Comments on: Spooky Month Review: Halloween

By: Thom

Thom — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:27:40 +0000

Rob Zombie’s Halloween suffers from the fact that he basically gives Michael such a screwed up past, it is not shocking he would become a messed up killer. Part of what makes the original Halloween’s portrayal Michael horrifying in the first film is his family life seems so mundane and “small town-ish”. It lends to that…blankness to the character.

I like Zombie’s visual style. There is a sequence in House of a Thousand Corpses that if it had been done exactly the same in, say, a Cohen Brothers film, people would talk about how nicely it was done. The problem is the movie is pretty much crap. And he has yet to make a “good” film. I feel the potential is there, but maybe he needs to step away from horror to do it.

By: Ashe

Ashe — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 03:30:29 +0000

I wonder if the problem is that the creators of modern horror are just trying, and failing, to create realistic, multifaceted characters. In practice, it creates the opposite effect – unreal characters with hasty motivations.

By: Bob Temuka

Bob Temuka — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 23:12:10 +0000

That’s an interesting point about the villain becoming the main character and how the film becomes about checking out the new ways in which people are killed. How do the Final destination films fit into that? They don’t even have a villain beyond a somber mood and some water, but they have managed to fill four films with nothing but semi-inventive death scenes.

I can’t stand those movies – not because they’re offensively bad, because they’re all the bloody same – but they have proven successful. Is that the next stage, where the main character shifts from hero to villain to nothing?

And no, you’re not missing anything by avoiding the Rob Zombie Halloween movies. They really are offensively bad.

On a completely different subject – I know you;ve mentioned your dislike of zombie films several times, but did you see Matt Zoller Seitz’s video essay on the genre here?:

http://www.thehousenextdooronline.com/2009/10/zombie-101-guide-to-cinemas-most.html

He makes some excellent points about the appeal of these films, beyond the obligatory “they go to the mall because consumerism sux!”

By: Dorian

Dorian — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:44:58 +0000

“House of 1,000 Corpses” convinced me that as a film-maker Zombie had nothing to say that I cared to hear. Feedback on his remakes from my friends who enjoy horror movies suggest that I made the right decision.

By: Eli

Eli — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:20:18 +0000

Have you seen the Rob Zombie remake?
I’ve heard both good & bad things about it, curious about your take.