Halloween II - Do You Care?

Rob Zombie’s, Halloween II comes out this Friday (August 28th), and your cousin Ryo wants to know if anyone is interested in this film. Does anyone care that this is coming to a theater near you?

As a fan of the horror genre, I grew up inhaling the Halloween movies in my teenage years (yes, I even enjoyed the later movies and thought that the dreaded Halloween III wasn’t that bad). So when I heard that Rob Zombie was doing a remake of the original Halloween a couple of years ago, I was against seeing it. I was appalled that someone would have the balls to even consider touching this brilliant horror classic and remaking it in their own image.

But then I watched House of 1000 Corpses (Zombie’s earlier horror classic) again, and I said to myself, “How bad could the remake be?” Finally, a year after it was released in theaters, I rented the film, sat down in my darkened basement, and watched. I was amazed at what a great job Zombie did. Delving into the childhood of Michael Myers and giving an inside look at what turned him into the deranged, lunatic killer that he became was an excellent treat.

Zombie, of course, put his own signature style on the remake of Halloween, complete with extra gore, disturbing scenes and images of human emotions, capturing the essence of the disgusting lengths that a deranged human mind can go to. The movie disturbed me (for quite a few days after I watched it) and it made me realize that Zombie really is a horror filmmaking genius.

The ending of Zombie’s first Halloween was so brilliant and so deeply moving that I believed him whole heartedly when he said that he would not be making a sequel. With the end of the first movie, it would be hard to make a sequel. Not impossible, mind you, but certainly difficult.

Well, Rob got suckered into doing the sequel, when he learned that the movie studio was moving forward with or without him. There was even a script written that the studio scrapped when Zombie came on board and delivered his own. Now, here we are, on the cusp of the release of Halloween II, and I’m left wondering, how will this sequel fair?

There are a lot of questions to address immediately. How is Michael Myers still alive? How is Dr. Loomis still alive? How is Sharon Moon Zombie in this film when her character died in the last one? I’m sure all of these questions will be addressed right away, and I admit that I am looking forward to this sequel. I will be there on opening weekend, taking it all in, and deciding for myself if it was worth the price of admission.

What about you? Are you looking forward to this movie? Do you even care that Rob Zombie makes some kick ass horror films, or do you think that he should just stick to making the music?

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Free Bird Will Never Be The Same

Have you ever seen the movie The Devil’s Rejects by Rob Zombie? It’s a fantastic trip of needless violence and gore with plenty of gratuitous mayhem. Zombie does a wonderful job of making the viewer hate the three protagonists (the anti-heroes if you will) so much that you want to see them tortured, maimed, and killed. It almost happens too, but these evil bastards just seem to find a way to keep on living.

At the end of the film, there is the big shootout scene, but done in a unique way with quite possibly the best use of a song in a major motion picture that I’ve ever witnessed. After being beaten bloody, having had nails driven through their hands, gasoline thrown on them, punched, kicked, battered, and then left for dead in a burning house, the three anti-heroes manage escape and are on their way out of town when they come face to face with the sheriff’s roadblock. Guns cocked and loaded, top down on the Cadillac convertible, tires squealing against pavement, wind whipping through their hair, summer sun high in the sky, these three know it’s the end, and they intend to go out in a blaze of glory.

Cue Free Bird and the requisite super slow motion reel. With Lynrd Skynrd’s humongous hit filling the airwaves, the shootout scene erupts in a mass explosion of violent chaos. The images are so encapsulating that they stay with you for a long time to come. Every time I hear Free Bird I can still see Sharon Moon Zombie standing up and screaming “Come on you bastards!” cocking the shotgun and shooting at the brick wall of law enforcement waiting to take her and the gang down.

At the risk of ruining the movie for anyone who hasn’t seen it, the movie ends with this major shootout full of bullets ripping through bodies. Although never confirmed, it’s assumed that the shootout ends in the death of these three.

Kudos to Rob Zombie for making such a fine flick. His other movies are quite delicious as well, and his remake of Halloween almost outdoes the original. It may sound like blasphemy, but Halloween has always been my all time favorite horror movie, so this is a true fan claiming that the remake was almost better. Once again, it’s Zombie’s use of powerful images that stay with the viewer for a long time to come. That’s what makes his films irresistible, and that’s why I’ll never be able to hear Free Bird without mentally conjuring up my own music video, courtesy of The Devil’s Rejects. If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it.

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