It seems a little redundant at this point to bring up Rob Zombie’s directorial committment to the remake of Halloween, but the news is still just sinking in. I was never that big a fan of the original series, including the first installment (comparable and inferior as it was to the earlier Black Christmas), but the news that Zombie is restarting the series is just interesting enough to draw me in.

This the new HALLOWEEN. Call it a remake, an update, a reimaging or whatever, but one thing that for sure is this is a whole new start… a new begining with no connection to the other series. That is exactly why the project appeals to me. I can take it and run with it.

I talked to John Carpenter about this the other day and he said, “Go for it, Rob. Make it your own”. And that’s exactly what I intend to do.

I thought House of 1000 Corpses was awful, which is understandable for a director’s first film, but thought it’s sequel, The Devil’s Rejects, was better by leaps and bounds. After watching that, I was ready to follow Zombie anywhere he went with his film career, especially if he kept improving at the rate he seemed to have going. I just never imagined that he would abandon original material to jump on the “reinvisioning” bandwagon.

Could Zombie have turned the franchise around? Yeah, probably. But he’s going to have to pull off one of the best genre films ever made to even attempt to get out from under the shadow of the original Halloween, if that’s even possible. You’re a better man than I, Gunga Din.

Halloween is months away, and it’s all I can seem to talk about these days.To celebrate the 40th anniversary of It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, United Feature Syndicate and the estate of Charles Schulz have announced an essay contest asking people to send in memories of their all-time worst Halloween ever.
Now, I can’t choose my worst Halloween memory (though having to share my candy with a little brother who broke his leg is right up there), but I can remember the best that could have turned into the worst. The city I grew up in was notorious for its roving bands of teenage Halloween candy snatchers. One year my luck ran out and a bunch of jokers tried to steal our bags of goodies. Happily, we had another tradition, one which involves using pillowcases full of pop cans as makeshift weapons.

You mess with the rose, you get the thorns.