Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Movie Review: Halloween

Before I get into the review I need to say a thing or two.

"What the hell's wrong with you!?! Get that toddler out of here! This is a a slasher flick!"
"Seriously? ANOTHER phone call! This is a movie. Why are you on the phone? Why are ANY of you people on the phone?"



Ok, the movie.

I don't recall much about the original version of "Halloween" I saw it on TV fairly young. Not toddler young, but too old for trick-or-treating but too young to drive. I wasn't impressed. Sure, it was edited for TV, but still. Freddy, Jason, Michael Myers, these are not scary people. Daleks are scary. Cybermen are creepy. The robot from that Dr Who episode called "Robot" had me behind the couch. But these slasher flick are not at all scary.

Since it's been so long since I saw the original I can't compare the two. But I know that I liked this one more. Not enough to get it on DVD, but on a gut level I was more impressed by this one.

The first half of the movie is a psychological horror. We start with a young Mike Myers and his screwed up family. His mom is a stripper, his step-father is a nasty, hateful, unemployable sleeze, and the two scream at each other constantly. The older sister is the standard production of a home like that, the baby sister screams at key points of the parents' fight, but for mercifully short periods. Michael is about ten years old, one of many victims of his step=father's verbal abuse, likes wearing a clown mask everywhere, and is already torturing and killing animals. But his mom really is pretty nice when not fighting with the drunk-of-the-house.

At school Mike is the target of a couple of bullies. After being jumped by the bullies in the bathroom and saved by the principal he lashes out at the principal. This gets his mother called in, a therapist lined up, and pictures he's taken of animals he's tortured found in his bag. While they're talking Mike slips out and kills one of the bullies in the woods.

That night, Halloween, his mom goes off to work. His sister was supposed to take him trick-or-treating but goes to have sex with her boyfriend instead. The boyfriend has the William Shatner mask that becomes Michael's trademark. So instead of making the candy rounds Mike kills his step-father, his sister, and her boyfriend. When Mom gets home he's sitting out front holding his baby sister and the cops are just showing up.

Mike goes off to an institution. Mom gets to visit once a week. He doesn't recall, or says he doesn't, killing his family. He spends his free time making masks. Some time later he kills a nurse and stops talking. His mom shoots herself.

Fifteen years later Mike escapes and goes looking to reunite with his baby sister. But she doesn't know about her original family. Mike still doesn't talk. That and the wake of brutally murdered corpses makes the reunion a bit ... awkward.

A lot of thought was put into establishing the character and motivations of Michael Meyer. This gives the movie a lot. The first half of "Halloween" feels kind of like that "Silence of the Lambs" prequil that came out not too long ago. The second half benefits from the first half, but is more of the bloody slasher flick that we expect a "Halloween" movie to be.

I won't be getting it on DVD. I'm not suggesting that you run out and see it. Not unless you're into this sort of thing. But I feel it was better than the original. Rob Zombie did well.

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