding Michael. Aiming Loomis' gun at his face, she repeatedly pulls the trigger until the gun finally goes off just as Michael's hand grips Laurie's wrist.

[edit] Development

From top to bottom: Tyler Mane as adult Michael Myers, director Rob Zombie, and Daeg Faerch as young Michael Myers.

On June 4, 2006, Dimension announced that Rob Zombie, director of House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects, would be creating the next installment in the Halloween franchise.^[3] The plan was for Zombie to hold many positions in the production; he would write, direct, produce, and serve as music supervisor.^[3] Bob Weinstein approached Rob Zombie about making the film, and Zombie, who was a fan of the original Halloween, and friend of John Carpenter, jumped at the chance to make a Halloween film for Dimension Studios.^[3] Before Dimension went public with the news, Zombie felt obligated to inform John Carpenter, out of respect, of the plans to remake his film.^[4] Carpenter's request was for Zombie to "make it his own".^[2] During a June 16, 2006 interview, Rob Zombie announced that his film would combine the elements of prequel and remake with the original concept. Zombie insisted that there would be considerable original content in the new film, as opposed to mere rehashed material.^[5]

His intention is to reinvent Michael Myers, because, in his opinion, the character, along with Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, and Pinhead, has become more familiar to audiences, and as a result, less scary.^[6] The idea behind the new film was to delve deeper into Michael Myers' back story. A deeper back story would add "new life" to the character, as Zombie put it.^[5] Michael's mask will be given its own story, to provide an explanation as to why he wears it, instead of having the character simply steal a random mask from a hardware store, as in the original film.^[7] Zombie explained that he wanted Michael to be truer to what a psychopath really is, and wanted the mask to be a way for Michael to hide. He wants the young Michael to have charisma, which would be projected onto the adult Michael. Zombie has decided that Michael's motives for returning to Haddonfield should be more ambiguous, i.e., "was he trying to kill Laurie, or just find her because he loves her?"^[4]

Moreover, Michael would not be able to drive in the new film, unlike his 1978 counterpart who stole Loomis' car so that he could drive back to Haddonfield.^[7] Zombie also wants the Dr. Loomis character to be more intertwined with that of Michael Myers, as opposed to what Zombie saw, in the original film, as showing up merely to say something dramatic.^[6] On December 22, 2006, Malcolm McDowell was announced to be playing Dr. Loomis^[8] McDowell stated that he wants a tremendous ego in Loomis, who is out to get a new book from the ordeal.^[7] Although Zombie has added more history to the Michael Myers character, hence creating more original content for the film, he chose to keep the character's trademark mask and Carpenter's theme song intact for his version (despite an apparent misinterpretation in an interview suggesting the theme would be ditched).^[5] Production officially began on January 29, 2007.^[9] Shortly before production began, Zombie reported that he had seen the first production of Michael's signature mask. Zombie commented, "It looks perfect, exactly like the original. Not since 1978 has The Shape looked so good".^[10]

Filming occurred in the same neighborhood that Carpenter used for the original Halloween.^[7]

[edit] Reception

As of April 2008 on Rotten Tomatoes, 27% of critics gave the film positive feedback based on 93 reviews (25 "fresh", 68 "rotten").^[11] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 47 out of 100, based on 18 reviews.^[12]

Bill Gibron of PopMatters gave the film a 9 out of 10 and said the film was "brilliant" and "a stroke of slice and dice genius."^[13] James Berardinelli of ReelViews gave the film 2 out of 4 stars and said "Although it's not saying much, this is director Rob Zombie's most impressive outing behind the camera."^[14]

The film broke box-office records for the Labor Day weekend. It pulled in USD$31 million dollars over the four-day holiday weekend, surpassing the record set in 2005 by Transporter 2 of $20.1 million dollars, making it the most successful Labor Day weekend opening in history. Furthermore, it surpassed the record set in 1999 by The Sixth Sense of $29 million dollars (in its fifth weekend), making it the highest grossing film over the Labor Day weekend ever. ^[15] Despite the film's opening weekend success, Bob Weinstein told Reuters that he doubts there would be another Halloween film, stating "I never say never... but it would have to be something very, very different".^[16]

As of June 10, 2008, Halloween has grossed $78,301,528 worldwide ($58,272,029 domestic; $20,029,499 overseas) making it the highest grossing entry in the franchise to date (not adjusting the grosses of earlier films for inflation).

Halloween won the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award for Best Film of 2007. The film drew 550 votes, the most ever in the history of the award.^[17]

[edit] Release

Approximately 4 days before the release of the film theatrically, a workprint version of the film appeared online and was circulated around various BitTorrent sites.^[18]

The film was released on DVD on December 18, 2007 in the US. Both the theatrical and an unrated director's cut were released as two-disc special editions containing identical bonus features.^[19].

[edit] Soundtrack

Main article: Halloween (2007 soundtrack)

The soundtrack was released August 21, 2007 which includes 12 dialogue tracks and 12 songs, mostly original songs from the 1960s-1980s including Blue Öyster Cult's "(Don't Fear) The Reaper", Kiss's "God of Thunder", Rush's "Tom Sawyer" and Black Sabbath's "Heaven and Hell".

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official site
• Halloween at the Internet Movie Database
• Halloween at Rotten Tomatoes
• Halloween at Metacritic
• Halloween at Box Office Mojo
• Halloween at Allmovie
• Official MySpace