Horror movie remakes happen all the time, but a few years back saw a different trend of these remakes. Major studios began to reboot classis slasher films such as Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street and of course, Halloween. Halloween was given to Rob Zombie to reimagine and he did so in a very controversial way, giving the films more of a white trash element and showing more of Michael Myers’s childhood. While it was definitely different from the original series, it had a very polarizing reaction due to how different it was. Zombie put his touch on the film and it resembled something closer to The devil’s Rejects than what we had encountered before. Many felt Zombie’s films ruined Halloween, but they didn’t. In fact, Zombie’s films actually saved the franchise.
Before Rob Zombie was given the reigns to the films, the series was in a downward spiral in terms of quality. Halloween 1 was a classic and 2 was okay, while the third has nothing to do with the rest of the series and is decent as a standalone film. From the fourth film onward though, the quality dipped further and further and culminated in Halloween Resurrection. Halloween Resurrection was the single worst moment of the franchise and was thought to be the last nail in the series coffin. It featured rapper Busta Rhymes getting the better of Michael in a fight for no logical reason and tried so hard to be relevant that it dated itself instantly.
Halloween was a joke of a series at that point. It had an amazing first entry that was never matched, and the series just seemed doomed to fall into self parody and obscurity. Enter Rob Zombie: Zombie was making a big name for himself in Hollywood at that point, When he was given the series to reboot, it got mainstream attention and the resulting film was the highest grossing entry not adjusted for inflation at the time. It showed there was still life in the franchise and could be handled well. His second film was not good (in my opinion) and contained many flaws, but still made a profit. This may seem minor to many, but it very likely paved the way for this year’s Halloween film, which received mass acclaim.
The fact is, while we may not like how he did it, Rob Zombie saved the franchise for us. It was thanks to him that slasher films are able to make a comeback at all. He may not have made the movies we wanted, but he made it possible for the movies we wanted to be made.
Disclaimer: The above was the opinion of the author and not necessarily that of ROG or its staff