Rob Zombie has made a career of loud music about evil women, super
beasts,fast cars, and soundbites of old horror movies and the word
"Yeah" repeated ad nauseum You know what some knee jerk pentocostal
types would refer to as "devil music". The videos he crafted were often
assultive in image to the point of cartoonish, which he parlayed into
his first movie House of a 1000 Corpses. That movie had a hard time
holding a coherent narrative down, which is pretty difficult for a
horror picture, but he managed this feat pretty handily. This could
signal that he may the most diabolical gifted movie director ever. It
could have been victim to a number of things; Too many editors in the
bay cutting the scenes together, the bankrolling studio wanting a
different picture, or maybe there was just two or three different movies
that were shot and then reassembled all together to put into theatres.
Whatever the case may be, the movie was not all together that good,
unless you were 13 years old, and then it would have been the best thing
ever.
He offered up a sequel of sorts, The Devils Rejects, and a funny thing
happened. There was somewhat a workable narrative in the picture.
Characters were delightfully amoral, disturbing, and outright scuzzy. It
was more of an homage to the no budget thrillers of the 70's, like
Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It was pretty gutsy from a story standpoint to
have a family of murderous cannibals as your protaganists halfway
through the story. This is an example when the overall movie trumps it's
individual parts. It had plenty wrong with it (the story, some of the
acting, and incredibly grating music that Gasper Noe should have used to
soundtrack Irreversible) yet the end result was satisfying in the sense
that Zombie had moved from video director to movie director. He could
put together some interesting sequences and images, and he seemed to
have a better grasp on what he could do with something long form.
Then there was the announcement of Halloween which is a picture that
should have never been reimagined nor remade. It's pretty sad that there
are people out there that think this would be a classic, while the
Carpenter version sits idle and the select few who do watch the
original, giggle that it's cheap looking and not scary. Zombie's take
and obvious affection for Michael Myers doesn't generate 1/3 the
palpable tension Carpenter had in the original. It goes out of it's way
to try and figure from a psychological standpoint of what makes Michael
tick. His affection for all things illiterate redneck bloomed like a
magnolia flower in this movie, as did his desire to drag out every kill
with the intention of making it as realistic as possible, or as
realistic as a 7 foot hulking guy who can hoist and carry a tombstone,
take several bullets and continue to walk. It was completely
unnecessary. Once again, there were moments of visual brilliance and
there were scenes that worked. Once again, there was some signs of
growth behind the camera.
With all this being said, I snuck an early preview of Halloween 2 last
Thursday night. I read that Rob wasn't pleased with his first run, and
this one would be his definitive take on Michael Myers. He wouldn't be
encumbered by the weight of Carpenter's original. I agreed with this
statement, and looked forward to seeing this new take, although I am
somewhat of a masochist, so I knew the chances of the sequel being
better than the original were pretty slim to none.
The results were far more interesting than I was willing to credit it.
Is it a great horror movie? No. There are some interesting concepts that
he manages into the story, as well as some freaky and bizarre sequences
that look as if they sprung from the mind of David Lynch. The surviving
characters from the 1st movie are all changed to a degree. Yet, despite
the improvement in some areas, he continues to lack in others. Zombie's
love affair with rednecks continues unchecked in here, as well as his
penchant for some horrible dialogue and his insistence of using Tyler
Bates to score his movies. He presses further with some slow sadisitic
violence inflicted on characters which actually slow the momentum of the
movie. I grew slightly bored sitting there as Michael disposed of
random folks just because he moved like mollasses in the middle of
winter. The movie is just, well, it's crap, but not crap like the 1st
one.
I think Zombie could someday be an actual competent genre director. He
has developed a distinct style and look since his first movie. All his
pictures seem to float in a limbo that stretches from the late 70's to
present day for example. He has some intriguing ideas developing
character and mood that pay off sometime. What I hope he can do is keep
some compulsions in check on his next project. If he can concentrate on
crafting a story that can be satisfying to more than teenage boys, or
men who are in a perpetual state of arrested development, instead of
editing a series of awesome kewl! moments, he will be better as an
director overall. Of course, that's my opinion, I could be wrong.
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