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Re: Rob Zombie to remake 'The Blob'
Strange. I thought Zombie directed only one spoof trailer to the Grindhouse project, as opposed to a complete feature film. That said, it may his most entertaining output ever, although The Devil's Rejects with all its misgivings isn't as total a loss as I sometimes think. But the entire concept of Grindhouse is a bit hokey, since you're spending a good deal money trying to recreate the zeitgeist of the 70's, to get the grain and the colors just right, to justify whatever cheesy story decisions with the premise that you're doing a homage. Sorry, sounds pretentious, feels fake, falls flat.
Visually, the films may spark up a warm feeling of nostalgia, but they're in no way anymore earnest than anything Tarantino himself has made since Jackie Brown. In fact, they're as shallow as Transformers, only the style sheet has been changed from the 90's MTV hyperkinetics to 70's exploitation. While more approachable to the more seasoned punters, it is in no way any more sincere. Which is my personal problem with the Grindhouse films. They bow down so hard that any perspective is completely lost. All that remains is fluff - in a particularly pleasing wrapper, but fluff regardless.
Zombie's Halloween could've been something, unless it would've been one-half backstory, diminishing all aspects of the anonymity and intrigue of The Shape by laying everything on the line and recreating Myers into a victim of circumstances, before turning into a fairly faithful, if overblown remake of the Carpenter original. The problem lies within the fact that the Carpenter film deliberately left The Shape open for any interpretation, as even the sister angle was an afterthought, introduced no sooner than in the second film. As Zombie recreates that film after writing everything Myers has done and will do under a case of unfortunate childhood, he essentially robs himself out of what made the Carpenter Shape so effective and is left to an uphill battle in making his antagonist worthwhile.
As his sequel introduces the white horse and ghost mother (the ol' lady needs to work, eh?), trudging with big boots all over in Texas Chainsaw Massacre/Friday the 13th neighborhood, Zombie drifts even further away from what made the original Halloween tick. While his films carry an arguable entertainment value in the sense that they're probably more watchable for the excessive quota of confounding insanity that goes into the plotting in the best 70's exploitation spirit, they don't really serve a purpose as films that'll leave you haunted for days.
Effective horror films may be exercises in style, but what really makes them scary is the tapping into the pervasive sense of the unknown. There are many examples of the ghost/monster/killer going unseen and unexplained, as well as seen and explained (up to a degree). Neither is a surefire way to make or break your antagonist. What does kill it more often than not is the overexposure through franchising. For example, Alien and Predator are such common stock items by now that they're simply a bit too hard to describe as unique or intimidating due to extensive pop culture familiarity.
The character of Michael Myers had endured rather well through hodge-podge direct-to-video sequels, as no-one in their right mind truly bought the druid angle, and the original slasher concept is so easy to revert back into. Your killer has no relatable features, no face, no distinguishable human qualities, so he's pretty to put to the suburbs on Halloween night on a killing spree. No clear motive makes any possibility of bargaining harder. He just is.... evil for his own sake, as if malevolence would help define his existence.
Consider BOB from Twin Peaks. No-one knows why the hell the guy's behind the living room sofa, who he is or what he wants. Then again, no-one bursts into laughter when he graces the screen.
Re: Rob Zombie to remake 'The Blob'
The problem with the Thorn explanation was they were too scared to go too far with it. The Halloween 6: Producer's Cut has a much more well-rounded experience with it, than the half-assed cut up explanation of the H6: Theatrical Cut. The problem is, how many casual audiences are going to really enjoy creating an incest-angle between Myers and Jamie? It would've made more to just leave Jamie out of it altogether (short of getting killed), and had Myers mate with someone unrelated, because it's just as much his child. Part of the bloodline.
Where the big issue came out of the Thorn explanation, was one, it was greatly exaggerated from real mythologies. Anyone with determination, like myself, looked it up real quick after that film, and discovered it was all bullshit, which kills the effect.
The other problem, and the long-run issue, is that it makes Myers vunerable. It gives him a vunerability, when before he didn't have one, which kills the "evil on two legs"/"force of nature" type of thing. Tommy Doyle being able to spread out a bunch of runes, cut his hand and say "Samhain" (Producer's Cut), completely neutralizes Myers, is entertaining at face value, but would become laughable if done a second time. Otherwise, anytime Myers came after us, wouldn't we be willing to do the same?
In some ways, there's a good film in Halloween 6. Somewhere. You'd almost want to mix parts of the T-cut with the P-cut. Had the film had the explantion of the P-cut, but with the cult-slaughter of the T-cut, it would've reinforced that Myers CANNOT be controlled. Something Loomis almost wanted to burst into laughter, when Wynn explained the whole thing to him.
The late Moustapha Akkad once defended H6 by saying "you can't do that many sequels, and not start trying to explain the method to the madness" or something to that effect. The problem is, Carpenter set it up in the beginning of the first film. It was already explained. Myers was THE BOOGEYMAN. He was death in a Halloween mask. A force of a nature. A hurricane. A phantom.
That was cool as fuck. What was wrong with that?
As for Halloween 6, the biggest issue I had was the after effect. Joe Chappelle goes back and butchers the original film, because Dimension orders it do to bad testing of the original version... and then?
They blame Donald Pleasence. Pleasence's death, MADE them have to re-shoot it. That's such bullshit. The P-cut version of the film could've been released "as is", even with Pleasence's passing.
In hind sight, I kind of love the ending the P-cut of H6. It's such bizarre and so misunderstood, that had they released that film and that ending, and just ended the franchise, it would've been a terrific note. End the franchise on a cliffhanger. Pleasence is dead, and you're left wondering "wtf?"
Anyways, *end rant*
Re: Rob Zombie to remake 'The Blob'
Did I post something that could have misconstrued that Zombie directed one of the Grindhouse films? 
If I did, my bad.
As for using the Grindhouse style; I'm all for stylized films when its used as part or flow of the story (see Zack Snyder and David Fincher), which is what Tarantino's Grindhouse film was. And Rodriquez put an interesting spin on his as well. Again, I can't say they were great films but they were what they were intended to be, which is why I like them and consider them a success. I don't watch them all the time though.
I respectfully disgaree with your very well thought out post, copperye.
And I seriously never knew you could look that deep into any of the Halloween sequels. Cool read. Good on yah, Axlin.
Re: Rob Zombie to remake 'The Blob'
Yeah, if you haven't ever read Daniel Farrands original script for Halloween 6, it's a riot in a sense. It's MASSIVE scale. He practically wanted to do Die Hard with Michael Myers, with Wynn being like this major villian, and Loomis & Tommy being action heroes with helicopters coming in to pull Myers out in the finale before they got to him. The neo-Druids were originally going to be like Opus Dei in The Da Vinci Code. It was epic in scale.
Definitely the most ambitious Halloween sequel. Obviously it was scaled WAY back in the final product.
Re: Rob Zombie to remake 'The Blob'
Yeah, if you haven't ever read Daniel Farrands original script for Halloween 6, it's a riot in a sense. It's MASSIVE scale. He practically wanted to do Die Hard with Michael Myers, with Wynn being like this major villian, and Loomis & Tommy being action heroes with helicopters coming in to pull Myers out in the finale before they got to him. The neo-Druids were originally going to be like Opus Dei in The Da Vinci Code. It was epic in scale.
Definitely the most ambitious Halloween sequel. Obviously it was scaled WAY back in the final product.
Do you have a link to the script at all? It sounds hillarious.
