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This October marks the return of Catching Up Cinema's annual, \u201cKyle's Killer October\u201d month!

All month long, Kyle will be taking creative control of the program, with this year's theme being an exploration of the filmography of Rob Zombie!

This week, we review Rob Zombie's remake of John Carpenter's original, Halloween (2007)!

Produced in the wake of the poorly regarded Halloween: Resurrection (2002), as well as the untimely death of lead producer on the franchise, Moustapha Akkad, Halloween 2007 was to serve as both a new beginning for the franchise, and a radical tonal/textural departure from earlier Michael Myers films.

Produced by Moustapha Akkad's son, Malek, after numerous failed attempts to greenlight crossover Halloween projects in the hopes of aping the success of the earlier Freddy vs. Jason (2003), Rob Zombie was approached to both write and direct Halloween 2007, essentially being given carte blanche in all areas of production.

Half prequel, and half remake of John Carpenter's 1978 original, Zombie's Halloween bears many of the director's trademarks, e.g. vulgar dialogue, a grungy pseudo-70's aesthetic, and a cast populated with a who's who of grindhouse cinema character actors, however it's debatable how much of them are a good fit for the world of Michael Myers.

Mean-spirited and brutal in ways that many \u201cmascot\u201d slasher films are not, Halloween 2007 is wildly effective in eliciting an emotional response from the viewer, however in the case of this reviewer, said emotions detract from rather than enhance the experience.

Halloween 2007 boldly attempts to fill in many blanks in the backstory of Michael Myers that may or may not be best left unfilled, presenting a prologue segment that doesn't necessarily explain Myers' psychopathy, though it does seem to point to his prolonged incarceration as perhaps being responsible for exacerbating it.

A highly divisive entry in the franchise, Halloween 2007 is perhaps best regarded as \u201cRob Zombies' Halloween,\u201d as it fits cleanly into the director's oeuvre, which by its very nature, classifies the film as one that will only appeal to a very specific niche audience.

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