This early script review comes courtesy of JKlyza of RetroSlashers.net!
From the initial announcement, continuing right through filming (and most likely for years after its release), House Of 1000 Corpses' & Devil's Rejects director Rob Zombie remaking John Carpenter's classic defining slasher Halloween has been a hotbed of controversy. It was probably for this very reason Zombie was chosen - to simply ignite widespread passion (positive or negative, both make money) to make the project stand out in a sea of remakes. I can't tell you if the film will be good or bad (can any film be assured to be?) however I have just finished reading Zombie's first draft screenplay, which while not the film itself, does give an indication of where they're going - initially, at least. What follows is a spoiler-light rundown.
You know it's a Rob Zombie script from page one, because we get dose of animal torture courtesy of little Mikey Myers, with more to come soon after. Sure, it's a repulsive enough starting point to stake a story on, but I always find animal harm to be such a cheap shot to wring emotion out of the reader/viewer. That's supposed to have been written out by now, so hopefully Zombie realized there are infinitely smarter ways to manipulate the audience's responses.
The classic possibly flawless opening POV murder sequence of Judith Myers is redone in the script under the remake maxim of "bigger and bloodier". With gore replacing dread, we get additional murders for everyone present in the house at the time. The best part is that Zombie wisely doesn't try to stretch the revelation that it's Michael until the end of the sequence. Wouldn't play today as it did in the 70's when no one knew what the fuck was going on. It should be mentioned that Judith's death doesn't occur till around page 30, so there is ample time spent setting up the circumstances surrounding Mikey's breaking point...
There has been a lot of debate on how Mikey's origin was changed from a normal suburban kid in an upper-middle income family with no reason to kill which made it so scary. Versus, Zombie's Mikey growing up in a broke-ass, abusive dysfunctional household which therefore applies method to the madness. I'm here to say that's just bad math. Wake up and smell the vodka, for many, the home life Mikey now grows up in is considered normal! I can't tell you how many friend I have that had a messed-up upbringing and used that to make something fantastic out of their lives, while others I knew from affluent households are now coke-snorting twitchy pricks. That child Mikey in dire circumstances turned to killing is still quite a shock, because Zombie does take the time to show that even among all this, years prior Mikey was a perfectly innocent loving child and no reason or event shown to set him off down a dark path.
The one place that does need an inciting event however is the initial Halloween day and night when evil Mikey suddenly graduates from animal killing to human killing - starting with a girl classmate. That initial kill is acceptably random for such a psychotic kid, but the subsequent massacre later that evening in his family home - and all of this just happening to happen on Halloween - is just too damn convenient.
After that, we essentially move into the missing years between the cut in the original from past to present. We glimpse over years, Loomis' struggle to comprehend Mikey's lack of motive. The interplay between them in the sanitarium is frankly pretty silly to start off with - Mikey's rambling is cliched "crazy person" dialogue. I did like the concept of Mikey creating several masks to match his emotions, with it being implied that all up he made 100's, even one specifically for taking a shit. It's moments of psychological insight like that, that make the new Mikey a more shaded individual, but these moments are fleeting.
Mad Mikey transitions into an adult (I'll call him Michael now!) and the inevitable escape happens, somewhat differently then the original and in such a way that paints Michael as a sympathetic character. But the real story, the modern day Laurie Strode story doesn't being until page 69 or the 126'er script. The original story took its time to make its way through the day and into the evening, at such a leisurely pace as to feel almost real-time, generating a mounting feeling of unease along the way. But here that events are so compressed they whiz by in a heartbeat and seems like almost a shot for shot rewrite of JC & Debra Hill's script except with "updated for the kids of today" dialogue. Same structure, deaths, character meetings etc. At least we get some additional Loomis vignettes and murder scenes, but they feel shoehorned in so Zombie can make his mark on the mythos.
Michael Myers is also more like Jason now, a big hulking machine that can make multiple kills with his bare hands and withstand a ludicrous amount of bodily damage. While in the context of being a so-called realistic serial killer depiction it's completely ridiculous, I don't personally mind because that's how Michael's been in the sequels I love for years now. But that's Zombie's problem - he's gone on record as slamming the sequels but snatches aspects from them when it suits him - like Michael being implausibly invincible, and also Laurie's family connection (arguably a despised aspect of the sequels that retconned the random targeting of babysitters in the first film).
All in all, Zombie's Halloween script close enough to qualify as technically a remake, but in spirit it feels like a Japanese "Gaiden" story which is sometimes defined as a "side story considered to take place in an alternate universe from its original counterpart but does not affect the main story". The beats of the original remain firmly in place but we get to see allot of what was skipped over back then. Ever wondered what the Rabbit In Red lounge looked like? Or how Michael killed the mechanic to get his trademark overalls? Where Laurie's parents went? Or even how he ran off with Judith's tombstone? It's a positive that the script spins off these briefly mentioned scenarios we've all formed within the universe of the first film over the years, which proves Zombie is indeed "one of us". But these extras and easter eggs are brief within the framework of remaking all the original scenes, which makes me think that Zombie really would have had more fun making a sequel.
Further evidence to this lies in the page numbering. Such a chunk of the script is devoted to prequelizing the modern day Laurie story, so much so that Laurie's story is so compressed as to feel like a tack-on to the flashback story where Zombie's heart truly lies. If I have one hope for the filmed version, it's not that the prequel aspect is lessened to accommodate the modern day story, but rather that the modern day story cut to the chase and begin at nighttime. It was so disconcerting to see Zombie rush through the daytime scenes just to fulfill the timeline of the original events. Felt forced, and untrue to his own vision. It's illogical against Zombie's own depiction of Michael as a fast and furious killer that he suddenly slow down and spend the day stalking Laurie and her friends. In the original it fleshed Michael out somewhat, but in this script we've already seen what he's capable of via the prequel aspect, so here it's redundant and slows the real story down. I'll also call to question Michael Myers' ability here to find the sister he hasn't seen since she was a baby purely on some dark inner instinct. Great idea, but it appears to be simply a glib excuse stated in dialogue, hopefully merely a placeholder before Zombie could better define on paper Michael's identification of his sister.
All in all, the script feels like two movies in compressed into one. A prequel, and a remake. But these two halves struggle to reconcile with each other and therefore leave both sides underdeveloped. As it is a first draft, these flaws can be forgiven but do at least give insight into Zombie's raw initial base of thought, for better or worse. Is it Rob Zombie's vision of a Halloween film, or Halloween's vision grafted onto a Rob Zombie film? I'll leave that for you to decide.
Halloween Remake images courtesy of Rob Zombie's Official Myspace.