Before David Gordon Green’s new Halloween reconnected the series continuity with the 1978 original, Rob Zombie’s two entries in the franchise made an effort to reinvent the property in the filmmaker’s own unique style, and the results proved pretty polarizing. In fact, while the director himself remains proud of his contributions to the franchise, even he’s willing to admit to flaws in his work, and one of them is allegedly the 2007 Halloween’s reimagining of Laurie Strode.
Speaking with Games Radar, Zombie reflected on the changes that Laurie underwent between his remake of the John Carpenter classic and 2009’s Halloween II:
“I think Laurie Strode from my Halloween [played by Scout Taylor-Compton] was a bit boring. I mean, she is supposed to be the all-American nice girl and, to me, that is just dull. That is why when we did the sequel I made her this really damaged person – because that is infinitely more interesting and cool to explore. But in Halloween, I made a movie about Michael Myers, that came from the pitch of, ‘Okay, what if this was a real man? An actual serial killer? What set him off?’”
Zombie’s take on Laurie’s brother Michael (back when they were still siblings) remains another divisive element of his movies, with many fans preferring the inhuman force of evil that Carpenter once brought us. But as the director recently pointed out, any reworking of a classic property is guaranteed to get some backlash:
“To be honest, I would rather be doing my own thing. But I am still proud of both Halloween movies. I prefer the second one, which might surprise people. But the problem is that when you do a remake you can never get a true judgment on what it is you have done. I think it’s the same deal when someone remakes A Nightmare on Elm Street or anything else — it’s just too hard to completely break the formula.”
After Zombie’s Halloween movies broke from the formula, the new Blumhouse production saw a return to a more traditional take on the series, with Jamie Lee Curtis reprising her role as the original Laurie, and Michael reverting back to his original nature as pure evil rather than psychologically disturbed. And from a box office perspective, the change has certainly paid off, with the film recently surpassing Scream as the highest-grossing slasher flick of all time.
As for Zombie, he’s currently making a third installment for his own original horror series, with Three from Hell due for release next year.