A Halloween Zombie for Christmas
December 29, 2007

I spoke with rocker/filmmaker Rob Zombie the other day about his just-released remake of John Carpenter’s classic terror yarn Halloween (Genius/The Weinstein Company). He’s a very polite, straight-ahead guy who quick and concise when he answers queries. (Example: Question - Who are your favorite filmmakers? Answer – Spielberg, Kubrick, Hawkes, Don Siegel.)

He was proud to have had the opportunity to remake Halloween, and was adamant about making it a fresh take on tale, particularly in the wake of a zillion similar knock-off sequels.

“There’s such a remake glut out there that I wanted this one to be a unique, one-time-only thing,” he said. “I

And here’s a funny thing: I interviewed Zombie back in the summer of 2003 when he was publicizing the DVD release of his first directorial effort, House of 1,000 Corpses. I asked him the usual preliminary questions that one tosses at a horror filmmaker—namely, what are his favorite horror flicks.

“Oh, I like everything,” he said. “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the Night of the Living Dead movies, Frankenstein’s Daughter. Everything.”

“I really like the films of John Carpenter,” he added.

Synchronicity struck again when later on in the conversation I asked him about his favorite filmmaker commentary tracks.

“My favorite person for commentaries is John Carpenter,” he quickly answered. “A lot of times, the director's commentaries are very boring. But Carpenter will point out mistakes and other oddities that happened whil he was shooting. He’s always good in his commentaries.”

Hmmm…Zombie’s follow-up flick to Corpses was 2005’s The Devil’s Rejects, which was made a full two years before his Halloween went into production. Maybe he and Mr. Carpenter knew something we didn’t know about the future of Halloween. Or maybe some shrewd studio exec read my original piece in the now-defunct DVD Exclusive Magazine and got an idea?

Okay, I’m an egomaniac. But, then again, it’s a just a thought.

Posted by Laurence Lerman on December 29, 2007 | Comments (0)