I figured I would review my favorite two films to start things off. As many of you know, I am a huge horror fan, and unlike Siskel and Ebert who usually bash a majority of horror films they see, I tend to watch them and appreciate them more. I find the horror genre to be a much underappreciated franchise because some people do not seem to appreciate the true in depth meanings inside the film itself. First of all, horror is not meant to always make you jump out of your seat every five or ten minutes. It is also a very useful conductor for criticisms aimed toward society and especially emphases on the mind and how dark one’s mind can be. I tend to look at horror films not as scream fests, but as disturbing views on society and some of the people in it. Two perfect examples are Rob Zombie’s Halloween (2007) and Halloween II (2009). Both films have been slammed with negative criticism because many believe that it is nothing like the original or that it doesn’t give the iconic serial killer Michael Myers justice.
The first thing that came to my mind when I saw these reviews was: Are these people out of their minds? True the original Halloween is a classic and I am a huge junkie on the Halloween franchise; however, Rob’s remakes were never meant to be like the original two films. One of the main points he makes in his DVD commentary is that he wanted Michael Myers to not be supernatural. He wanted to make him a real human being with extreme psychotic capabilities. This makes Michael Myers actually terrifying again because after the original sequel to John Carpenter’s Halloween, Michael was no longer scary because he didn’t have any realistic qualities. Then, in August of 2007, Rob Zombie, the creator of House of 1000 Corpses and the enormously popular The Devil’s Rejects, released what would be the first part of a two part film that would ultimately be, in my opinion, the best Halloween film since the original Halloween 2 by far.
For those of you who already know the story and those of you who don’t, Halloween is a masterpiece of tragedy, suspense, and disturbing psychological events. Its main story focuses on psychopath, Michael Myers, in his hunt for Laurie Strode, his long lost sister. Rob’s 2007 remake, unlike the original, reveals Michael’s childhood in more light. We come to find out what he goes through both at home and at school with bullies and unloving families. We can also see how this affects him in how he kills small animals as an early warning sign for much greater problems. Ultimately, we come to see that madness explode as he kills a cruel school bully for ridiculing his mother, the only person who ever loved and appreciated him. Finally we come to the night where everything went horribly wrong, Halloween. We see Michael completely lose every rudimentary sense of right and wrong and life and death as he kills his cruel and uncaring stepfather as well as his older sister, Judith and her boyfriend who never cared for him at all. The only ones spared were his mother and baby sister, who would later be adopted after Michael’s mother committed suicide.
This opening presents us with a brutal view on how Michael’s insanity grew and went to terrifying proportions as he went through difficulties in his life. Without the ability to cope with these problems he could only spiral down farther until finally losing himself and going after his baby sister, who has now been adopted, named Laurie Strode. This terrifying stalking by Michael and his brutal murders to come as well would continue until the climatic confrontation between Laurie and Michael leading the first film’s sudden conclusion in which Laurie goes into complete shock after believing she had killed Michael by supposedly shooting him in the head.
When I first saw this film at the beginning of my senior year, I was surprised at how psychologically disturbing it was from beginning to end. It was especially disturbing for me, in how Michael as a child erupted into such a killing spree. However, this in turn shows how horror emphasizes the disturbing qualities in society. This film shows that inside all of us, there exists a darker side and though some learn to control others let it go out of control until it turns them into something ugly. Michael developed into a madman with the cunning and tameness of a wolf. Furthermore, unlike in the original, he is not the boogeyman, he has no supernatural gifts. He is a huge insane man who cannot be stopped until he has his sister again or he is completely mutilated himself.
Then, there is the character of Laurie, who starts off as someone we all could have met in high school. She appears to be an average and happy teenage girl who has quite a happy life. However, once Michael became introduced to the picture Laurie’s life began to darken. Scout Taylor Compton, who plays Laurie, does an excellent job in portraying her as a light and happy teenager whose world ends up turning into a roller coaster ride of unexpected losses and hardships leading up to the finale of the first film where she can only scream in shock after all of the haunting, macabre, and tragic events that occurred to her.
