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Halloween
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Rob Zombie
Written by	2007 Screenplay: Rob Zombie 1978 Screenplay: John Carpenter Debra Hill
Produced by	Malek Akkad Rob Zombie Andy Gould
Starring	Malcolm McDowell Sheri Moon Zombie Tyler Mane Scout Taylor-Compton Daeg Faerch
Cinematography	Phil Parmet
Edited by	Glenn Garland
Music by	Tyler Bates
Distributed by	USA: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Dimension Films Canada Alliance Films UK: Paramount Pictures
Release date	August 31, 2007
Running time	109 min.
Country	USA
Language	English
Budget	$15,000,000
Box office	$78,301,528

Halloween is a 2007 remake of the 1978 slasher film of the same name. The film was written, produced, and directed by Rob Zombie. The film stars Malcolm McDowell as Dr. Sam Loomis, Tyler Mane as the adult Michael Myers, and Scout Taylor-Compton as Laurie Strode; Daeg Faerch portrays a ten year old Michael Myers. Rob Zombie's "reimagining" follows the premise of John Carpenter's original, with Michael Myers stalking Laurie Strode and her friends on Halloween night. Zombie's film goes deeper into the character's psyche, trying to answer the question of what drove him to kill people, whereas in Carpenter's original film Michael did not have an explicit reason for killing.

Working from Carpenter's advice to "make [the film] his own", Zombie chose to develop the film as both a prequel and a remake, allowing for more original content than simply refilming the same scenes. Despite mostly negative reviews, the film, which cost $15 million to make, went on to gross $78.3 million worldwide.

Plot

On Halloween in Haddonfield, Illinois, having already shown signs of psychopathic tendencies, ten year old Michael Myers (Daeg Faerch) murders his sister Judith (Hanna R. Hall), her boyfriend Steve (Adam Weisman), his mother’s boyfriend Ronnie (William Forsythe), and a school bully (Daryl Sabara). After the longest trial in the state’s history, Michael is found guilty of first degree murder and sent to Smith's Grove Sanitarium under the care of child psychologist Dr. Sam Loomis (Malcolm McDowell). Michael initially cooperates with Dr. Loomis, claiming no memory of the killings; his mother, Deborah (Sheri Moon Zombie), visits him regularly. After a year, Michael becomes fixated on his papier-mâché masks, closing himself off from everyone, even his mother. When Michael kills a nurse (Sybil Danning) during one of her visits, Deborah can no longer handle the situation and commits suicide. For the next fifteen years, Michael (Tyler Mane) continues making his masks and not speaking to anyone. Dr. Loomis, having continued to treat Michael over the years, attempts to move on with his life and closes Michael’s case. Later, while being prepared for transfer to maximum security, Michael escapes Smith’s Grove, killing the sanitarium guards and a truck driver (Ken Foree) for his clothes, and heads to Haddonfield. On Halloween, Michael arrives at his old home, now abandoned, and finds a kitchen knife and Halloween mask he stored under the floorboards the night he killed his sister.

The story shifts to Laurie Strode (Scout Taylor-Compton), and her friends Annie Brackett (Danielle Harris) and Lynda Van Der Klok (Kristina Klebe) on Halloween. Throughout the day, Laurie witnesses Michael watching her from a distance. That night, she heads to the Doyle residence to watch their son Tommy (Skyler Gisondo). Meanwhile, Lynda meets with her boyfriend Bob (Nick Mennell) at Michael's childhood home. Michael appears, murders them, and then heads to the Strode home, where he murders Laurie's parents. Having been alerted to Michael's escape, Dr. Loomis comes to Haddonfield looking for Michael. After obtaining a handgun, Loomis attempts to warn Sheriff Brackett (Brad Dourif) that Michael has returned to Haddonfield. Brackett and Dr. Loomis head to the Strode home, with Brackett explaining along the way that Laurie is actually Michael Myers' baby sister.

