I watched Rob Zombies HALLOWEEN a couple of nights ago and was rather impressed. This was not a slavish remake of John Carpenters classic film, he really went out of his way to craft a very disturbing psychological profile of Michael Myers. His exploration of Michaels descent into madness was greatly aided and abetted by casting Daeg Faerch as the 10 year old incarnation, who is truly chilling and strange yet initially holds a semblance of humanity. Zombies stripping away of any supernatural detritus is very smartly handled, leaving you with a portrait of a true psychopath. Tyler Mane as the fully grown Myers channels the weirdness of Daegs performance into a mute brutal display of physical violence, and I credit Mane for working with and through the iconic mask to fashion a scary performance. I feel that the early scenes with young Michael are especially chilling, even if they do not have as high a body count as the latter portion of the film. It is bloody and intense overall, and he gets good performances from his entire cast. Malcolm McDowell makes an interesting portrayal of Dr. Loom is, who was iconically portrayed by Donald Pleasance in the original series. Sheri Moon Zombie is quite good as young Michaels mother. Danny Trejo, William Forsythe, Dee Wallace and many other horror icons appear as supporting characters to good effect. Rob Zombie has a very particular eye for detail and design, and his fingerprints are all over this production. I started to take his film work seriously after seeing the very excellent THE DEVILS REJECTS, and he shows a real maturity here as an artist. I had actually seen his HALLOWEEN II in theatres, and though it shared a darkness and design aesthetic I felt that was a far more bloodly and less psychologically refined film than this one. I am partway through watching the 4.5 hour BTS documentary, and am really impressed with the lengths the entire team took to render this film. I am not sure how the horror purists out there thought of this film, but I for one endorse it as a solid piece of work.
Posted on: Thu, 27 Mar 2014 12:20:13 +0000
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