Now, we come to the second and final chapter of Rob’s remake with Halloween II, which was released in August of 2009. With this sequel Rob does an even more amazing job at depicting the psychological after effects of the events from the first film. The film starts with a psychological definition of a phenomenon known as “The White Horse.” Many failed to read this definition and were ultimately confused about it leading to negative reviews. It tells that “The White Horse” symbolizes violent rage and fury, and we can definitely see that in how this Halloween film is definitely the most brutal and disturbing Halloween film to date. Furthermore, we can also see more of Michael’s devotion to his mother in the opening as Michael’s mother tells him, after giving him a white horse statue, to think of mommy whenever he thinks of the horse. Suddenly we hear the gunshot and scream from the end of the first film followed by the haunting sound of church bells as Laurie walks the streets of Haddonfield blood drenched, soaking wet from the rain, and in a state of shock.
After seeing disturbing images of Laurie in the hospital, we find that Michael is actually still alive because the bullet apparently went to the side of the head, missing all vital points. However, it left Michael a bloody mess, as we can see his torn up mask covered in blood. After escaping the coroner’s van following a collision into a cow, Michael decapitates the last remaining coroner with a shard of metal from the debris. Following that first death scene, we see Michael’s mother all in white, like a ghost, holding the reins to a huge white horse.
Throughout the film, we see these visions of Michael’s mother and young Michael from the vicious killer’s point of view. Now, many have claimed this to be a copy of Friday the 13th in how Michael hears his mother like Jason does. However, this is in fact completely different, because Michael is seeing the mother in his mind, not his actual mother. He is thinking of mommy when he thinks of the white horse as a means of justifying his actions. The White Horse symbolizes his violent rage while his mental mother justifies that for him. Jason’s mother was simply a complete psychopathic ghost. In Michael’s case, this is all in his mind and not supernatural.
One quality that truly makes this film unique to all of the other Halloween films is how the characters are portrayed and develop. First of all, we see the character of Doctor Loomis, who has now done a complete 180 and changed from a concerned and sympathetic man to a money/fame hungry individual following his near death experience at Michael’s hands. He is now obsessed with telling the true story of what happened 2 years ago during the first film in his new book. Furthermore, he is unsympathetic to any of the serious repercussions to follow his book’s release. However, the most important character of interest has to be Laurie. After the events 2 years ago, she has completely collapsed into a very troubled and disturbed young woman in need of therapy and psychiatric medication. In the meantime, her relationship with her only surviving friend, Annie, has completely shattered as they both are constantly at each other’s throats throughout the film until Annie’s tragic and violent death near the film’s conclusion. Moreover, Laurie suffers from incredibly disturbing nightmares that tear her up mentally and emotionally as she continuously falls into madness following her brother’s footsteps.
These dream sequences are also very effective in making this film unique in how bizarre and disturbing they are in their addition to the film’s overall brutal atmosphere. Two of these nightmares, in particular, were very effective in adding to the films horror. The first involves Michael telling his mental mother that he has found Laurie (aka. Boo or Angel Myers). Young Michael leads his mother through a graveyard of black crosses all in black and white to what appears to be a mad tea party setting with snow steadily falling as three deformed pumpkin-headed creatures wine and dine while Laurie lays on the table sleeping. Suddenly, dead hands burst from the table grabbing and clawing at Laurie as she screams for dear life. The other dream/vision/attack occurs while Laurie is awake, as she constantly screams at Annie, telling her to die leading to her screaming in a glass coffin. Many of these attacks occur throughout the film even when Laurie is eating dinner showing how truly disturbed Laurie has become.
All of these horrific events lead up to the ultimate conclusion of the film as Laurie confronts her brother and mother. Michael abducts her and brings her to an abandoned shack where she is held captive until Dr. Loomis finally snaps back to his senses and comes to the rescue only to be finished off by Michael which ultimately leads to Michael’s death by firing squad as the police mutilate him with a barrage of bullets. Finally, we see Laurie who has completely collapsed into her own madness as she walks past her dead brother’s corpse and grabs the knife as a passing of the torch and prepares to attack Loomis more. However, Laurie ultimately meets a very tragic end presenting us with finality as Laurie is shot by a trigger happy cop and killed. Our last scene reveals Laurie’s last thoughts as she sees The White Horse and her mother coming towards her down a white hallway and she acknowledges her with a twisted smile to the tune of Love Hurts.
Overall, Rob Zombie’s Halloween films together present us with a realistic and tragic view at the world of Michael Myers. It is disturbing and brutal, but in the end it simply supports Norman Bates’ claim that “We all go a little mad sometimes.” These two films combined create one of the most original, brutal, and the best Halloween film by far as it completely shows how no matter what you do “family is forever.”
