"Paul Levinson's It's Real Life is a page-turning exploration into that multiverse known as rock and roll. But it is much more than a marvelous adventure narrated by a master storyteller...it is also an exquisite meditation on the very nature of alternate history." -- Jack Dann, The Fiction Writer's Guide to Alternate History

Tuesday, August 7, 2007

Rob Zombie's Halloween

I admit that my favorite horror movies go back to when I was a teenager - 14, 15, 16. If I could get a girl to go with me to the Allerton Theater in the Bronx, and it was to a horror movie, there was a pretty good chance she would cuddle close during the scary scenes ... Hey, I was a kid ...

Among my favorites back then were The Blob - a science fiction horror movie about a big amoeba - and Vincent Price in The Tingler. That one featured a skeleton that rolled out of the screen right at the audience on a rope ... Like I said, I was just a kid ...

More recent horror movies play with your mind as well as your adrenalin, and Halloween is at the top of the list. That tinkling piano music alone is enough to make you run for cover, which you can never find.

John Carpenter's Halloween was a masterpiece in 1978. What can Rob Zombie's remake bring to it?

I would look for the special effects. They've progressed a lot since 1978. Indeed, I would say that horror movies are the best genres for remakes. Bela Lugosi's Dracula was a 1931 masterpiece - but so was the Christopher Lee in 1958 (I saw that one in the Allerton Theater, too...) Invasion of the Body Snatchers in 1956 was a great movie - but the special effects in the 1978 version were unbelievable (that shot of the dog with a man's head)...

So I'm looking forward to powerful sequences in Rob Zombie's Halloween the movie, driven by the explosive magic of today's special effects. Here's a taste in this trailer ...



Oh yeah, Rob Zombie kept in that tingling piano in his Halloween the movie. It opens August 31. Just what I needed to hear at eleven o'clock tonight, on a sultry summer evening...



4 comments:

dawn said...

I loved the original thought it to be one of the scariest movies made. Now on the other hand Zombie scares the crap out of me because his movies seem so gritty and real I think this new Halloween will be really good although I will wait for it to be on cable. Oh thanks for the meadowlands so fast I did appreciate it. Have a great day!!

Anonymous said...

Of course, the original Halloween didn't have ANY effects, so saying that the thing Zombie will add is "effects" is a bit like saying your remake of Dylan's greatest hits is going to be great because you've added synthesizers . . .

The only thing Zombie will add is gore and an uncessary backstory. Just watch the original; don't buy this nonsense, it's like buying ivory-you're just supporting trade in something reprehensible.

Paul Levinson said...

Hey Dawn - hope you a great day, too.

Todd - the original Halloween didn't have any special effects? Then you were seeing, what, people really getting killed in that movie? :)

As for your view of the new movie, how you can be so sure the backstory is "unnecessary," if you haven't seen it yet?

Anonymous said...

the original Halloween was a classic, but Michael Myers never
put fear on the screen as in this
trailer. Add a little of Zombies
touch and this movie will scare
the crap out of you.

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