Halloween (2007): It's Bloodier Than the Original, but is it Better?

I'll never forget the first time I saw the original Halloween (1978). I was too young to see it in the theaters, but it happened to come on HBO one fall night when my parents had gone out for the evening. I watched the whole thing in a dark, empty house, and it scared the daylights out of me. I not only firmly believed in Michael Myers, I also believed he was definitely lurking somewhere close by, maybe the basement, just waiting for me to let my guard down.

It was probably two weeks before I slept easy again.

When I heard that Rob Zombie was going to remake Halloween, I had my doubts. After all, why mess with a classic? Still, I was curious to see whether or not he could pull it off, so when the movie became available on DVD, I rented it and was surprised to discover it has a lot going for it.

Zombie's Halloween is really a two part movie. The first part deals with the childhood of young murderer Michael Myers (Daeg Faerch). Whereas the original Halloween offered no explanation for Michael becoming a killer, Zombie establishes Michael as a child with a miserable and chaotic home life-his older sister and his stepfather torment him and his mother can't see how desperately troubled he is. The only uncomplicated relationship he has is with his baby sister.

On Halloween night, after his sister promises to take him trick-or-treating and then breaks her word, Michael snaps. He kills his stepfather, his sister, and her boyfriend. Remanded to an institution, the child becomes more distant and violent. He even manages to kill a nurse. This causes his despairing mother to commit suicide.

Michael grows to a massive, silent adulthood, bereft of all social contact except daily meetings with his psychiatrist, Dr. Loomis (Malcolm McDowell). But Dr. Loomis has come to doubt he will ever reach Michael in any meaningful way. He resigns as Michael's shrink. At the same time, the institution hires a sadistic orderly, who drags a female patient into Michael's room and sexually assaults her.

Michael kills the orderly, as well as several of the other staff members, and makes his escape, going back to the town where he was born to seek out his baby sister.

The second part of the movie is told largely through the point of view of teenager Laurie Strode (Scout Taylor-Compton), who was adopted as an infant and is not aware that her brother is a psychopathic killer. Laurie and her friends set out to babysit on Halloween night, never knowing that Michael Myers has returned and is stalking all of them.

So, how does the new version of Halloween stand up to the classic?

The original Halloween made no effort to explain Michael Myers. He was simply a force of evil, beyond comprehension. Rob Zombie's version of Halloween humanizes Michael a little. When he kills his horrible stepfather or the snippy nurse or the brutal guard, we can even sympathize with his choice of victims... but just when we're almost on his side, Michael turns around and slaughters a compassionate character, a friend, with the same mindless indifference with which he kills enemies.

Michael's relationship with his psychiatrist is different as well. In the original movie, Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasence) knew that Michael was pure evil and felt no empathy for him, even referring to him as "it." In this version, Dr. Loomis tells the silent, adult Michael Myers, "You're probably my best friend."

The acting in both films is solid, though I have to admit Halloween just didn't seem the same to me without Jamie Lee Curtis playing Laurie Strode.

The body count is far higher in Zombie's film than in the original, and the movie is much bloodier. (The original Halloween, even though considered a slasher, showed very little actual gore.) There are definitely some gross out -moments here, though I don't think they actually make the film any scarier or any better.

Zombie also tips his hand early on some key plot point. Fans of the original movie, for instance, may remember that Michael's age was not revealed until after he stabbed his older sister. The killing was shown through the killer's eyes, and only later did we learn that the killer was a child. Meanwhile, the information that Laurie was actually Michael's sister did not come out until the sequel, Halloween II.

Zombie's remake of Halloween is louder, bloodier, brasher, more morally ambiguous, and perhaps even smarter than the original. It's worth a look, especially if you don't mind blood and guts.

But for pure, chill-your-blood terror, I stand by the 1978 version of Halloween. It hit all the right emotional notes and gave us a truly terrifying, rather than pitiable, killer.