Rob Zombie to direct Halloween sequel.

[DarkArtist81]

I don't really mind RZ's remake but like many have said the whole white trash hillbilly, abusive stepfather and stripper mother past is just so cliche. I find it funny how they try so hard to humanize Michael with the backstory but the by the time he's an adult he's now a 6'8" 300lb unstoppable killer. For me at least, that kinda defeats the purpous of the backstory. If you want him to be human make him human and if you want him to be an unstoppable force do that. The thing about JC's Myers was that he never did try to make Myers human. From the begginning you had Loomis saying Michael was pure evil and that there was no reason for him to kill other than that. RZ's Myers really had no mystery to him and he wasn't evil (at least in the same way as the original Mikey), he was just some overgrown psychopath with a mask and buthcer knife with an abusive past. Very cliche and overused imho.

I totally agree on all points. I still like the RZ remake simply because it was a Halloween movie. But they really screwed the pooch on the character of Michael. They humanize him, and then make him this huge crazy guy. The abusive StepDad, the stripper Mom, the White Trash sister... it was very played out IMO.

They stripped away the magic and mystery and made him just another psycho in a mask. And any TRUE fan can tell you that Michael Myers is far far more than that.

 

[BlindVoyeur]

Rob Zombie didn't have to look into THOSE EYES..the blackest eyes... the *devil's* eyes.....

 

[DarkArtist81]

Rob Zombie didn't have to look into THOSE EYES..the blackest eyes... the *devil's* eyes.....

Yeah..

Rob's like... "Dude, his eyes are green!"

 

[BlindVoyeur]

At least he had better lines than Sabertooth.

 

[MaulFan]

Rob Zombie didn't have to look into THOSE EYES..the blackest eyes... the *devil's* eyes.....

Yeah..

Rob's like... "Dude, his eyes are green!"

While I love the delivery, the mystery is lost in Loomis' dialogue, "these are the eyes of a psychopaht."

Granted, the blackness part was used, but in Carpenter's, you actually wondered is this kid like Satan or something, where RZ's sort of explains a deeply disturbed psychopath, but a regular human with problems nonetheless.

 

[Bloodsport]

Rob Zombie completely took the mysterious away from Mike. JOhn Carpenter's version was Michael possessed by something a evil entity. In the first Halloween Michael took 5 bullets in his heart. Today Michael Myers is just a disturbed pyschopath. NOthing more.

 

[thenammagazine]

Rob Zombie completely took the mysterious away from Mike. JOhn Carpenter's version was Michael possessed by something a evil entity. In the first Halloween Michael took 5 bullets in his heart. Today Michael Myers is just a disturbed pyschopath. NOthing more.

Truth is stranger than fiction, and IMO twice as scary.

 

[DarkArtist81]

Truth is stranger than fiction, and IMO twice as scary.

From your point of view maybe..

But honestly, if truth and realism is the goal... why not just use that energy on another project? Why Halloween?

That's like doing a remake of Nightmare on Elm Street and instead of having Freddy enter into the dreams of his victims... he just comes in while they are sleeping and kills them in bed. It's realistic... doesn't mean it is right for the character or the franchise.

I just think that when you are doing a remake of a film, there are some untouchable aspects of a character.

Jason is a kid who was presumed dead, grew up in the woods and took revenge on all who entered, he also is extremely strong and can take a reasonable amount of pain.

Freddy is a dream demon, who was burned alive by vengeful parents after a string of brutal child murders. He kills the children of those families in their dreams now, as revenge for what happened to him.

Michael Myers is the Boogeyman, he cannot be stopped... As a boy he seemed very normal, until one Halloween when he killed his sister for no apparent reason. He acts as one who is possessed, without any emotion or wasted movement. He attacks only on Halloween and has a stealthy methodical method to his killings. He is very slippery and always finds a way to survive or slip away, only to wreak havok another year.

