Gobear

Good call, and also don't share them outside of this group.

Vinz Clortho

I'm with you. Though I can understand why people wouldn't like those films, I surprised at how much hate those two (and Zombie's films in general) get overall.

I've yet to see Lords of Salem and 31 though... perhaps I'll catch up with those during this month.

pacaway

Glad to hear that. I liked the first one but have not gotten to the second one yet. I was going to try and watch it this month, so now for sure.

MysterioMan007

I also might give them another try. But, like Trevor, I'm not very hopeful. I like one of Zombie's other films (The Devil's Rejects), but Halloween (1978) is a special movie to me. Possibly my favorite all-time horror movie. I just feel like Rob Zombie didn't understand the concept and his vision of what the Halloween franchise is doesn't match my own.

For me, the original was great because Michael Myers was an "everykid" from a normal home who suddenly snapped for no rhyme or reason. He was scary because you didn't know what drove him. There was no reason. He just killed because, as Loomis said, he was pure evil. He was almost mythic in that sense.

Rob Zombie just gave him the typical serial killer white trash backstory about killing animals, a stripper mom, and an abusive stepdad, and tried to make a simple idea more complex than it needed to be. Plus, all his characters talk the same, do the same things, and are basically extensions of his own self. He has no idea how to create unique voices and traits which make characters distinguishable from one another.

This is not to say Zombie doesn't have talent. I think his visuals are superb, but as far as his writing, it's cringeworthy to listen to at times.

GoldenWheels

Well I don't want you to waste 2 hours on my account Trevor!

I just hear over and over how this movie is awful and it pees on the Halloween legacy. Yet all the changes made (adding more of an actual origin, showing Michael both as a child and in treatment, focusing on the mother obsession issue) totally work for me, and as far as I am concerned, the Halloween legacy is a joke past movie 3. People always seem to forget Busta Rhymes karate kicking people when they say this is the worst one.

The ferocious violence (love seeing him rip up the ceiling with the 2x4), the empty streets devoid of hope or help once the killing starts, Malcolm McDowell absolutely killing it as actual real character as Dr. Loomis (which only gets better in part 2!)...love it!

And just to throw this in...I hate House of a Thousand Corpses and I hate Devil's Rejects. So it's not like I am a Zombie fan!

WillieMLF

Gotta love Busta!

I just felt it wasn't really necessary to spill on the beans on Michael to try and 'explain'. Sometimes less is more, and with the 'new' Zombification, it just didn't work for me. I can be a bit squeamish, and I felt Zombie was just trying to gin up the brutality.

GoldenWheels

See, I get that, that the randomness of his violence and motive and lack of a back story DO make him mythic. And I do think that is important to Halloween 1. However Hill and Carpenter themselves kind of screwed the pooch on that one as they are the ones who magically made him the brother in part 2. Suddenly, poof, he's not so mystic any more. After that in the series, his origin is just a disaster, handled progressively worse and worse.

I think the typical white trash serial cutter origin works very well, because it makes sense, which is why it's rightly considered typical. Messed up upbringings of verbal and physical abuse, in households with murky-at-best morals, can mess up kids. And I've read serial killers do often start on animals. I think they live in a mid west white trash world, which is a lot of why everyone may seem somewhat similar. To me these criticisms simply make perfect sense as backstory, albeit perhaps a typical one.

I really kept honing in on Michael being betrayed by everyone he cared about...his step dads an ass, his principal treats him as an aggressor rather than a victim, his sister won't take him trick or treating as planned, he's bullied by classmates. People who could be his support or lifelines are the exact opposite. Even Danny Trejo betrays him when he won't explain to his co-worker why he sticks up for him without becoming embarrassed. Eventually Loomis, his last lifeline to normalcy, betrays him too, by stopping treatment. Then Michael goes kaboom. I feel like I know why this crazy bastard hates the world so much, and I think it informs why he wants to communicate with Laurie at first. He did for her what no one else would do for him...he protected her from that shit white trash life. To me, this all works!

(And part 2, when they go back to Haddonfield and Loomis has become a megalomaniac and the town actually reacts to him as the jackal he is, and Laurie is MESSED up and taking all sorts of meds and is in therapy..I think this aftermath is also maybe typical story, but one that is rarely told in a slasher type movie. How MESSED up these people have become due to this crazy trauma.)

Cardsfan111

I've enjoyed Zombie's first Halloween film. In addition, there is a ton of supplemental material that was interesting (a 3 to 4 hour making-of feature, if I recall). But I've watched the 2nd one twice and have promised myself to never again subject myself to it.

GoldenWheels

I get that the random nature adds so much tension, but I also don't care for a remake that just doesn't add anything new. Those seem totally pointless to me (cough, Psycho, cough). To me, the obvious, if somewhat blasphemous, angle to do is, flesh out the origin. I'm far more interested in the story of the killer than the story of the victims.

Violence wise, it is unflinching for sure...I actually have more of an issue with #2 in this regard than #1. One of the hospital murders is pretty rough.

GoldenWheels

I know when I am nuts, and I yeah may be nuts here. But I like 2 just as much. Showing how messed up the town and his victims are, Loomis is just out of control with his ego, even the kinda-stupid mommy visions...I love it as a follow up. I kind of watch them as one movie I guess.

alyxstarr

Thanks for getting all the links up, Chad! I appreciate it.

My thought with the extras is that if someone was going to pass up on watching a subset pick because they've seen the movie too many times/too recently, or just don't think they could get through a no-thrills viewing of a particular title, this way they might have an extra viewing option to make it more palatable. (Besides the fact that some of the extras are just plain fun/interesting.) To that end, I think this one-time mention in the main thread is nice for anyone who might not have thought to check the individual threads for other options.

