We live in an era
where remakes and sequels of beloved films are constantly coming out. Every
once in a while, a classic or a highly popular film gets remade and it turns
out so bad that people claim it “ruined the original”. One such case is Rob
Zombie’s remake of John Carpenter’s 1978 horror classic, Halloween. The
purpose of this article is twofold. As always, I want to encourage readers to
watch a classic film. With this article, however, I also want to try and dispel
this notion that bad remakes/sequels ruin the original film.
John
Carpenter’s original is widely considered to be a masterpiece and one of the
founders of the slasher sub-genre. The story is a relatively simple one. It
starts off in Haddonfield, Illinois in 1963 on Halloween night where a
6-year-old Michael Myers kills his older sister shortly after she has finished
having sex with her boyfriend. On the eve of Halloween 15 years later, Michael
escapes from the psychiatric hospital in which he had been placed and returns
to Haddonfield. The film then introduces the heroine, Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee
Curtis), and we see Michael constantly stalking her from afar. That night, on
Halloween, Laurie finds herself babysitting Tommy and Lindsey. As the night
progresses, people begin to die as Michael Myers makes his way towards Laurie.
The
horror genre owes a lot to this film. While slashers originated in 1960 with
films like Psycho and Peeping Tom, it is mostly because of Halloween
that these types of films went mainstream. John Carpenter’s Halloween
laid the groundwork for what the genre would become in the coming years. One of
the major tropes introduced in Halloween is that of the “final girl”.
This film, like many of those that came after it, sees the killer going after
those who are sexually active. The hero, or “final girl”, must be considered to
be morally good which means that they don’t engage in the use of drugs, sex, or
anything else that might make them appear as anything other than pure good.
This trope put women in the spotlight and led to them usually being their own heroes
in the face of certain death.
One
of the scariest parts about the original Halloween was the fact that we
knew next to nothing about Michael Myers. He never spoke, never showed emotion
and we only see glimpses of his real face. When Laurie asks if Michael Myers is
the boogeyman, it’s hard not to say “yes”. Rob Zombie’s version of the film
completely throws that out the window. Where in the original we knew almost
nothing, Rob showed us too much. He tried to humanize this villain who is supposed
to be a force of nature, more so than a human being. Zombie spends a lot of
time unnecessarily trying to flesh out Michael’s family when they are
completely irrelevant. There is roughly 45 minutes of trying to understand
Michael Myers before he even becomes an adult and escapes his prison. By trying
to make the audience sympathize with Michael, the thing that should actually be
scary isn’t anymore. Zombie then tries to make it feel scarier by making it an
ultra-gory and unnecessarily violent film, but it’s all meaningless and doesn’t
actually succeed in scaring you.
If the
only thing you know about Halloween is the Rob Zombie remakes, then I
strongly encourage you to watch the original. Rob Zombie took a film that
followed a very simple formula and over complicated it for no real reason. The
thing is that despite how bad Rob Zombie’s remake is, it does not erase or
change the fact that John Carpenter’s original is a landmark in the horror
genre. The 1978 film inspired many other films that would become classics of
their own such as Friday the 13th and Scream. The legacy of John
Carpenter’s Halloween goes beyond its own sequels and remakes. The
effect that it had in the horror genre is still felt today and there is nothing
that could ever change that. So, no, bad remakes shouldn’t ruin the original
for you, but they should make you appreciate them more.
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