Monday, September 3, 2007

Halloween

I have been a fan of the Halloween series since I was a teenage. In fact I thought I saw Michael Myers in my kitchen once. But that was just a combination of too many of the series and some bad food making me have hallucinations.

When I heard that there was a remake coming, I was curious how it could be any better than the original. I have seen the wave of remakes in recent years, Psycho, Charlie's Angels, The Producers, to name a few, and I was not sure if it would be worth the cost of admission. But I have to admit, I was blown away.

This version added some valuable history and background into why Michael was the way he was and how Laurie wound up with the Strodes. It also gave Michael an eerie sadism in that his killing in the original series were violent mindless acts of aggression. In the 2007 version, Michael seemed to cherish the slow death of his victims. He seemed to be toying with them as they died. It gave the killings a more true ring to them based on what we have come to learn about how serial killers operate.

There was one additional element that I do not recall ever seeing in the original and that was how the super human strength that Michael exhibited may have be genetic. In this version Laurie takes on a lot more damage than in the 1978 version and keeps on ticking.

Makes one wonder if it is that super human strength that leads to insanity. Or if insanity simply creates a chemical imbalance to lead to god like strength.

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