Rob Zombie's Halloween :: DVD Review

House of 1,000 Corpses & Devil’s Rejects were decent. Reminded me of the first time I saw Texas Chainsaw Massacre as a kid, disgust is an emotion you know, however I never liked torture horror. The Saw films, Captivity, Hostel, nothing there for me, I need a story not just gore.

However Rob’s films were different, they had an appeal. They were torture horror but had the ability to keep me on the edge of my seat. Most horror films follow the victims as the killers chase them. Rob flipped this and followed the killers examining their world and was original and an exciting watch. But once was enough, never seen either of his films more than that.

Until I watched his re-imagining of John Carpenter’s classic 1978 film Halloween. Let me say John Carpenter’s original Halloween is one of the greatest horror movies of all time. I wasn’t expecting much of Zombie’s film here. However, what I got was an intense ride that kicked me in the face every few minutes or so! It intensely compliments the original instead of detracting from it. It dives deep into the story of the notorious Myers very rarely coming up for a breath.

In the original Halloween Loomis (Donald Pleasance) touches on a lot of back story of what and who Myers is and why he’s in town trying to kill Jamie Lee Curtis. Rob takes that little bit of back story and creates one of the coolest re-tellings of modern horror history. Young Myers played disturbingly wonderful by Daeg Faerch is a troubled young boy. He has a deep mental illness (putting it lightly) that shows itself already at age 10. He proceeds to slaughter his whole family when he can’t take it anymore. The fallout is a rollercoaster ride with his left behind mother (played by Sherrie Moon Zombie, Rob’s wife) dealing with tragedy and truths she never wanted to acknowledge. Very emotional and surprisingly moving, it added a human element to the characters almost all horror films lack.

We watch Myers stay over the next twenty or so years at the mental institution he has been committed. This is where we meet Loomis (Malcolm McDowell) and watch them interact in a very personal doctor/patient relationship. Loomis truly cares for the boy as we watch him get darker and take an unhealthy obsession of hiding himself behind a series of homemade masks.

This is where we pick up the original film, Myers escapes and returns to find his baby sister. At first almost for a loss of companion, he is searching for something, love that he never had from the last family member left in the world. However when he is rejected by her his killing rampage takes on massive proportions for the small unknowing town. Loomis arrives to warn of the carnage that is coming. The audience is left with sympathy for Myers but not so much so that we can’t wait to see his demise.

See this movie, the 2 Disc dvd is a great edition to any collection, for I can say for the first time, I will watch Rob Zombie’s Halloween over an over again. It seems as if Rob has been preparing for this movie his whole life, and pulled it off with brilliance. Excellent film with lots of the extras on the discs!!!

http://www.halloween-themovie.com/

Zodiac Director's Cut :: DVD Review

I have seen David Fincher's Zodiac 3 times already. That's close to a 9 hour investment since the film has a run time of 2 hours and 45 minutes. As you can tell by the previous statement, I am a huge fan of this movie. Tuesday the Director's Cut 2 Disc DVD came out. Why the studios wait 6 months to give us the extras the first release did not have is beyond me. Well, that's not true, I do know why. They want you to buy the damn thing twice, but that's for another post.

After I sold my single disc copy of Zodiac on ebay... thank you ebay, I went out and purchased the 2 disc. It carries in it, the film with 5 more minutes, a behind the scenes documentary, commentary with Fincher, and 3 different specials with true zodiac victims and the police officers who were there and lived it. Those are are great features to compliment a really amazing film. The packaging on the discs could have been better, we waited 6 months. Some studios will give you something really creative that you can tell a design department had alot of fun creating. But this is a standard 2 disc plastic case with the traditional artwork wrap on the outside. The artwork is pretty cool, set up to look like one of the letters the zodiac mailed to the Chronicle. How cool would it have been if made from cardboard with some inserts and inside art, the potential was there, but I think the studio got cheap and just wanted to put the thing out on shelves. Sorry design department, good effort though.

The added 5 minutes were put back in very well. They did not need to be in the theatrical release, it stalls out the middle a bit, bringing the total time for the move to 2 hours and 50 minutes, (or right around). But for a huge fan of the first cut, the Director's cut was a great bonus. The scene most notably added was the one were Paul Avery goes to visit an informant about the killing of the girl back before the first reported zodiac killing and finds the writing on the desk. This leads authorities closer to Leigh Allen as suspect number 1. Was a very cool scene that they only lead into on the theatrical. It shows the visit and there is an intense interaction between Avery and Toschi.

This film is one of the best performed and directed of modern times. So much thought went to not only the characters and how they interact, the script, sets (they recreate 1970s San Fransisco with precise detail), direction, wardrobe that all Hollywoood movies can take note of this. They never did catch zodiac, to this idea, no one has ever been arrested. You'd think you might be bored already knowing the ending. This film defies that and does it with beautiful style. Not a typical look into the zodiac from the killer's eyes as so many really bad straight to dvd films have done. It is an intense look into how obsession consumed the minds of a few close to trying a catch the zodiac, fear of a city under siege never knowing what to expect, and how you may spend a lifetime looking for answers you may never get.

This is one of the ten best films I've ever seen and look forward to watching many more times. The film sends absolute chills down one's spine, which in my opinion is what he wanted. Getting attention for some of the crimes he committed, creating fear in our hearts, and capturing you in the obsession that keeps the zodiac alive almost 40 years later.

http://www.zodiacmovie.com/