I can’t imagine this counts as good news: Rob Zombie and the cast and crew of the Halloween remake have gone back and done seven days of reshoots, during which they shot a new ending and six new death scenes. According to Bloody-Disgusting.com the deaths and ending are more gruesome than before, and really push the envelope on gore.
It’s just never a good sign to be doing that kind of extensive reshooting this close to the final release date of the film. I imagine that the argument will be that Zombie and the boys at Dimension wanted to really give the MPAA some agita, but why not do that the first time through? And if they wanted to shoot extra gore for the DVD, why not do it the first time through? If anything, it indicates that the first cut of the film felt soft and possibly boring by modern standards – at least that’s my guess.
Rob Zombie is a genuinely likable guy, but here he’s taken on a challenge that may be too much for him. Perhaps the Halloween remake – which would have happened with or without him – should have been left in the hands of some dipshit video director, rather than appearing as a black mark on Zombie’s CV. That said, I’m still holding out a lot of hope that the film will at least be decent on its own terms, and I would like to see Zombie pull it off. Sadly, all signs point to the fact that he hasn’t.