{"id":512,"date":"2022-07-15T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-15T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/?p=512"},"modified":"2025-04-24T21:08:43","modified_gmt":"2025-04-24T21:08:43","slug":"the-tale-of-michael-myers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/index.php\/2022\/07\/15\/the-tale-of-michael-myers\/","title":{"rendered":"The Tale of Michael Myers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WARNING:<\/mark> <\/strong>This Review May Contain Spoilers<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I told you before that the name John Carpenter was going to come back and \u2018haunt\u2019 you in another article. Well, here he is \u2013 the director of Halloween. <\/em>I\u2019ll be honest, I actually ended up watching the Rob Zombie remake by accident when I wanted to watch the original (not the only film I\u2019ve made the mistake with, but one I didn\u2019t regret). So, as we always do with these articles let\u2019s take a look at which is better\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Extended Backstory<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                For those who have seen the original Halloween, <\/em>you will know that it opens with the murder of Michael Myers\u2019 sister \u2013 the bad babysitter \u2013 before flashing forward 15 years. Now, Rob Zombie could have kept it just as simple and done the same thing but I get the feeling \u2018simple\u2019 isn\u2019t his style. Instead he, in the Halloween<\/em> remake,<\/em> decided to extend Michael\u2019s backstory as we watch him grow from a child to an adult. <\/em>For me, I feel like Zombie was trying to create sympathy for Michael\u2019s character and not only this, but we get to know the character of Dr Loomis more than we do in the original \u2013 as we watch him working with Michael through the years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                         Zombie also sets up Michael\u2019s character in the form of a serial killer, almost as if to say, that him killing his sister, and many others, were a long time coming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Loomis and Myers<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                As I mentioned, Zombie shines more light on the relationship between Myers and Loomis. You get the distinct impression in the original film that Loomis has less empathy for Myers, as he says he never wants to see him freed. However, in the remake Loomis has known Michael since he was a boy \u2013 before he killed his sister. He comes in as a child psychologist before Michael even ends up in the hospital and as I mentioned before about the viewer\u2019s sympathy for Michael, I think part of this is developed through the character of Samuel Loomis as he shows sympathy and compassion rather than hate towards Michael.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Laurie and the Friendship Dynamic<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                Firstly, the difference between the original Laurie, played by scream queen Jamie Leigh Curtis, and the 2007 Laurie, played by Scout Taylor-Crompton, is massive! Curtis plays the typical 80s final girl; kind, friendly and most importantly virgin; whereas Taylor-Crompton\u2019s Laurie comes across a lot more like Annie and Lynda are played in the original film. The friends are also kinder to each other in the remake instead of the mocking behaviour that Laurie receives in the original film \u2013 for example when they are talking about the dance Annie says to Laurie \u201cI didn\u2019t know you thought about such things\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some Things Don\u2019t Change<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                I did wonder when re-watching the remake if in some way Zombie had got Carpenter involved in this version or at least consulted him on a few things as there are parts that has kept true to the original \u2013 in a positive way I mean. For example, the original piece of music is still used and Zombie kept to the fact that Myers\u2019 wears the rubber William Shatner mask. Yes, he has taken the story in his own direction but keeping these things the same pays tribute to the original in very good and subtle way. Even more interestingly, they are watching the same film on TV as in the original \u2013 which I always saw as a little Easter Egg to another of Carpenter\u2019s films \u2013 The Thing.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Body Count<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                This is something I\u2019ve talked about many times before in regards to horror remakes. I actually think that Zombie makes Myers\u2019 body count is higher in the remake than in the original in order to build Michael\u2019s character. By this I mean that it\u2019s not like the remake is filled with senseless violence, but more that there is a reason to every killing. In the original film as a child, Michael only kills his sister \u2013 then as an adult kills 3 of Laurie\u2019s friends. Whereas in the remake of Halloween, <\/em>not only does he kill one of the bullies before murdering his sister \u2013 he also kills her boyfriend and his step dad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Relevance of the Knife<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                This is going to sound like a really odd section but I always felt that the knife is relevant to Myers\u2019 character, especially as it\u2019s quite a significant part of the film poster. The fact that he killed his sister with a kitchen knife, naturally, you would expect this to remain as his weapon of choice. However, in the original film, only one of his victims is killed this way and Laurie is attacked with it but this is the most you see the kitchen knife. It\u2019s different in the remake however because Bob, Laurie\u2019s dad, and many others are killed in the same fashion. Maybe Zombie felt the same as I did that the knife was important<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Final Showdown<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                Naturally in both films this takes place in the Myers\u2019 house. The interesting thing is that in the original this lasts around 10-12 minutes because typical of these types of killers, Laurie can never seem to kill him. However, in the remake it last 20 minutes! No final scene needs to last that long no matter how superhuman the villain is. So much so that I am going to go on to talk about has been slightly ruined\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Final Line<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                So, to end the original film Laurie asks Loomis \u2013 \u201cWas that the Boogeyman?\u201d a<\/em>nd he answers quite powerfully \u201cI do believe it was\u201d. <\/em>Now, these lines also feature towards the end of the 2007 remake but they lose all strength because, unlike the original film, they aren\u2019t the closing lines. There\u2019s still another 10 minutes after they are spoken. Also, I feel like there\u2019s something more powerful to Donald Pleasance\u2019s voice than Malcolm McDowell\u2019s so the final line comes over much better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Conclusion<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                In their own ways, both of these films are actually really good! Because Rob Zombie takes his own angle on the story and makes Myers as much of a protagonist as Laurie \u2013 it adds a completely different take on the whole story. Interestingly, he actually brings in the idea of Laurie being Michael\u2019s younger sister, long before they decided to add it into the original franchise. Obviously I will always enjoy the original but I love the Rob Zombie remake just as much.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WARNING: This Review May Contain Spoilers I told you before that the name John Carpenter was going to come back and \u2018haunt\u2019 you in another article. Well, here he is \u2013 the director of Halloween. I\u2019ll be honest, I actually ended up watching the Rob Zombie remake by accident when I wanted to watch the … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":992,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-to-remake-or-not-to-remake","latest_post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=512"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":513,"href":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512\/revisions\/513"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}