THE NEW HALOWEEN 3

Sometimes one wishes for the winds of change to come but instead are greeted by a gentle breeze that translates into remakes and reboots. With this topic being butchered to death over the past few years we won’t bore you with another rant about how originality is dead and Hollywood only cares about money. That story has been written. What we do want to talk about is the remaking of remakes...

Which oddly is something that we aren't sure any of us expected so soon. What do we mean by that? We’re not naive in thinking that if a film can be remade once that somehow puts it into an untouchable category that makes it off limits for future attempts at remaking the same movie. We just didn’t think it would happen for another 10 to 20 years. Obviously our heads were in the clouds because Hollywood is remaking remakes and the trend seems to be in an infant stage. One that will only grow no doubt and be built upon. With comic book movies seeing the remake of the remake treatment with films like Superman, The Hulk, and Spider-man, is it really that far fetched of an idea that horror movies are next? Texas Chainsaw Massacre was what many consider the start of the horror remake boom and talks are hot and heavy to reboot the franchise once again.

So are we loosing creativity here? Has Hollywood lost its touch? The answer is no. Creativity is at an all time high and with technology gaining access into an ever growing number of homes and business any Joe Schmo with an internet connection and half a brain can write a screen play that would probably rival half of the dreck that makes it to the silver screen these days. So with creativity not lacking why aren’t we seeing new ideas and brand new ideas flourishing on the screen, in games, and even in the music industry? The answer lies in the bottom line. The almighty dollar.

A proven franchise is not only less risk but guaranteed money. If you slap the name Friday the 13th on a film or Halloween you're guaranteeing 20 million at the box office right off the bat. Why not take the easy path? If you had a few million dollars to spend on a project would you want to take a gamble on (insert cheesy movie title here) or a franchise that has millions of fans? It’s a no brainier and who are we to argue with Hollywood for doing something each and everyone of us would do if we were in the same place. We would take the safe bet. Most of us would anyway. It’s those few of us that wouldn’t that will push the envelope and create art and a new fan base. The sad fact of the matter is for every 30 films those creative artists make, 29 will fail and loose money. It takes all the stars to lineup perfectly to create another Halloween or Friday the 13th. It isn’t something that just happens. Many chase that dream never to realize it.

Where are we going with this you ask? We’ll we’ve mentioned the film Halloween. We’ve seen Rob Zombie take the film and re-imagine it. Some loved it and others loathed it. Regardless of your feelings, he certainty put his own flare on the series. Something that we can applaud for the simple fact that at the very least he created his own vision. But that also has us thinking. With Rob Zombie’s Halloween 2 not performing well at the box office, the Weinstein Brothers reported that Halloween 3 in 3D would be in the development stages. That news broke on the weekend Rob’s H2 came out. It took many of us in the industry by surprise but it also made sense. It gave fans that hated the film something to hang their hats on, hoping that the series may once again take a different turn. The director and writer of My Bloody Valentine 3D, Patrick Lussier and Todd Farmer, were signed on and the film was all but a done deal. Fast forward a week or two later and the project was canceled. It left many of us scratching our heads wondering why the fast axe? We’ve heard nothing about the project since and we are beginning to put the puzzle together on why that may be.

We go back to where this story started…remakes. How unlikely would a remake of the Halloween franchise for a second time be? Not that unlikely and we feel strongly that something might just be in the works. Again Rob Zombie gave the Halloween series a shot in the arm that it needed. A different look and feel. A very gritty, dirty look and feel that only Rob Zombie can do, and do well. He created his version of Halloween but that was his vision. Michael Myers is a character that was built in the suburbs. An old fashioned 50’s mid western setting with fall leaves blowing in the wind and kids carving jack-o-lanterns on the porch. Something so innocent. A time that many of us remember as a child trick or treating or at the very least picture in our mind when thinking of the holiday. But that fun and exciting time turned so brutal when the character of Michael Myers was unleashed and started terrorizing Haddonfield, his home. It was that contrast that we feel the fan base may be longing for again and something they may be wanting to reinvent. Instead of trying to continue Zombie’s gritty style we see the studios remaking the franchise taking it into an entirely new direction, one where nostalgia meets brutality. It will have the Halloween stamp on it. It will cause fans in droves to go see it. It will continue on one of the greatest horror icons in history and most importantly it's a safe bet, it will make money. Again, you have to think of the dollars at the end of the day.

So with that being said, how would you feel to see a reboot of a reboot? Do you welcome the idea or does remaking something so many times tarnish the originality that still exists? Isn’t there a point when an idea becomes so used up that we as an audience just grow tired of it? Will that happen to Halloween and when is too many remakes too many? If we are rebooting a franchise every 5 or 10 years when does it stop?