Originals VS Remakes Halloween

Original VS Remake: Halloween

By Jose

Happy Halloween Movie Spot visitors!

I could not think of, well actually, there could not be any other movie that is more appropriate to talk about and see than Halloween. The movie that changed the way we see serial killers and Halloween safety. John Carpenter created such a great horrifying character in Michael Myers. The silent, masked, deadly, unstoppable, psychotic monster. Someone who you would not want to see or have stalking your neighborhood at all.

The original Halloween movie was hands down a great horror movie. A classic. And it’s a simple story a psycho escapes from a hospital/prison and seeks out his family that knows nothing of his existence while his doctor searches and chases him hoping to get to the killer before he can kill anyone. Which fails obviously. The acting was great especially from the young Jamie Lee Curtis as the younger sister of Michael Myers. But the build up from the beginning of the movie to before Michael finally gets to Laurie is what I like about the movie. Because it just begins with Laurie and friends getting ready for Halloween when off to the side and background we see this guy in a mask and overalls following our characters. Until he starts killing.

The other thing I love is that (to me) Michael is the inspiration and paved the way for Jason Voorhees (Friday The 13th) and Freddy Krueger (Nightmare On Elm Street). If it wasn’t for him we would have never gotten these characters. The silent killer and almost supernatural strength and invulnerability helped create Jason while his creepy almost ghost like ability to pop out of nowhere and strike when you least expect it helped create Freddy.

Halloween is a favorite movie of mine and I make sure that I at least catch the first and some of the sequel during the Halloween season. Although I tend to stay away from part 3 Season of The Witch. If you’re a fan you know what I am talking about. The only movie that had the title and carried the part three numbering had nothing, nothing to do with Michael Myers whatsoever. It dealt with witch craft and druids creating masks that killed the person who wore it by turning the face into bugs and snakes and other gruesome things. All triggered by a commercial song for the masks. Oh yeah and they had robots disguised as humans. Why? I have no clue. The only thing that I can guess it had to do with Michael Myers and the series is that later on in the franchise Myers was supposed to be part of this pagan/druid ritual but otherwise no clue.

Now onto the 2007 Halloween. What can I say? It followed the original storyline to a certain degree but then the director decided to give Myers a somewhat new origin. Before I go on I just want to say that Rob zombie is not a good director or good movie writer. Or better yet he does not know how to make good movies. House Of A 1000 Corpses was a bastardized hillbilly version of Texas Chainsaw Massacre who’s story actually involved hillbillies. The “sequel” Devil’s Rejects, only took Rob’s favorite characters from the original and created a totally different movie that had nothing to do with the first.

Back to his Halloween. The Myers origin was fine. It worked by showing that Michael was a twisted and blood thirsty child with no remorse and emotion. Only for his sister and mother. But it could be that simple. No. So not only he was a dangerous troubled kid his stepfather and older sister verbally and physically abused him. Ok. So instead of the quick scene from the original where we see the young Michael in his clown costume killing his family and then seeing his confused and scared face, we get an half hour or so long drawn out origin that could have been condensed.

Then the real movie begins and it is pretty much the original movie condensed into the last hour or so. Making it fast paced and in your face. Overall with the glaring changes and directorial decisions the movie was tolerable.

Then Zombie decided to pull a Devil’s Rejects on the second movie of Halloween. Yet with Devil’s Rejects it was way better than the first. So by that we should have seen a great horror movie. No. We got crap. It was like Rob Zombie was given the ability to do whatever he wanted so he did just that and pretty much killed the remake franchise for Halloween. Zombie’s a hack and should stick with music videos and music.