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Parents' Guide to

Halloween (2007)

By Charles Cassady Jr., Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 18+

Teen slasher flick remake is brutal and bloody.

Movie R 2007 109 minutes
Halloween (2007) Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Community Reviews

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age 14+

Based on 30 parent reviews

CommonSenseWafers
CommonSenseWafers Adult
October 14, 2020
age 18+

Don't Bother to watch this Crap.

It really isn't a good film. When you see the first Halloween from 1978 it was such a better movie then this. I mean seeing the Halloween II from 2009 just pretty much tells you this will be a horrible film. Again don't watch this. I don't understand how this even is a movie.

This title has:

Too much violence
Too much swearing
1 person found this helpful.
rbbbs
rbbbs Adult
November 1, 2019
age 18+

Explicit and violent, but ultimately dissatisfying.

While the original film has a charm and is quite tame, the remake is a nihilistic and grisly re-imagining that exists to ultimately put viewers in a bad mood. Generally speaking, this movie is legitimate trash. The characters are unlikable and use strong language that is disrespectful for one another. The violence is excessive and tasteless, and really tries to disturb the viewer by being edgy and over-the-top. It really makes you feel dirty watching this, as if it's part of taboo collection you're not supposed to uncover. My honest opinion of the film: I really despite it, and even attempting to watch it really turns me off. It paints society having an angry and psychotic tone to it, and there's nothing here that is entertaining, save for Malcolm McDowell's excellent portrayal of Dr. Loomis. The movie is too long, and copies its source material too much to the point it feels like an uninspired snuff-and-pornographic fan fiction written by some teenage shut-in. Any in-depth suspense is lost here in favor for visceral blood and gore which Zombie hilarious attempts to censor or hide through cheap camera tricks or perspectives. It just seems like he's deliberately trying hard to kill off his film career which he barely has; there's moments in the film that serve no purpose, such as the implied rape scene which is found in the director's cut of the film. The female characters are also portrayed as nothing but mere exploitation for nude shots. If you're familiar with Rob Zombie's prior film work, you know exactly what to expect. I don't recommend literally anyone to see this film anyways; just stick with the classic.

This title has:

Too much violence
Too much sex
Too much swearing
Too much drinking/drugs/smoking
1 person found this helpful.
See all 30 parent reviews

What's the Story?

Early on, it seems like director Rob Zombie's HALLOWEEN (2007) is trying to do for Carpenter's blank-faced mass-murderer Michael Myers what Hannibal Rising did for fiendish Hannibal Lecter, showing viewers his upbringing and explaining how he came to be a monster. Michael starts out as an innocent-looking, blond-haired 10-year-old (played by Daeg Faerch) living in a family that includes an exotic dancer, her abusive live-in boyfriend, and a hyper-sexed sister. Bullied at school near Halloween, Michael ambushes and fatally batters a classmate (though that's not his first victim -- he's already killed plenty of small animals as practice). And then, after trick-or-treating on October 31, Michael slices up his stepfather, his sister, and his sister's boyfriend, sparing only baby sister Laurie. Police lock up the maniacal kid, who claims to remember nothing, in an institution. The plot then skips to 15 years later. Michael's mother has killed herself, and his longtime psychiatrist, Dr. Loomis (Malcolm McDowell) has given up on him as a hopeless, unreachable psychopath. The adult Michael (Tyler Mane) is a hulking, silent figure obsessed with wearing masks. Near the October anniversary of the murders, he escapes, slaughtering several guards and even a gentle orderly who befriended him. Dr. Loomis believes Michael is heading home to kill again on Halloween, and he guesses the target is his surviving sister, Laurie (Scout Taylor-Compton). Now a teenager, Laurie was adopted into a stable family years ago -- but she still has plenty of sex-minded girlfriends to hang around with, providing Michael with a plethora of victims as night falls.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (30 ):
Kids say (78 ):

The violence in this film is appallingly in-your-face. Horror fans claim, not without reason, that the original Halloween wasn't just a sicko slasher movie that caught on, but an artfully suspenseful masterpiece that expertly played on viewers' nerves. You barely see any real violence or blood -- you just think you do. Not so much this time around. This graphic Halloween remake from rock musician-turned-filmmaker Rob Zombie is positively drenched in blood and carnage, along with smashed faces, impalings, bashings, strangulation, crude sex, and vile language, all in shaky-camera close-up. In other words, it's full of everything that original director John Carpenter merely hinted at, letting our dread and elemental fear of a lurking marauder in the dark fill in the blanks.

There have been worse slasher movies than the original Halloween (the first Friday the 13th, for one): Carpenter's finesse with the film's uncluttered, low-budget plotline made it look so easy that all kinds of hack moviemakers (many lacking even Zombie's level of directorial acumen) filled theaters with knives and butchery throughout the 1980s. The 2007 Halloween, besides pushing the gore to dare-you-to-look extremes, seems to want to cadge some sympathy for the ghastly Michael, making his victims (at first, anyway) foul sadists who deserve no mercy. But then characters who are inoffensive -- and even kind -- to Michael die just as gruesomely, so what's the point? Probably the dollar figures brought in by the combined earnings of some seven or eight (depends how you do the counting) Halloween sequels -- that's the point, and this movie's open ending leaves the door open for further installments

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about which types of horror movies are scarier -- ones like Halloween (2007), that show all the gruesome details, or those like the original 1978 Halloween, which left more to the imagination. Why? Why do you think audiences are drawn to gory movies in the first place?

  • How did the movie incorporate elements of the original Halloween movie, and how did it find a new way to tell the story?

  • How did this version of Halloween use music to set the time and place and create and build suspense?

Movie Details

  • In theaters: August 31, 2007
  • On DVD or streaming: December 18, 2007
  • Cast: Malcolm McDowell , Sheri Moon-Zombie , Tyler Mane
  • Director: Rob Zombie
  • Studio: Weinstein Co.
  • Genre: Horror
  • Run time: 109 minutes
  • MPAA rating: R
  • MPAA explanation: strong brutal bloody violence and terror throughout, sexual content, graphic nudity and language.
  • Last updated: December 7, 2022

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