Rob Zombie’s Halloween remake (or re-imagining or whatever you wanna think of it as) is coming at the end of August. I’m going to make an impassioned plea that everyone go see it.
Many of you don’t care for Zombie’s films and still more hate remakes. I understand, but I’ll address these issues.
Yeah, House of 1000 Corpses was kinda lame, but I liked it for what it was. I don’t think it is nearly as awful as some people claim it to be. And the really good thing about it is, Rob Zombie learned from his mistakes and his sequel was an immense improvement. The Devil’s Rejects has some near-brilliant sequences and Zombie employed vintage songs to beautiful effect. Most particularly that old standby, Free Bird. I liked the energy of Devil’s Rejects and I really was impressed at the way Zombie turned the tables around in the audience’s perceptions of protagonist and antagonist. The Devil’s Rejects might not be a masterpiece, but I think it’s a damned good movie. Better, in fact, than some revered classics I could mention.
Remakes. I know, I know. There are way too many of them out there and the vast majority of them are cynical ways to separate the public from their money. I could list the various remade movies that I think work well, like The Thing, The Fly, The Blob, Dawn of the Dead and Invasion of the Body Snatchers. You never know when one will come along and blow you away. But instead I’ll bring up Zombie’s genuine passion for the genre. This guy is one of us. He loves horror and if nothing else, he will be trying his best to give the fans the best film he can.
Even if all of that isn’t enough to sway you, what about this? You like hard R movies, right? I hope that anyone that visits a site called Horror Drive-In enjoys a down and dirty horror movie with guts. The tide is changing and the public seems to have had enough of violence in movies. Look at the films that have failed and look at which have done well. The watered-down, family friendly ‘horror’ is doing well, but things intended for the gorehounds has faltered. The studios greenlight what was successful in recent memory. And I’m not talking about DVD sales or Pay-Per-View or any of that stuff. It is the theater revenues that dictate what it a success and what isn’t.
All I can say, to beg of you is this: GET YOUR ASS OUT THERE AND SEE HALLOWEEN IN THE THEATER. If you like it, SEE IT AGAIN. If we don’t provide grassroots support for the kind of undiluted horror that we want, then we have no one but ourselves to blame. Hate the bland crap that pervades the multiplexes? Vote, with your ticket-buying dollars. That talks; everything else is bullshit.
This may be the last chance for a while to prove that graphic horror can be successful. Let’s do our part to make it so. And don’t think your one ticket will make a difference, because it does. A million people decide not to go and it hurts. Be one of the ones that gives a damn. Please.
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