Halloween

Light years from the pale, slick remakes of the early 2000s, “Halloween – The Beginning” opens with an extremely vivid and disturbing picture of social hardship: far from offering a simplistic account of reality, Zombie emphasizes the multiple factors behind the mental illness which will lead young Michael to become an unstoppable killing machine.

Unfortunately, production restraints prevent the director from fully realizing his vision, a fact that becomes all too obvious in the second half when the plot takes a more conventional and repetitive turn. Particularly the scenes that were intended to pay homage to Carpenter’s original appear rather forced; in fact, Zombie himself had on several occasions expressed his desire to create a product that was “A fresh start that was 100% its own animal”.

As far as the cast, beyond the dependable and always excellent Shari Moon, we have a Machiavellian Malcolm McDowell (Dr. Loomis) who, realizing that “monsters sell books”, has no qualms about profiting off others’ misfortunes and cashing in on the wave of sensationalism generated by his own books, a theme that will repeatedly crop up in the upcoming sequel “Halloween II” (2009).

High levels of blood and violence throughout the film.