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The Biggest Reason Rob Zombie's Halloween Movies Didn't Work


https://screenrant.com/rob-zombie-halloween-movies-biggest-problem-explained/

John Carpenter's Halloween, while not exactly high-brow in subject matter, is probably the classiest slasher film ever made. Carpenter shows lots of restraint, leaving most of the violence up to the imagination. So much of what Michael Myers does is also designed to creep out and psychologically unsettle Laurie Strode, and by extension the audience. Halloween is positively Hitchcockian at times in how it plays with suspense. While some of Halloween's sequels would later indulge in explicit gore, they still at least usually tried to strike a tone somewhere near Carpenter's, because it's what fans came to expect.

On the other hand, Rob Zombie - with the notable exception of Lords of Salem - seems to have one mode as a writer and director, and that mode is unrelenting, unapologetic carnage. He also tends to make most of his characters rednecks and/or white trash with foul mouths. There's nothing wrong with that in principle, and Zombie's fans sure love it. But Halloween is a low-key, suspenseful, suburban horror tale with little gore. Rob Zombie's Halloween is basically Halloween without the subtlety and restraint. The film is packed with blood and guts, rampant cursing, characters of little redeeming moral value, and an unrestrained sensibility. So in essence, it's a Rob Zombie movie.

When fans sit down to watch a Halloween movie, most don't want The Devil's Rejects, they want Halloween. Zombie's sequel, Halloween 2, didn't do anything to help matters in that regard, going a weird surreal route and making the characters even less likable. That's not to say that Zombie's Halloween films are dreadful, or have no merit. The first Halloween, especially, can be quite good when not trying to copy Carpenter. The problem is, they don't at all feel like Halloween movies, and stick out in the franchise like a sore thumb.

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I ENJOY THEM...THEY WORK FOR ME.

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Me too, although I didn't care for his sequel as much as the first :)

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It works great for me

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One of the main reasons the Rob Zombie versions don't work for me is...they took Michael Meyers out from behind the shadows and gave him more of a backstory....a troubled childhood. They humanized him. The mythos of Michael Meyers always worked best when we didn't know much at all about him. It was that mystique and mystery that helped us believe there was just no explaining him or humanizing him at all. He was simply...The Boogeyman.

And the more sequels that came, the more over-exposed he became--wearing that same mask and those same coveralls like a uniform. Just like with the Jaws movies. Once Michael Meyers started appearing on lunch boxes, and we could buy his mask at a novelty store...once he becamse an action figure....he lost that scary mojo that made the original such a masterpiece.

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AGREE 100% about "humanizing" Michael ...that's what sunk it for me as well.

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The RZ Halloween movies are scarier because there is more screaming and blood. Also Michael is a beast in these films compared to the original, just towering over everyone. And the back story was a nice touch to understand why he is so crazy. I don't think your comments make much sense to be honest. Also, what is a lunch box? And please don't tell me its a box you put lunch in. I know plenty of people who bring their lunch to work and no one ever called it a lunch box

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False premise. They work just fine. The first one, at least.

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"False premise" doesn't apply here at all. This is all based on opinion.

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