Halloween (uncut) (18)

2:23pm Tuesday 13th May 2008

FROM reading the blurb on the back of the DVD box, I presumed this remake of the 1970s classic would give us an insight into what made Michael Myers, the blood thirsty, crazed maniac we've all come to know and fear.

Sadly, all director Rob Zombie does is to show us that young Mickey was in fact a blood thirsty crazed maniac from a young age - and looks spookily like a really vexed member of Hanson.

He doesn't have an ideal childhood, with a lap dancing mother, a slob of a step-father and a certain amount of bullying at school, but a lot of kids have worse and don't end up like him.

Once the addition of Michael's childhood story is out of the way, all we're left with is an almost exact retelling of the original story but done with less of the panache and none of the superb soundtrack which made the 1970s version such a huge hit.

The acting from the leads is generally sound, and Malcolm McDowell playing Dr Samuel Loomis does an excellent job but there is just nothing particularly sparkling about anything in this film.

In the 1970s, the gore and horror in Halloween did scare people, but now, viewers expect a little but more from this genre of film.

HC

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