Ok, just got back from seeing the movie and here's my 2 cents.
First off, in my opinion, if you like the Halloween series of films, then this movie is worth your time and money, and in my opinion is the best Halloween put out since Halloween 2 and is about equal in quality to H20.
Secondly, a few things to share for my fellow Michael Myers lovers who have hopes for this film. First, FORGET that John Carpenter's film exists, enjoy the reflections of his film in this piece and leave it at nostalgia, don't use it for comparison, this is mainly an entirely new film just with a familiar story. Secondly, I know from readind around here that people have preconceived notions about Rob Zombie, so when you sit down to watch this film, forget who made it and all that and just take things as they come.
Ok, enough of that, here's my overall look at this film, some comparison to Carpenter's included.
First comparison point, Carpenter's film was about Laurie Strode, Zombie's film is about Michael Myers. Second comparison point, Carpenter's Myers was an abstract force that happend to have a human manifestation to give a plot to the film; Zombie's Myers is a person, albeit highly messed up in the head, with a few supernatural showings but for the most part, not an immortal, unstoppable force.
Now, as for the film judged on it's own merit. First off, reports of the "gore" in this film, in my opinion, are either based on seeing a different cut than what's being run in theater's, or drastically exaggerated. There was a great deal of violence and blood in this film, but overally, I didn't think it was any worse truly than any of the H4-Resurrection sequels, and frankly, some of the deaths in the most recent Hannibal Lecter films were far more grotesque and brutal in my mind. As for the white trash family elements, there was a bit more time spent on it, but my impression was the Zombie really wanted to define Michael like a real life psychopath and get into the nature vs. nurture debate in pscyhology. Overall, I don't think those parts were as bad as some have reported, the only part that truly bothered me is that Zombie included a clothed strip club montage to show off his wife, there was no reason for it other than that so it was a bit bothersome.
As far as high points of this film, number one, the soundtrack sounded very nice and was very reflective of the original, thankfully he didn't go off on his own path and kept music true to the origins, bravo for that. Secondly, Malcom McDowell turns in a fabulous performance as Dr. Loomis, I still love Donald Pleasance as well, but if Loomis had to be played by someone else, I can't think of anyone that could have done as nice a job at it. While still not as good as Captain Kirk, the mask was the nicest looking used since H1 & H2. The last real high point I can think of is the filming and lighting, I felt, whoever was in charge of shooting really made great choices on angles and zooms and the lighting was well done and all in all, it visually felt like a more old school film than some of the shooting styles of today.
Low points of the film; first and foremost for me was the minimal part Laurie Strode had in the film and the utter departure from how the character was written by Carpenter and hill, not the same person. Again, the pointless showing off of Zombie's wife is a definite low point for me. The only other major low point for me was that the film was made, surprisingly, with no sign of potential sequels, no holds barred, everyone could go, and I won't be spoilerific about it, even though this is a spoiler thread, I'll keep spoilers to less than critical points.
Again, overall, it was a great "sequel" if you keep your mind open to viewing it that way and I'd definitely rank it well among the series.
In fact, in closing, here's my rankings.
1 - Halloween
2 - Hallween 2
3 - H20 / Rob Zombie's Halloween
4 - Halloween 6
5 - Hallween 4
6 - Halloween 5
7 - Resurrection
That's not including H3 because it's non Myers.
Would have been cool to hear a past Myer's take the on the film.
