Halloween (2007)

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... put in a mental institution, visited only by Dr. Loomis and his mother, who takes her own life out of grief soon after the murders.

After this, the movie begins jumping forward in time as Michael grows up in the mental institution, crafting elaborate masks for himself and refusing to speak. Eventually, he escapes and returns to his home town to find his baby sister Lori and finish what he started. The rest of the film is basically a modernization of the original Halloween, condensed to fit into the last half of the running time.

The biggest problem the film has is the relentless nature of the awful things it shows you. While it is every bit as sick as The Devil's Rejects, it has none of the character, attitude or rebellion themes of that movie. And while Michael proves himself the Jackie Chan of slaughtering defenseless teenage girls with his varied instruments of death (knives, forks, baseball bats, bare hands and so much more), the film plays all too similar to a Friday the 13th, only without any laughs or charm. The level of violence against women in the film may turn some stomachs as well, especially when you throw in a brutal gang rape about halfway through the movie. Violence against women is particularly fetishized with no real conclusion or payoff in the film, which makes it fall closer to "torture porn" than real horror.

Despite a great cast featuring Malcolm McDowell, Danny Trejo and many returning players from House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects, Halloween fails to entertain. It succeeds only in being utterly different from the original. While there are certainly some creative horror film moments to be found, the film as a whole is a turgid, bloody mess and ultimately does little to re-energize the series.

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