John Carpenter's 1978 tour de force is updated by House Of 1000 Corpses director Rob Zombie with mixed results. Fans of the original have taken issue with the first half of the film, which develops the back story of trailer trash offspring Michael Myers, who as a ten-year-old goes on a killing spree on Halloween night. According to the Carpenter loyal, Myers' inexplicable motivation to kill gave the original Halloween a terrifying sense of dread. With the mystery gone, Zombie leaves audiences with little to do but count bodies. But what a body count it is.
Fifteen years of psychoanalysis at a maximum security asylum have done nothing to improve Michael's mood.
Indeed, on Halloween, he slashes his way to freedom and heads back to Illinois in search of sister Laurie. Psychologist Dr Loomis (Malcolm McDowell) teams up with the town sheriff (Brad Dourif,) to stop the renegade ripper, but they're way too late to help Laurie's promiscuous friends, all of whom are hacked to death in true slasher style.
Halloween is a Film programme that first aired in 2007 and has been classified a 18 certificate.