Meanwhile, Annie convinces Laurie to babysit Lindsey Wallace (Jenny Gregg Stewart), a girl Annie is supposed to be watching, long enough so she can have sex with her boyfriend Paul (Max Van Ville). Annie and Paul return to the Wallace home; during sex, Michael kills Paul and attacks Annie. Bringing Lindsey home, Laurie finds Annie on the floor, bloodied but alive, and calls 911. She is attacked by Michael, who chases her back to the Doyle home. Sheriff Brackett and Loomis hear the 911 call and head to the Wallace residence. Michael kidnaps Laurie, and takes her back to his home. Michael approaches Laurie and tries to show her that she is his younger sister. Unable to understand, Laurie grabs Michael's knife and stabs him before escaping the house; Michael chases her, but is repeatedly shot by Dr. Loomis. Laurie and Loomis are just about to leave when Michael grabs Laurie and heads back to the house. Loomis intervenes, but Michael attacks him by squeezing Loomis's skull with his hands. Laurie takes Loomis' gun and runs upstairs; she is chased by Michael, who, after cornering her on a balcony, charges her head-on and knocks both of them over the railing. Laurie finds herself on top of a bleeding Michael. Aiming Loomis' gun at his face, she repeatedly pulls the trigger until the gun finally goes off just as Michael's hand grips Laurie's wrist.

Production

Development

On June 4, 2006, Dimension announced that Rob Zombie, director of House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects, would be creating the next installment in the Halloween franchise. The plan was for Zombie to hold many positions in the production; he would write, direct, produce, and serve as music supervisor. Bob Weinstein approached him about making the film, and Zombie, who was a fan of the original Halloween, and friend of John Carpenter, jumped at the chance to make a Halloween film for Dimension Studios. Before Dimension went public with the news, Zombie felt obligated to inform John Carpenter, out of respect, of the plans to remake his film. Carpenter's request was for Zombie to "make it his own". During a June 16, 2006 interview, Zombie announced that his film would combine the elements of prequel and remake with the original concept. He insisted that there would be considerable original content in the new film, as opposed to mere rehashed material. The BBC reported that the new film would disregard the numerous sequels that followed Halloween.

His intention is to reinvent Michael Myers, because, in his opinion, the character, along with Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, and Pinhead, has become more familiar to audiences, and as a result, less scary. The idea behind the new film was to delve deeper into Michael Myers' back story. A deeper back story would add "new life" to the character, as Zombie put it. Michael's mask will be given its own story, to provide an explanation as to why he wears it, instead of having the character simply steal a random mask from a hardware store, as in the original film. Zombie explained that he wanted Michael to be truer to what a psychopath really is, and wanted the mask to be a way for Michael to hide. He wants the young Michael to have charisma, which would be projected onto the adult Michael. Zombie has decided that Michael's motives for returning to Haddonfield should be more ambiguous. As Zombie explains, "was he trying to kill Laurie, or just find her because he loves her?"

Moreover, Michael would not be able to drive in the new film, unlike his 1978 counterpart who stole Loomis' car so that he could drive back to Haddonfield. Zombie also wants the Dr. Loomis character to be more intertwined with that of Michael Myers; Zombie said that the character's role in the original was "showing up merely to say something dramatic". Although Zombie has added more history to the Michael Myers character, hence creating more original content for the film, he chose to keep the character's trademark mask and Carpenter's theme song intact for his version (despite an apparent misinterpretation in an interview suggesting the theme would be ditched). Production officially began on January 29 2007. Shortly before production began, Zombie reported that he had seen the first production of Michael's signature mask. Zombie commented, "It looks perfect, exactly like the original. Not since 1978 has The Shape looked so good". Filming occurred in the same neighborhood that Carpenter used for the original Halloween.

Casting

On December 19, 2006, Zombie mailed Bloody-Disgusting in which he announced that Deag Faerch would play the part of ten year old Michael Myers. On December 22, 2006, Malcolm McDowell was officially announced to be playing Dr. Loomis. McDowell stated that he wanted a tremendous ego in Loomis, who is out to get a new book from the ordeal. On December 24, 2006, Zombie announced that Tyler Mane, who had previously worked with Zombie on The Devils Rejects, would portray the adult Michael Myers. Mane stated that it was very diffucult to act only with his eyes. Scout Taylor-Compton was one of the final people to be cast for a lead role after Faerch, Mane, McDowell, Forsythe and Harris. A contest was held for a walk on role in the next Halloween film, at the time called Halloween 9; it was won by Heather Bowen.

