Halloween
By Kevin Baker, Blockbuster.co.uk

Writer slash Director Rob Zombie takes one of the riskiest steps a film-maker can take in the 2008 version of Halloween. With the gaul to take us back to what some call the birth of the original horror movie and serve us up a whole new slice, we already know it better be a slice worth biting into.

Most of us already know the story, the film opens in Haddonfield, Illinois, introducing us to the Myers family. Deborah Myers (Sheri Moon Zombie) is an exotic dancer, her boyfriend Ronnie White (William Forsythe) a verbally abusive good for nothing, her daughter Judith (Hanna Hall), resembling the town prostitute, and her 10-year old son Michael (Daeg Faerch), a quiet, nearly mute child…later learned to be a very deranged young mind.

When his school learns young Michael has tortured animals they initiate a meeting with Dr. Samuel Loomis (Malcolm McDowell), a child psychologist. Loomis informs Deborah her son is showing early warning signs for much deeper and bigger problems.

It all begins on October 31…Halloween. By the end of the night 10-year old Michael Myers slaughters his sister Judith, her boyfriend, and Ronnie White he spares his mother and baby sister Laurie. The next decade Michael will be under the supervision of Dr. Loomis… until his escape.

Now I’ve never been one to stare down my nose at a film just because it’s a remake. I mean how many times have the Shakespeare stories been told and retold and in how many different ways? If it works, it works, doesn’t matter where its come from and this film manages to give us new scares, new thrills and a whole new experience to enjoy.

Also this isn’t so much a remake as a re-envisioning of a brilliant idea. The true elements that scare us so much like the iconic mask and those dead eyes are still there, were just being given the chance to see it from a slightly different angle and also some things in Michael Myers life are covered in this film that perhaps were not done in the first.

In my opinion you’d be silly to shy away from this one just because you loved the first adaptation. If you know it’s a great premise then surely you should only be more keen. Well worth a watch!