I appreciate the concern for keeping me out of trouble, and I do certainly prefer that people don't go posting the links or explicit references to them all over the place, or passing them on to other people willy-nilly, but I think Chad's spoilered list above should be fine -- it would take some pretty targeted googling for the wrong people to find them that way, I think. (Though it probably doesn't help that you call them illegal links just a couple posts later, Trevor. )

WillieMLF

I was under the impression that to access some of the 'deeper' stuff in the forum you definitely need to be logged in. I tried to access via tablet without my ID, and I wasn't able to get there as I was prompted for DVDTALK username/password

DaveyJoe

I try to be a positive-minded person. I always look for things to embrace in film, instead of focusing on the negative. I think this helps encourage a happy, and healthy lifestyle, and spread warmness to the hearts of those we interact with. But I hate Rob Zombie movies with the passion of a thousand suns. Every film he makes degrades film as an art form, and drags us all down closer to the black abyss of white trash purgatory.

Trevor

Haven't looked to see if they have any decent horror deals going on today, but this might come in handy if so.

numbercrunch

My reason for not liking it is same reason i didnt like the new leatherface movie, which i find very similar. The issue for me is the backstory. I think when an iconic, mysterious figure like Michael Myers is explained in detail via a backstory it kills the mystery. It makes the figure more human, therefore less frightening. At least thats my opinion.

GoldenWheels

You're not wrong at all. For me though, I think the new movie's weakness here is also a strength. I would have no interest in a direct/straight remake of the original movie. For a remake, I want a major change or I don't see the point.

I haven't seen Leatherface...maybe I'll check that out (if I can find it) after Halloween 2.

WillieMLF

A question aand an observation. I was watching 10 Cloverfield Lane last night as a first time view. I've been holding out on watching this one, and I thought it was pretty fantastic. I've got my checklist planned out pretty well, and I noticed that John Goodman's character was watching Pretty in Pink, and the scene he was watching had Harry Dean Stanton in it. Stanton isn't acting in Cloverfield, and he isn't credited in IMDB for it either. I'm not planning on it, but could one check him off based on this? This is pretty funny, as I had to pause the movie and see if my Stanton movie was Cloverfield. It's wasn't.

I remember from years back someone mentioning seeing multiple movies where NOLD is playing on the television (or was it Carnival of Souls?). We should have this as a checklist item next year, as I've already seen 2 this month that would qualify.

I've also seen my share of Old World Burgomasters, but I'm also watching most of the Universal Monsters set.

MysterioMan007

And that's another part of the problem. Halloween didn't need to be remade in the first place. A straight-up sequel would have worked if they would have just went back to the basics. Resurrection was pretty bad, but it was done. The best thing at that point to do would have been to just make the next one better. Halloween is a pretty simple concept. Ditch the family stuff and just have Michael Myers walking around Haddonfield killing kids, not stuck inside his claustrophobic run-down home. But to ignore the hard work of the people involved over the years and just act like none of it happened...it just doesn't sit right with a long-time fan.

I don't hold high hopes for Danny McBride's version, either. It sounds like they're ignoring everything but the first movie again. I think it'll be a better movie than either of Rob Zombie's, but I hate all the rewriting of history and they're alienating their own fan base and confusing the casual fan.

BobO'Link

You need to get with lrend. She loves them and doesn't understand why I'd rather watch paint dry than watch those, or any other Rob Zombie, movie ever again...

Just don't... I didn't find enough to like the first time through to bother with a second. I disliked the first so much that I completely passed on the second film in the series. Did I say already that I've never seen a Rob Zombie movie I like? I'm at the point that if I see his name in the credits I just say "no thank you" and go on my way.

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

I prefer the TV version of the original Halloween, think the second is ok, and like the 3rd. Then it's all downhill.

I don't remember the first Zombie Halloween but I do remember being confused at the start of the second, and then there was some art stuff towards the end that I didn't care for. Other than the art stuff, I liked it once I got into the pace of it.

Didn't care for House of 1,000 Corpses but liked Devil's Rejects.

Last night I watched The Forest. That was one of those so bad it's good movies for me that I'll end up keeping and rewatching from time to time, like Manos.

For tonight's theme I'm watching The Gruesome Twosome. It's about a wig maker.

mrcellophane

That would be a fun checklist item! Characters in The Eyes of My Mother watch House on Haunted Hill. That was a trippy movie that I really enjoyed. Between it and Texas Chain Saw Massacre, I'm even more convinced that I made the right choice by going vegetarian!

Undeadcow

Wow. Evolution (2015) is 'the movie' for me this challenge, it hit all the right notes with a eerie fantastic story told in beautiful underwater/coastal cinematography that oozes atmosphere (maybe I'm just a sucker for aquatic movies) and has a premise that seems so original there's no telling where it'll go. The plot is just cryptic enough.

I think it would be interesting if Rob Zombie made more movies; he tends to be too 'one note' with his characterization but Lords of Salem showed some promise. I think there's a 'white trash' profane oddity masterpiece in him somewhere if he would just stop with homages / ripping off / remaking other movies and start really being creative. Probably the biggest problem with his Halloween remake is that he tried to remake Halloween.

WillieMLF

I saw The Eyes of My Mother a few months back and found it to be really effective. Slow burn with fantastic B&W.

shadokitty

With the talk about Rob Zombie's Halloween, I'm tempted to check it out, as it's on Showtime Anytime, I think. I've never seen it, because I always stayed away since I enjoy the original series.

numbercrunch

I don't hate the Rob Zombie films, in fact I like Lords of Salem alot. I just don't want my iconic horror villians "unpacked"(my lawyer likes to use this term) to the point where the mystery is gone. if you could remove the first 30 minutes of Halloween 1 it would be great. i like Halloween 2 better. its brutal and mean spirited.