Hey guys, MM again. I don't want to dwell on this movie for too long but I made a promise to myself that I would review the features package on the DVD (picked up at a local supermarket for £5 by the way) and in the process of watching this a few more interesting points presented themself, whilst other things were clarified about the movie so I felt I would put down these thoughts along with some which were presented between myself and Mr B in text conversations about it last night.
The package available is mainly talking heads discussing this movie, and is actually pretty comprehensive, detailing quite well Rob Zombie's motivations to make it in the first place and what he was aiming for with the piece as a whole and in smaller moments, sometimes in places that weren't clear by watching the movie itself unfortunately. There is, for example a really cool and intriguing featurette discussing his use of changing camera styles in each act and why (handheld for childhood, locked, cold, and huge for the sanitarium, smooth with handheld intruding for the final act). The overall impression gained here though is of a conflicted, schizophrenic piece. Much is said about the desire to humanize the main villain, Zombie himself states that he thought it would be scarier to see a bit more of what was going on behind the mask (I disagree incidentally and don't think this is presented in the film, we merely get to see whats behind the boy before the mask, and even then not in any explanatory way, actions aren't explained, simply an attempt is made to justify horrors by outside influences then the psycho is merely an almost possessing evil alter ego not influenced by anything and with no motivations). Let me justify that last statement a bit. In the later acts the movie confusingly seems to be saying that any hint of the little boy we came to know is lost, consumed by blackness, evil, a monster etc (to bring things closer in line with the original movie perhaps as I believe this was inevitable, my opinion of course). The alternate ending confuses this matter further by seemingly massively inviting us to sympathise with Michael, who remembers cradling and protecting young Laurie, backs off and is gunned down, with extreme force, by the law (Night of the Living Dead style). The screen then shows the masked psychopath next to Dr Loomis but with an audio clip playing of the two talking when Myers was clearly a young boy with a personality outside evil blackness. I mention it because while I agree with the director that latter movies in this franchise utilised the iconography of Myers and all but ignored the character I can't help but feel that choosing an approach more succinctly (nature or nurture as another deleted scene hints, or being consumed by an evil abyss or driven to evil acts by society) would have made a better movie. That said I do still enjoy the bits and pieces of good we get as I've said, the movie actually grew on my quite a lot after digesting, I do wish to rewatch and hear the commentary in the future if time and my OCD will allow. I do feel a lot more respectful of Zombie as an auteur though after watching the man at work and do recognise his talent a fair bit (though I'm not rating him as legend or even one of my faves but the man clearly has a distinctive, and oddly enjoyable, surprisingly intelligent and classy, style)...
Let me digress a final time and add the culmination of an amusing text conversation here which I saved between Mr B and myself last night (reproduced here with kind permission), it went as follows:
MM: "OK. Cool. Sorry to piss u off, was not the intention. I could write more about this movie, kinda wanna rewatch. Definitely gonna watch the features, incl an alternate ending apparently, and sequel interests me now, love the kabuki mom visions :-)"
Mr B: "I am not pissed off lol. U gotta tell me what happens in that alternate end. Still find a sequel silly. He was shot in't the heed!"
MM: "I love how you care so much lol"
Mr B: "I know. Still baffled why I care. Perhaps I just think if they're going to remake a classic they coulda got an auteur rather than a nutteur. Still, again with the caring..."
That, folks, is why this site exists, in a nutshell, and why I absolutely love it!...
DVD: *** 3/5 (just like the featured film itself)
Questions? Comments? Bring 'em on.
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