Delayed Reaction: Halloween

What I Guessed It Was About: Basically, it will be exactly the same as the original but with more swearing, nudity, and violence because this is Rob Zombie and to expect anything else would be foolish.

How I Came Into It: I think Rob Zombie is an interesting filmmaker, partly because he always appears to be making exactly the movie he wants to. The Devil's Rejects is strange in a way that only he can pull off and a lot of that looked likely to bleed into his next project. It was surprising how few names I ended up recognizing from this. For such a high body count and the need for so many (mostly young) victims, I expected to have a lot Johnny Depp in Elm Street VI sightings.

Why I Saw It: (Club 50) Without betraying the series, this Halloween is very much its own movie. One of the drawbacks when I watched H20 was that is was a weird mix of recapturing the original Halloween's magic and aping Scream. This is very much Zombie's Halloween. The focus on how Michael Myers became what he is was interesting and the movie delivers exactly what it promised: a lot of people dying. The script takes pleasure in repeatedly introducing characters only to add to the death numbers, as opposed to some more conservative slasher movies that put a premium on it (i.e. It's a five person cast, so maybe four people are going to die).

Why I Wish I Hadn't: Part of my issue is on me. I watched an edited for TV version. Stupid, I know. I got a decent idea of what the movie was doing, but I deprived myself of fully embracing what the movie had to offer. The part that isn't my fault is that, in order to introduce enough characters to give a big body count, there's little character development. I had little or no investment in the main girl. There's also far too much Pepe Le Pew syndrome going on. Myers magically knows exactly where to go and can always catch and kill the person he wants. For a guy in solitary confinement for years, he's awful will suited in the real world.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend