Halloween (2007)Movie Reviews

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So-so
Avg. Critic Score: 47 out of 100 Mixed or average reviews Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
17 not for kids
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 67
    Entertainment Weekly | Owen Gleiberman

    This Myers is more problem child than bogeyman. Read full review

  • 60
    The Hollywood Reporter | Kirk Honeycutt

    As usual, Zombie has added an element of camp fun to the proceedings with his clever casting of B-movie icons in small roles, including Dee Wallace, Brad Dourif, Danny Trejo and Sid Haig. Read full review

  • 50
    The New York Times |

    The new Halloween has sympathy for the Devil, but not enough. Read full review

  • 50
    San Francisco Chronicle | Peter Hartlaub

    Filmgoers looking for copious amounts of mindless violence won't be disappointed. Read full review

  • 50
    Los Angeles Times |

    It's a more polished, high-fidelity version of a story that's played out on screen many times since 1978, but once Zombie runs out of subtext, he's right back to the same old slasher text: "Blood. Guts. The end." Read full review

  • 40
    Austin Chronicle | Marc Savlov

    Zombie continues to have a true, unflinching artist's eye for the sublimely horrific (a woodsy murder sequence is pregnant with disturbing, painterly compositions), that eye is wasted here on an unnecessarily moribund history of sociopathy as it relates to Halloween in Haddonfield, Illinois. Read full review

  • 38
    New York Daily News | Jack Mathews

    There is just no tension built prior to the murders. Read full review

  • 30
    Variety | Dennis Harvey

    Leaves nothing to the imagination: Michael Myers is always right there in plain sight, committing mayhem sans suspenseful buildup or mystique. Read full review

  • 25
    Boston Globe |

    As with Zombie's two previous schlock horror features, "House of 1000 Corpses" and "The Devil's Rejects," the atmosphere here isn't so much tense and jolting as unnervingly weird and gory, but it's effective. Read full review

  • 20
    Washington Post |

    A film that contains dialogue so nasty and stupid, you'd swear (right along with the characters) that the booker for "Jerry Springer" wrote it (Zombie did). Read full review

View more reviews for Halloween (2007) on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says not for kids Teen slasher flick remake is brutal and bloody.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that director Rob Zombie's "re-imagined" slasher flick leaves no blood, gore, or sex to viewers' imagination: It's all here in spades. Savage stabbings and slayings are presented in ugly close-up. Most (though not all) of killer Michael Myers' victims seem to be sexually active teenagers, and viewers see female characters in various forms of undress, including nearly full nudity. Characters -- including kids -- swear robustly ("f--k," "s--t," etc.).
  • Families can talk about which types of horror movies are scarier -- ones like this, 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? Is it fun to be scared at the movies? Why? Families can also discuss whether this movie makes killer Michael Myers sympathetic in any way. Are any of his crimes rationalized or explained? Why is that significant?
The good stuff
  • message true0 Positive messages: Most of the film's characters range from merely unsympathetic to absolutely loathsome, including creepy and nasty grownups and bullying and promiscuous teenagers (one of whom talks gleefully about manipulating her parents' divorce for her own ends). Some of this is used to illustrate the environment that makes Michael Myers into a vicious killing machine -- i.e. that his victims "deserve" it -- but other characters who are inoffensive (and even gentle) die just as hideously.
What to watch for
  • violence false5 Violence: Horrendous up-close beatings, bashings, stabbings, hangings, and strangulation. One victim is left dangling on a door, pinned by the knife; another is drowned as blood fountains out of his mouth. Two people are shot at close range. Viewers see victims' faces in bloody close-up most of the time. Many pets are killed, but viewers only see evidence photos.
  • sex false5 Sex: Lots of teenage sex, with near-full female nudity. Another character, an exotic dancer, gyrates in minimal clothing. Kids and adults talk crudely and enthusiastically about masturbation, promiscuity, and stepfather incest. The pages of a pornographic magazine are riffled through, and one victim thinks Michael Myers is looking for a homosexual act in a bathroom stall.
  • language false5 Language: "F--k" and "s--t" are used routinely (even by kids); other language includes "c--t" spelled out (oh good, it's educational).
  • consumerism false3 Consumerism: Plugs for other horror movies admired by the filmmakers, in the form of clips from The Thing and White Zombie. Heavy selection of pop-rock tunes on the soundtrack, KISS T-shirt, one prominent porn magazine title.
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false3 Drinking, drugs and smoking: High schoolers smoke and drink beer.
An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

Looking for more reviews? Movies.com Critics Say:

Dave White

2.5

Dave White Profile See Dave White's Profile

pure Rob Zombie hillbilly grotesquery and murder … Read full review See Dave White's on MOVIENAME on Movies.com

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Halloween (2007) Movie Ratings + Reviews

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