Release

Approximately four days before the theatrical release of the film, a workprint version of the film appeared online and was circulated around various BitTorrent sites. Upon hearing of the leaked copy, Zombie stated that whatever version had been leaked was an older version of the film, unlike what was about to be released in theaters. The leak of Zombie's workprint led to speculation that the film's box office success could be damaged the same way director Eli Roth attributed the financial failure of his film, Hostel: Part II, to the leaking of a workprint version of that film. Dark Horizons webmaster, Garth Franklin, notes that watching the workprint allows a viewer to see what things were changed after the test screenings in June 2007. One particular scene, the rape of one of the Smith's Grove female inmates, Franklin was glad to see replaced in the final version of the film.

Box office

Halloween was released on August 31, 2007, taking in $10,896,610 in 3,472 theaters. The film broke box-office records for the Labor Day weekend by pulling in USD$30.59 million dollars over the four-day holiday weekend, surpassing the record set in 2005 by Transporter 2 of $20.1 million dollars. It still currently resides as the top Labor Day weekend grosser. Despite the film's opening weekend success, Bob Weinstein told Reuters that he doubts there would be another Halloween film. Halloween dropped 64 percent in its second weekend, bringing its ten day total to $43.7 million in the United States. The film opened with Michael Clayton and Mr. Woodcock in foreign markets on the weekend of September 29. Halloween led the trio with a total of $1.3 million in 372 theaters – Michael Clayton and Mr. Woodcock took in $1.2 million from 295 screens and $1 million from 238 screens, respectively. By November 1, 2007, Halloween had taken in an additional $7 million in foreign markets.

By the end of the film's box office run, it grossed $58,272,029 in the United States; an additional $20,033,660 was taken in by overseas markets, with a worldwide total of $78,305,689. Halloween was the eighth highest grossing R-rated film of 2007. Comparing this film to the rest of the films in the Halloween film series, Zombie's remake is the highest grossing film in unadjusted US dollars, beating out Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later and John Carpenter's original at $55,041,738 and $47,000,000, respectively. When adjusting for the 2008 inflation, Zombie's Halloween—which adjusts to $59.9 million domestically—is fourth, behind Carpenter's Halloween at $160.8 million, Halloween H20 at $71.1 million, and Halloween II at $64.2 million. Among other horror remakes, the film places ninth overall in box office gross in the United States.

Reception

Based on 96 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, Halloween received an average 26% overall approval rating; the film had a lower approval rating with the 18 critics in Rotten Tomatoes' "Cream of the Crop", which consists of popular and notable critics from the top newspapers, websites, television and radio programs, receiving a 17% approval rating. By comparison, Metacritic calculated an average score of 47 out of 100 from the 18 reviews it collected.

Various critics thought that Malcolm McDowell was perfectly cast as Loomis.

Peter Hartlaub, of the San Francisco Chronicle, felt Zombie was successful in both "[putting] his own spin on Halloween, while at the same time paying tribute to Carpenter's film"; he thought Zombie managed to make Michael Myers almost "sympathetic" as a child, but that the last third of the film felt more like a montage of scenes with Halloween slipping into "slasher-film logic". Nathan Lee of The Village Voice disagreed in part with Harlaub, feeling that Halloween may have placed too much emphasis on providing sympathy for Michael Myers, but that it did succeeded in "[deeping] Carpenter's vision without rooting out its fear". The ViewLondon’s Matthew Turner believed the first half of the film, which featured the prequel elements of Michael as a child, were better played than the remake elements of the second half. In short, Turner stated that performances from the cast were "superb", with Malcolm McDowell being perfectly cast as Dr. Loomis, but that the film lacked to scare value of Carpenter’s original. Jamie Russell from the BBC agreed that the first half of the film worked better than the last half; she stated that Zombie’s expanded backstory on Michael was "surprisingly effective"—also agreeing that McDowell was perfectly cast as Loomis—but that Zombie failed to deliver the "supernatural dread" that Carpenter created for Michael in his 1978 original.

New York Daily News critic Jack Matthews believed the film lacked tension, and went more for cheap shocks—focusing more on enhancing the "imagery of violence"—than real attempts to scare the audience; he gave the film one and a half stars out of five. Dennis Harvey, from Variety magazine, echoed Matthew's opinion that the film failed to deliver on the suspense; he also felt that you could not tell one teenage character from the next, whereas in Carpenter's original each teenager had real personalities. In contrast, Rossiter Drake of The Examiner applauded Michael's backstory, feeling that it was a "compelling take on the mythology" that managed to be "unique" and "shocking" at the same time. In agreement with other critics, Empire magazine's Kim Newman felt that, because Zombie seemed less focused on the teenagers being stalked and killed by Michael, the film "[fell] flat" when it came to delivering suspense or anything "remotely scary"; Newman did praise McDowell for his portrayal of the "dogged pschiatrist". Ben Walter, of Time Out London, felt Zombie added "surprising realism" to the development of Michael Myers’ psychopathic actions, but agreed with Newman that the director replaced the original film’s "suspense and playfulness" with a convincing display of "black-blooded brutality".