Those facts are a given for these characters, changing them is unthinkable... Rob went against the grain, it was brave...I'll give him that. But it was a bit too bold, and in doing so he changed the basic aspects of the character. He's no longer the same Michael we all know... he's now just a psychotic behemoth with a huge knife and a fetish for killing his family members.

 

[MaulFan]

That's where I stand, there's a line you cross with a remake where it raises the question, if that's the character you want to create, why do it with something that exists, why not truly be original and create an all new character. Rob wanted to created a powerful killer that developed from childhood, great, that's a potential for a cool new character, but and odd direction with a pre-existing one. Stylistically, he gave the Halloween fandom a return to what we like I think, but storywise, he skewed a bit off course. The new generation that'll come to know this as THE Michael Myers will probably enjoy him, but there's a large fanbase that wants more tales of the boogeyman, which if Rob's story is now the new series, will never happen. Hopefully, he doesn't contradict himself and take him back to the boogeyman in his part 2.

 

[DarkArtist81]

I agree with you man... He did a good job and the movie wasn't horrible.. but it skewed Michaels origin to the point that any new films following this story will be tainted by it.

That said, he has said that this one will be stylistically different than the first. That H2 will be to H1 what The Devils Rejects was the House of 1000 Corpses. So, who knows what we will get? Maybe he will bring back the mystery.. but I doubt it.

 

[MaulFan]

Well at this point, I can't imagine how he could bring back the mystery as his Michael's established.

I just hope his H2 is like his H1 and at least entertaining enough to be satisfying as another sequel. I crave more Michael Myers but this sequel is going to set the tone. If it stays in his hands past 2 and 2 takes it in a bad direction we're screwed as longtime Halloween fans. If he at least keeps it at the bar he set with his last one, we're still a bit better off than we were with H4-6 and especially 8.

 

[thenammagazine]

I agree with you man... He did a good job and the movie wasn't horrible.. but it skewed Michaels origin to the point that any new films following this story will be tainted by it.

That said, he has said that this one will be stylistically different than the first. That H2 will be to H1 what The Devils Rejects was the House of 1000 Corpses. So, who knows what we will get? Maybe he will bring back the mystery.. but I doubt it.

It's like a lot of movies nowadays though. I could'a gotten bent tha X-Men started with Wolverine, Storm, etc, or Spider-Man not getting bitten by a radioactive spider and a genetically enhanced spider, etc. Films are updated all the time for reasons of making them more appealing to modern audiences. Instead of being disappointed about it or blaming the artists, I just take it for what it is. It was a good horror movie, there's no doubt about that. Was it the Michael I grew up with? Origin-wise, no. But when the mask had been donned and the slayings began, it was pretty much the same ol' Michael, history explained or not. And that aspect is what I remember more than the white trash origins.

I remember similar arguments when Kane Hodder took over the role of Jason. The things he added to the character like the more "buffed out" size and the breathing. Hardcore 13th fans raged at the cons. Ironically, in the end, he wound up being the most liked Jason of them all and it was funny to see a similar reaction from fans, albeit this time in his favor, when he wasn't cast for Freddy vs. Jason.

Besides, would you have really liked a shot for shot remake of the original? Psycho's remake bombed in the theaters.

 

[DarkArtist81]

True....anything is better than H4-8. I honestly think that H2 messed it up a bit by giving Michael the family motive, that screwed the rest of the series IMO... It made for a more predictable film series. And later they had to explain it with the whole Thorn storyline.

They should have just kept it simple and entirely without motive... He just kills whomever peaks his interest, usually choosing someone who is fearful and pure. If they could have kept it like that, we would have a lot more variation in the series and things wouldn't have gotten so stale. We wouldn't have some of the later mythology, but that's ok by me.

 

[MaulFan]

Besides, would you have really liked a shot for shot remake of the original? Psycho's remake bombed in the theaters.

No one's saying RZ's should have been shot for shot match to the original, in fact it should have been even less a match to the original it was. What DA and I are saying is all Rob needed to do for us to have been more content with his film would be to keep Michael as a supernatural, inhuman force. Totally change all the circumstances around him, but keep the spirit of what he is the same.

