Tony H Wrote:I agree with Sig. Rob Zombie's movies are horrible. He just fills them with white trash rednecks (like his wife). He ruined Halloween by trying to explain why Michael Meyers was doing what he did. There was no reason for his actions in the original film. He was simply a crazy person. Started when he was a kid and carried over into adulthood. He wasn't locked up in a psychiatric hospital because his mom was a stripper, his step-dad was a piece of drunk trash, they lived in squalor, and he was bullied.
In the original, Haddonfield was suburbia defined. It was not some run-down industrial town on the wrong side of the tracks. Michael was from an average middle-class family, which is what made him so creepy. The was no reason for his being evil, he was just wired that way.
Boy, did I go on a rant?
I agree completely. The horror of the original was that the sort of evil Michael was could spring from anywhere. That this smalltown, anytown America could be terrorized by a murderer. Thats the beauty of Halloween and Halloween II which is just an extension of the first one. By explaining Michael's motivation, as you said, you take away all the horror.
When I said earlier that I wasn't so disappointed by Zombie's remake, it was only because I knew exactly what it would be going into it. I hate to sound like a movie snob, but Zombie has no subtlety, he doesn't understand suspense and atmosphere. The reason he explains Michael's motivation is because, I think, Zombie probably saw that as a flaw of the original. Some people can watch the original and ask why was Michael like that and be okay with not having an answer, some watch it and demand an answer, even if that answer is the most cliched thing around. So I think when Zombie got a chance to remake it, he did what he probably always wanted to do, explain the horror.