Internet discussion doesn’t improve movie experience
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By MELISSA OLSON
Thursday, September 13, 2007 9:00 AM CDT
For the Herald
The internet geeks are in an uproar over Rob Zombie’s “Halloween.”
Now, granted, the internet geeks get into uproars a lot. But for months, now, the good folks over at Ain’t it Cool News, one of my favorite fansites, have been following the production of Rob Zombie’s “Halloween” remake.
If you haven’t been paying attention, a few years ago Zombie (the former rocker from band “White Zombie”) decided to reinvent himself as a horror director. His first film, “House of 1,000 Corpses,” made little money but found a lot of cult respect on sites like Ain’t it Cool, as did his second film, “The Devil’s Rejects.”
I haven’t seen either movie, but from what I understand they’re both about the murderous adventures of Zombie’s particular brand of foul-mouthed, heartless, embittered white trash. And when Zombie decided to follow up “Corpses” and “Rejects” with a remake of John Carpenter’s landmark horror film, “Halloween,” well, he finally poked or in this case, stabbed the hornet’s nest of fanboy ire.
Ain’t It Cool News exploded with casting news, rumors, advance reviews, official reviews, and now, endless “talkbacks” of readers angrily voicing their own opinions.
In their defense, though, the first “Halloween” movie is sort of the “Citizen Kane” of horror. Back in 1978, “Halloween” did for scary movies what the “Godfather” movies did for gangster films: Michael Myers, the movie’s masked, psychopathic villain, started a new subgenre of 80’s slasher films, with a little help from his friends Freddie and Jason.
For the following decade or so, nearly every new horror flick released in theaters borrowed heavily from the legacy of the top three villains.
And, with the least clunky backstory and the most artistic and classy production values, the first “Halloween” is now considered king.
Terrible sequels would follow, horror would die out and be reborn with the self-referential, knowingly post-modern cheap slasher movies that we still see today, but in all this time Carpenter’s “Halloween” has never lost its prestige value.
You can understand, then, why the Internet geeks and I mean that term as a compliment (I’ve been called a movie geek on many an occasion) were so indignant about Zombie’s remake.
The Web site’s talkbacks are afire with arguments and insults and general obsessing about whether or not Zombie’s remake de-mystifies Michael Myers, whether it marginalizes Laurie Strode, or if Zombie’s dark style harms or helps the story, and so on.
Ain’t it Cool is only one of these sites. Thanks to the internet, the opportunities for fans to obsess, complain, criticize, insult, and curse movies is endless. You can now film your own YouTube version of your favorite scenes, or watch bunnies act the whole thing out in 30 seconds (if you haven’t yet, google “30 Second Bunnies.” Hilarious).
You can often find cell phone recordings of the movie itself, and find pictures and scripts stolen from the production itself.
These fans have moved way beyond the concept of “spoilers“ they delve into the tone, plot devices, general audience reception, incidents of violence, wardrobe, casting and so on. It’s not just the equivalent of flipping to the last chapter and reading the ending anymore now we’re able to memorize the whole Cliff Notes version before the trailer hits theaters.
Though I check Ain’t It Cool News fairly regularly, I hadn’t really read anything about the “Halloween” update. I just decided to go see it, after I heard from a couple of people that it was actually pretty good.
Much to my surprise, I loved Rob Zombie’s take on teenage morality in a talky, post-Sex and the City world. I thought the dark, dreadful atmosphere and overall sense of ickiness were the perfect touch to make Michael Myers scary again (after 2002’s “Halloween: Resurrection,” it definitely wasn’t an easy job).
I didn’t want anyone to go near me for two days after leaving the theater, and what better compliment can be paid to a horror movie?
But after I saw and liked “Halloween,” I did check out Aint it Cool News, and I was thrown by the pages and pages’ worth of commentary. My finger actually got tired from all the scrolling. These writers had a thousand different opinions, which they discussed at length, with no particular respect for each other.
By the time I gave up on getting to the bottom of the page, I was exhausted by “Halloween,” John Carpenter, Zombie, the fans, the armrests on my rolling chair, my contact lenses and overhead lighting. It occurred to me that maybe we’ve gone too far in our appreciation of film.
See, here’s what we’re forgetting: back in 1978 when Michael Myers first terrorized audiences, there was no such thing as Ain’t it Cool News. Heck, there was no such thing as the internet.
So the people who first fell in love with “Halloween” did it pretty much by themselves. They talked to their friends, maybe, and possibly read some reviews, but for the most part the moviegoing experience back then was limited to just, you know, moviegoing.
If the internet had been around when John Carpenter first made “Halloween,” would it have become the legend that it did? Or would audience who already knew the ending get tangled up in debating Jamie Lee Curtis’s wardrobe choices and miss the point entirely?
It’s almost as though the very culture that has devoted itself to movies has ruined the innocence of movie watching.
I guess the moral of the story here is that fan-dom is a strange and powerful thing, and an internet following can be quite the double-edged sword.
Sometimes there’s nothing more harmful to a new movie than the legendary status its predecessor has acquired. (Listen, internet geeks, because I will say this one time: The Phantom Menace is not. That. Bad.)
If you can put aside all that hype long enough, “Halloween” is at the very least a really interesting movie. But if you can’t let go, you’re better off staying home with your DVD’s. Just maybe lay off the computer.
Melissa Olson was born and raised in Chippewa Falls. She graduated from the University of Southern California with a degree in film and television, and works in Madison for the television program Discover Wisconsin. E-mail comments and questions to Melissa at mfo.usc@gmail.com.
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