Sinister Seven: Rob Zombie

Rue Morgue readers know that Rob Zombie has had a much tougher time in the pages of the mag as filmmaker than he has a musician. He’s taken a lot of heat for House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil’s Rejects, and rightfully so in my opinion, as there are a lot of problems with those films – from some truly cringe-inducing performances and dialogue to the ridiculousness of trying to romanticize a bunch of ruthless monsters by turning your movie into a Skynyrd video. That said, even if we aren’t onboard with his vision, at least he’s genuinely got one, which so many “horror” directors do not, hence the glut of uninspired carbon-copy crapola polluting the genre. We generally respect that Zombie loves the genre and works hard to carve out an original niche in it.

When I heard he was making Halloween, I thought he was the right man for the job. First of all, you probably won’t find anyone that cares about the franchise as much as he does. Secondly, the Halloween franchise has no where to go but up (suffering from some of the worst sequels in horror moviedom), so by all means, if the producers insist on making more Halloween movies, for chrissakes, try something different – try a remake. Why not? If you don’t like it, it’s not exactly difficult to find a copy of the original on DVD.

Despite the faults of his two previous features, Zombie has proven himself adept at horrifying concepts, strong visuals and ballsy gore. He’s improved technically, as well. If anything should raise a red flag in the Halloween “reimagining” it’s his love of recognizable genre actors. The cast for the movie reads like a horror convention list, and you can’t help but feel that every time one of those personalities gets added, it’s a distraction that takes away from what should be the primary goal: telling a good story. Also, let’s hope his love of hillbilly horror doesn’t turn the movie into the Haddonfields vs. the McCoys.

Alright, that said, let’s judge the film when it’s released. Given the changes a movie goes through between script and release, it’s unfair to whine, cry and soil your internet troll shorts when someone posts a script review. Doesn’t anyone like to be surprised at the movies anymore? Fuck, it’s bad enough that trailers spoil the average film, now people want to ruin it before it’s even made?

But, I have seriously digressed. Despite RM’s past criticism, Zombie is great about making himself available for interviews. On Friday morning, on his way to day eighteen of the 40-day Halloween shoot, he gave me some time on the phone to talk about the film (and other things, which you can read in an upcoming issue of Rue Morgue).

Yup, I talked with a Zombie…

Just so there’s no doubt there’s a dedicated Halloween fan on this project, what’s your greatest piece of Halloween memorabilia?
The best piece of Halloween memorabilia I own is PJ Soles gave me her original shooting script from when she shot the film. It has all her hand written notes, written in pencil and a lot of famous lines she ad-libbed that she wrote in. That’s the best thing I have.

What are you trying to achieve with the movie?
Well, my main goal with this film is to make a great film. People are like, “Remakes!” and they all cry about it, but there have always been great remakes over the years. It’s just that most of them don’t take place in the horror genre. Nobody complains about Cape Fear or Scarface or The Magnificent Seven or whatever. My goal is to make a film that’s not a copycat of the original, a film that you can enjoy on it’s own, not that you have to enjoy in relationship to another film. Remakes don’t work if they’re compared to the [original] film all the time. My goal is to retain what everyone enjoys about the character Michael Myers but present it in such a different light that you can’t sit there and compare and contrast, which is a waste of time.

Any major challenges so far with the shoot?
Right now my major challenge is battling the weather. It’s about ready to storm, and of course we shoot out of sequence; in so many of the exteriors it’s not raining, so now rain is our biggest challenge.

Is there any truth to claims that have been made that online reviews of the script resulted in you doing rewrites?
There’s no truth to anything ever. I actually don’t have any idea what’s going on online because I would say it’s always about 99 percent nonsense. I don’t have to pay any attention to that because it doesn’t mean anything. People don’t really know how movies are made or what goes on or the things that change, the channels that things go through. For a few minutes, when I first started, someone would always email me and go, “Is it true so-and-so is Laurie Strode?” “No, it’s no true, I don’t even know who that person is you’re mentioning.” But then it would get posted anyway and y’know, I’m done, I can’t address nonsense all day long, I’ve got actual work to do. Clearly, they would sit at home, think of something and just put it out there because there was no basis in anything ever. Life’s too short to address bullshit all day long.

We’ve been joking around the office that there won’t be actors left in the horror community to make a film right now because you’ve got everyone in your movie. Was there anyone you wanted for the film that you couldn’t get? Aside from Donald Pleasence, of course.
Hmmm… probably. Y’know if there’s somebody not available that you want, you so quickly forget about it and move on. I’m trying to remember if there was anyone at any point— no, I think I got everybody I really wanted.

How much contact do you have with John Carpenter regarding this project? Does he cruise by the set?
I talk to John off and on. I talked to him before we started; I talked to him a couple times since we’ve been shooting. He doesn’t give a fuck. He’s like [affecting a gravely voice], “Hey Rob, do your thing, have a good time. Whatever.”

And finally, just how hard is it to resist putting on the Myers mask and wandering around the Haddonfield set?
Y’know, it’s pretty easy actually. Heh heh, it never even crossed my mind. The mask has been lyin’ around – all versions of it – and it never even crossed my mind once. I guess I’m so focused on what I’m trying to do, there’s no time for fun.

Official Halloween remake page
Halloween remake MySpace page
Rob Zombie’s homepage