And your argument about Spider-man isn't the same. His origin was altered a bit for the film, but what he is at the core was not changed. Spider-man is a superhero born from a bite by a spider. What's magical about that spider be it radiation or genetics didn't change what he became. Michael's changed origin changed what he is, that's the problem. If Rob made his story that some evil cult had cast a spell on him at birth or something (hints of H6), it'd be a new interpretation of how he became the boogeyman, but in the end he'd still be the boogeyman. There's ways to change origins with changing character. The Hulk in the comics was made by a gamma bomb, but in both movies he's made by other means, but in the end, he is still the Hulk as he was established in previous stories.

 

[DarkArtist81]

It's like a lot of movies nowadays though. I could'a gotten bent tha X-Men started with Wolverine, Storm, etc, or Spider-Man not getting bitten by a radioactive spider and a genetically enhanced spider, etc. Films are updated all the time for reasons of making them more appealing to modern audiences. Instead of being disappointed about it or blaming the artists, I just take it for what it is. It was a good horror movie, there's no doubt about that. Was it the Michael I grew up with? Origin-wise, no. But when the mask had been donned and the slayings began, it was pretty much the same ol' Michael, history explained or not. And that aspect is what I remember more than the white trash origins.

I remember similar arguments when Kane Hodder took over the role of Jason. The things he added to the character like the more "buffed out" size and the breathing. Hardcore 13th fans raged at the cons. Ironically, in the end, he wound up being the most liked Jason of them all and it was funny to see a similar reaction from fans, albeit this time in his favor, when he wasn't cast for Freddy vs. Jason.

Besides, would you have really liked a shot for shot remake of the original? Psycho's remake bombed in the theaters.

I understand what you mean, but in the X-Men or Spider-Man films...they stayed pretty true to WHO these characters were inside. Peter is still the nerdy kid who after his Uncle Ben dies, learns that his new found powers need to be handled with Responsibility. Wolverine is still exactly as he is in the comics.

I didn't want a shot for shot remake at all... I just wanted Michael to be the same as he was before. The white trash background hurt him, but even once he put on the mask... it wasn't the same. He stalked less, was brutal instead of being cunning and quick. And instead of being a normal sized man, he was this huge brute, ala Jason. The lack of true stalking scenes hurt it, IMO. And also, the end lacked the suspense and fear of the original...or Hell...even H2.

It was a cardboard cutout of Michael, nowhere even close the character we know and love. He shared the mask, and the silence... that's about it for me.

 

[MaulFan]

I understand what you mean, but in the X-Men or Spider-Man films...they stayed pretty true to WHO these characters were inside. Peter is still the nerdy kid who after his Uncle Ben dies, learns that his new found powers need to be handled with Responsibility. Wolverine is still exactly as he is in the comics.

I didn't want a shot for shot remake at all... I just wanted Michael to be the same as he was before. The white trash background hurt him, but even once he put on the mask... it wasn't the same. He stalked less, was brutal instead of being cunning and quick. And instead of being a normal sized man, he was this huge brute, ala Jason. The lack of true stalking scenes hurt it, IMO. And also, the end lacked the suspense and fear of the original...or Hell...even H2.

It was a cardboard cutout of Michael, nowhere even close the character we know and love. He shared the mask, and the silence... that's about it for me.

, we think so alike on this matter.

 

[DarkArtist81]

, we think so alike on this matter.

I was just thinking the same thing... we posted the same thoughts but in different words.

 

[MaulFan]

I was just thinking the same thing... we posted the same thoughts but in different words.

Don't ^^^^ with Myers purists

 

[GrueSam]

Just wanted to let you guys know how much I'm enjoying you guys' discussion!

 

[DarkArtist81]

Just wanted to let you guys know how much I'm enjoying you guys' discussion!

Thanks Sam! I can talk about Halloween and Michael Myers forever I think...