The Fantasy Review‘s Spoiler-Free Review of Halloween (2007).
Rating: 3.5/5
Halloween (2007) is the first of Rob Zombie’s remake duology and it is a pretty good Halloween movie. It is a good laugh, gory, and has an interesting take on the original.
Positives
There is some interesting story in the first third of the movie with a young Michael Myers which I liked. We are introduced to Zombie’s blunt word choices right off the bat in the first scene, setting us up for the rest of the movie. It does a good job of setting the tone.
The young Michael Myers was the only part of Halloween (2007) that I loved. It was engaging, intriguing, and tragic. This is Zombie’s best, and only good, bit of storytelling in this movie.
Also, the kills are pretty brutal and well done on the whole. It was good to see a wide range of kills, rather than just endless stabs with the signature knife. That made it more entertaining to watch in the latter parts, when the main story just kind of died.
Finally, the mask might be one of the best masks in the entire franchise. It’s beaten and worn, even a little sloppy and haphazard, and all this combines to make a creepy looking mask!
Negatives
This probably isn’t worth watching more than once. Sure, you can put this on as a mindless slasher movie, in the background while you scroll through Instagram on your phone, but that’s pretty much it.
After the first third of the movie with the young Michael Myers, there is little to no story, and no character work done at all. Additionally, this version of Laurie isn’t easy to connect with, so I wasn’t invested in her survival, which is pretty essential for her character.
