An alleged rough cut of the theme for Rob Zombie’s Halloween remake can be found at the website for composer and previous Zombie collaborator Tyler Bates. According to the Rue Mortuary, where I first heard the news, this track has been used as background music during Zombie’s tour, further cementing the reliability of the claim.  Before hearing it, I was worried that he was going to jettison the classic theme entirely, which is arguably the best part of the entire movie.  Upon listening to the track, it seems as if Bates is going for a mash-up of Carpenter’s nerve-wracking score with the underlying industrial sound of Zombie’s ouvre, with a few creaky doors and muffled screams from Wal-mart Haunted House theme CDs thrown in for good measure.  I wouldn’t say this is entirely a bad thing.  I like the idea of combining the wholesome sound of suburban Halloween with more sophisticated scares, but it comes off as a bit of overkill when compared to the simplicity of the original.

In 2003, Dylan Finkle read portions of a horror story he had written entitled “Costume Party” in front of fellow students in his English class. Later that day, a teacher took a closer look at the story just before Dylan began reading some more aloud during lunch. She contacted the principal of the school, and Dylan was suspended for six weeks. Dylan’s attorney has attempted to appeal the case numerous times, and plans to again after their most recent defeat. So, what was in the story?

According to court documents, Finkle was 11 when he wrote the multi-chapter story titled “Costume Party,” modeled after the horror flick “Halloween,” in which he named characters after some of his friends and classmates. The story, which was part of a journal that one of Finkle�s teachers had assigned as a class project, chronicled the killing spree of a character named “Dylan” who was out for revenge after being bullied by kids at school.

In the story, Finkle graphically described the murders (many involving a knife or ax) of “mean kids,” some of which occurred while a character was making out topless on a table or engaged in sex.

I can understand the teachers being concerned, but was it necessary to suspend the kid for six weeks? After all, not only was this a class project, but it was deemed appropriate enough to read in the classroom before the incident, which may have given Dylan the false assumption that this was material condoned by the administration as a whole.

For a more detailed and accurate account of the case, please refer to this article which first appeared in the New York Times.

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.