Movie Reviews: Halloween, Halloween II and Saw VI

All images from Wikipedia

While the cat's away, it's movie day!  The Other Half is on a weekend two-day trip, so I got it in my head today to catch up on some horror movies (something TOH is not into).  I thought I'd check out Hollywood Video for some used DVDs, only to be surprised to see it out of business.  Sad. I started frequenting that store shortly after moving to Las Vegas 16 years ago; I even bought some LaserDiscs there. Poot.  So, I went to one of the Hollywoods that has been converted (due to some corporate divorce) to a "Mark's Video."  Their selection kinda blew, with the better vids not on the "on sale" list.

So I went someplace I had previously sworn off of: Blockbuster.  I will not be surprised to see that video store go under too, because it is a drastically different place than it used to be. The store seems to be a haphazard mixture of new, used and rentals with disorganized shelves. Not pretty, but they had a good selection!  They had a 5 for $20 group with only one movie I liked, so I moved to the 3 for $20 stuff. There I found Halloween, Halloween II (both Rob Zombie remakes), Saw VI, Zombieland, Bruno and Capitalism: A Love Story.  The latter two were just to fill out the 3/$20 deal.  I watched the first three today.  Warning: Here there may be spoilers.

I didn't expect much from any of those movies. They are just like comfort food for me, cheesy and fun.  And I'd been wanting to see them all for some time.  The results were a mixed bag.

Saw VI is exactly what you'd expect it to be.  More death traps, more Tobin Bell (even though his character died several installments ago) and a convoluted yet consistent storyline woven through all six films.  With each new chapter, credulity gets strained more. I mean, how much time did this dying, vengeful serial killer have to plan out all of these traps anyway?  But kudos to the makers for keeping exactly the same vibe, look and feel of the other films.  The traps still squick me out, and the tension is there.  It may not be logical that Costas Mandylor and Shawnee Smith's characters would continue Jigsaw's plans out (that's a lot of work, even if you like murdering people!).  If you like any of parts I - V, recommended.

Rob Zombie's Halloween is the last of the big horror remakes that I've gotten around to.  Like Friday the 13th, Last House on the Left, A Nightmare on Elm Street (and many also-rans), this one is part remake, part prequel, part homage.  And they got it mostly right.  I'm not a big fan of the long-haired, white trash 10-year old Michael or his pre-story.  It was too long, and hardly justifies become a mindless killer.  Lots of kids have it bad.  I felt like they were giving us a reason to sympathize with Michael Myers, but how can you do that when he kills everyone he comes into contact with, friend or foe?  For me, slasher films work best when at least some of the deaths come to characters who sort of deserve it.  And now that I think about it, there were a couple of those, but there were some that just seemed unnecessary and random.  It's an okay redo, but I can't say that it improved on the original.  For genre fans and Halloween completists, recommended.

I'd already heard bad things about Halloween II, and even saw it at the library, but elected to wait until after I'd seen Part I to watch it.  Among the things it had going for it were that it (much like the original Halloween II) retained the storyline and many characters/actors from the first part.  It plays like an extended version of part one, and is internally consistent. That's saying something for this genre.  But the film tries to shoehorn in elements that are outside of the traditional Myers mythology (as strained as it eventually got), and lifted the "psychic connection" between Myers and his sister from Halloween 5 (which also starred Danielle Harris, who's now been in parts 4 and 5 of the original, and I and II of the remakes).  There are too many dream sequences (particularly a long one at the beginning), and the characters are somewhat unappealing.  It's not a total washout, but I can't strongly vouch for it either.  For Halloween completists only.