Halloween 2007

Kyle Smith, New York Post: The Batman Begins of slasher movies, and one of the more frightening stabathons of recent years. Read more

Andrea Gronvall, Chicago Reader: The set-up is tediously slow, while the later murders are packed so tightly it's like watching a blender on high speed. Read more

Tom Russo, Boston Globe: As a sensory experience, the redo is flat. Even if giving audiences a start were Zombie's strength, fans already know when the scares are coming. Read more

Adam Graham, Detroit News: Michael Myers is back. And no, you still shouldn't care. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: It's a decent diversion. Read more

John Monaghan, Detroit Free Press: With Halloween out of his system, maybe Zombie will get back to what he does best: fashioning semi-original ideas that borrow from earlier movies while avoiding outright remakes. Read more

Lisa Rose, Newark Star-Ledger: Revamping the influential 1978 shocker Halloween for a new generation of viewers, director Rob Zombie offers a film with more sex, more violence, no humor and zero scares. Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: Rob Zombie's lousy remake of John Carpenter's 1978 slasher classic Halloween adds to the argument that horror movies are losing their box-office appeal because filmmakers no longer know how -- or have any desire -- to create genuine suspense. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: Rob Zombie's Halloween remake isn't scary, which is really all you need to know about it. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Although it's not saying much, this is director Rob Zombie's most impressive outing behind the camera. Read more

Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle: Even if you consider a Halloween remake sacrilege, you've got to like a truck stop bathroom that's even gnarlier than the one in Trainspotting. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Carpenter's original, a series of brilliant joy-buzzer jolts, treated the horror as a dark pop joke, courting our giggling disbelief. Zombie turns it somber. Read more

Jason Anderson, Globe and Mail: The most depressing thing of all is that Michael will likely survive even this dire endeavour. Read more

Bruce Demara, Toronto Star: Trick or treat? Rob Zombie's "re-imagining" of John Carpenter's 1978 horror classic Halloween must sadly be consigned to the former category and it's not even a very interesting, suspenseful trick at that. Read more

Cliff Doerksen, Time Out: Read more

Ben Walters, Time Out: It's inanely-scripted exploitation, sure, but this 'Halloween' doesn't trivialise; it even returns with sympathy to one victim minutes after the attack that has left her bleeding on the floor. Read more

Dennis Harvey, Variety: The best that can be said about Rob Zombie's Halloween remake is that he makes it his own, though the considerable alterations only flatter John Carpenter's 1978 slasher-pic template. Read more

Nathan Lee, Village Voice: The life and times of a fictional monster may not be as respectable a subject as a historical monster like, say, Idi Amin or Truman Capote, but Zombie's portrait is every bit as reverent, scrupulous, and deeply felt as any Oscar-grubbing horrorshow. Read more

Richard Harrington, Washington Post: Contains dialogue so nasty and stupid, you'd swear (right along with the characters) that the booker for Jerry Springer wrote it (Zombie did). Read more