Frank Scheck, of the Hollywood Reporter, believed that even though Zombie's remake of Carpenter's Halloween was better than getting another sequel in the long running franchise it still was not comparable to the 1978 original. For Scheck, Zombie replaced Carpenter's building suspense, which made it so "brilliant", with graphic violence and extended scenes of nudity; he also criticized McDowell for lacking the intensity that Donald Pleasence brought to the Loomis character. BeepCentral's Jeff Schwister concurs that Zombie spent more time trying to use graphic violence to disgust the audience than truly scare them, and criticized Zombie's choice in dialogue exchange and drawn out finale; for Schwister, the best part of the film was the use of John Carpenter's original score. By contrast, TV Guide's Ken Fox felt that Zombie did deliver a "scary horror movie", not by copying Carpenter, but by making the film his own. Fox noted that Zombie seemed to follow more in the footsteps of Wes Craven and Tobe Hooper's "savage, greasy-haired '70s" films, which allowed him to bring Michael back to his roots and successfully terrify an audience has grown accustomed to the recent "torture porn" horror films. Bill Gibron, of PopMatters, believes that audiences and critics cannot compare Carpenter's film to Zombie's remake; where Carpenter focused more on the citizens of Haddonfield—with Michael acting as a true "boogeyman"—Zombie focuses more on Michael himself, successfully forcing the audience to experience all of the elements that Michael went through that would result in his "desire for death".

Halloween won the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award for Best Film of 2007, drawing in 550 votes, the most ever in the history of the award. Dan Mathews, vice president of PETA, sent Rob Zombie a thank-you letter for what he perceived as Zombie sending a message to audiences when he depicted the young Michael Myers torturing animals, something he felt demonstrated that people who commit acts of cruelty to animals are likely to move on to humans. Mathews went on to say, "Hopefully, with the attention focused by your movie on the link between cruelty to animals and human violence, more people will recognize the warning signs among people they know and deal with them more forcefully. We wish you continued success!"

Despite the film's commercial success, producer Bob Weinstein doubts there will be a follow-up film, saying to Reuters news agency, "I never say never never... but it would have to be something very, very different."

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was released on August 21, 2007; it includes 24 tracks, consisting of 12 dialogue tracks and 12 instrumentals. The album contained both new tracks, as well as ones recycled from the original Halloween and its sequel. Tyler Bates' interpretation of John Carpenter's original Halloween theme is the first musical track, with "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" and "Mr. Sandman", which appeared in Halloween II and Halloween H20 respectively, performed by Nan Vernon. Writing about its selection from the 1981 film, one reviewer for the BBC commented that it worked well to "mimic Laurie’s situation (sleeping a lot)", making "the once innocent sounding lyrics seem threatening in a horror film". The album also includes Kiss's "God of Thunder" and Rush's "Tom Sawyer".

Home video

The film was released on DVD on December 18, 2007 in the United States. Both the theatrical and an unrated director's cut were released as two-disc special editions containing identical bonus features. The film was released on DVD in the UK on April 28, 2008 known as the "Uncut" edition. In June 2008, it was announced that Dimension Extreme will release a Collector's Edition of Halloween on a Three-Disc DVD set and a Two-Disc Blu-ray set. The set will include the same bonus features as the previous unrated edition, but it will also include Rob Zombie's 4-and-a-half hour "making-of" documentary similar to the "30 Days in Hell" making-of Zombie's The Devil's Rejects. The 3-disc set was released on October 7, 2008, and the 2-Disc Blu-ray will be released on October 21, 2008.

External links

• Halloween at IMDb
• Halloween at AllMovie
• Halloween at Rotten Tomatoes
• Halloween at Box Office Mojo
• Halloween at Metacritic
• Official Halloween Movies MySpace
• Rob Zombie's Official Halloween MySpace
• Official site