I may not like his Grindhouse contribution much, but otherwise I’ve become quite the cheerleader for Rob Zombie’s movies. The Devil’s Rejects got me firmly on board, and I find quite a bit to like in his first movie as well, especially now that hype and expectations are long since swept away. I was ready to be a chief proponent for whatever he did next…and then that ‘next’ became Halloween.
So I’ve been cautiously optimistic at best, mostly because I can’t fathom anyone with a specific conception of filmmaking, which Zombie certainly has, taking on a project like this just for the hell of it. We’ve all seen what happened to Gun Van Sant, and Halloween is probably better known by current audiences than Psycho. Rob Zombie’s putting a gun to his head with this one, and I’ve got to figure knows which chamber the bullet is in. Or thinks he does.
(Spending some time talking to Hanna Hall, who’s also in our 11 Colonels Attack!, about her experience as Judith Meyers also didn’t hurt.)
This trailer implies that we’ll be staring long and often into the rubber face and dead eyes of Michael Meyers, and I’m interested in that. Maybe it’s just that I’m a couple vieiwings into Death Proof, but since I just don’t believe this character can be made frightening again, it seems like the next best idea is to take the meta/commentary route and make us squirm through overexposure to his insanity.
Which audiences, and a lot of long-time fans, and possibly even me, will very likely not take very well.