Runtime: A rather long 121 minutes; yes, I saw the Director's Cut
Directed by: Rob Zombie
Starring: Plenty of famous faces I wish would have been in something better, along with some actors who I wish I could have seen less of
From: Dimension
Not the only piece of entertainment I revisited yesterday... but it was the worst. I'll just say that the others were some appropriate cartoons and the charmingly pleasant WNUF Halloween Special, all of which I've reviewed before. However, I had only seen this once before (soon after it came out on disc) and that was long before I joined Letterboxd so of course this is the first time it will be reviewed. Likely I will never watch this again; it has nothing to do with its status as a drastically different interpretation of the Michael Myers story—if it was about another mass-murdering psychopath then I would still find this to be an unpleasant 2 hours. Yes, I saw the unrated Director's Cut as that's the version commonly available.
This movie is why me (along with many others) have the stereotype of Rob Zombie only doing motion pictures concerning gross vulgar white trash stereotypes. From the opening scene where we see Michael as a young boy and he has a disgusting redneck family that constantly yells and is constantly gross, it starts off everything on the wrong note-at least for me-and that made this feel incredibly long having to deal with something so aggressively crass & in your face. The fact that Laurie Strode and friends are definitely not as likable or charming compared to what we saw in '78 when this motion picture does a compressed version of the original's plot... not a good time for me. The fact that the performances from little Michael & Zombie's own wife aren't exactly thespian quality (although apparently Sheri Moon has improved in subsequent films) is another issue.
It's not all bad; at least I enjoyed the 70's tunes that Zombie selected... although how Love Hurts was used will forever make me think differently of that song. It was also nice seeing such a large collection of old actors (character or otherwise) most of whom are liked by such nerds as those in the Letterboxd community. Even if I don't necessarily love what was done w/ the Loomis character, there are no complaints with Malcolm McDowell's acting in said role. The brutality of Myers was nice if you dig such things; the movie is not a total failure. It's no surprise why many would like a grimy greasy piece of work like this-personally, it's all just too much. As for Michael Myers as a character, I prefer it as a random young boy who-even if he has some sort of supernatural powers-happened to be a psychopath that murdered his sister then became a terrifying masked mute that stalked people-whether family members or not. Before anyone asks, I've never experienced Zombie's Halloween II... and there's a chance I never will.
In a few hours my list of what I've seen spooky season wise these past two months will go public. That will feature many films that I liked more than this.
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