New Jersey Stage 2015 - Issue 10 | Page 64

Halloween (2007) By 2007, a host of classic horror movies had been given the remake treatment. A small few were worthwhile (Dawn of the Dead, The Hills Have Eyes), many were pointless (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Psycho), but most were just plain awful (The Fog, The Amityville Horror). Fans of John Carpenter braced themselves for the inevitable remake of his 1978 classic, and when it was announced that Rob Zombie would write and direct, the NewJerseyStage.com prospects looked bleak. With his previous films, House of a Thousand Corpses and The Devil’s Rejects, the rock-star turned director had shown no evidence that he could come remotely close to making anything resembling an involving motion picture. Few were surprised when his Halloween turned out to be a cinematic travesty. Though he’s improved since, at the time Zombie was no more a film-maker than Spielberg is a 2015 - ISSUE 10 64