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Rob Zombie and Sheri Moon On Remaking An Icon |
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Saturday, 01 September 2007 |
By Christina Radish
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Sheri Moon & Rob Zombie at the premiere of "Halloween" held at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, Calif. on August 23, 2007.
| Inspired by John Carpenter’s 1978 classic Halloween, writer/director Rob Zombie -- acclaimed musician and visionary director of The Devil’s Rejects and House of 1000 Corpses -- re-imagines one of the most iconic horror stories in film history. Featuring the ruthless, masked killing machine Michael Myers, the film focuses on his early years and the events leading up to his fateful Halloween-night murder rampage in the quiet town of Haddonfield, Illinois. Following that brutal night, Michael begins his incarceration at the Smith’s Grove Sanitarium maximum-security mental facility, where he is treated by noted child behaviorist Dr. Samuel Loomis (Malcolm McDowell).
When Michael escapes from the mental facility on Halloween day, 17 years later, he begins stalking a high school girl, Laurie Strode (Scout Taylor Compton), and her friends, Annie (Danielle Harris) and Lynda (Kristina Klebe). When Dr. Loomis hears of the escape, he enlists the help of Sheriff Brackett (Brad Dourif) to find Michael Myers and put an end to his reign of terror.
At first, Zombie had no interest in doing the film, as he is not a fan of remakes, especially in the horror genre. But, after giving it some thought, the idea that he could expand on the backstory for the character excited him.
“I loved Halloween because it’s a simple story with a great character at the center of it, and I think movies, or stories, like that can be retold,” Zombie tells MediaBlvd Magazine. “No matter how good the original is, there’s always new things you can do with it. If Halloween had only been one movie, it would have been daunting. But, since there had been eight movies, and Michael Myers, as a character, had pretty much been driven into the ground because, by the 8th movie, the movies were kind of bad, what I wanted to do was restore Michael Myers back to this legendary monster.”
“I thought that would be the only way to make this character interesting again. I want this film to sit there as a completely separate movie. By the time classic Michael Myers arrives, your brain should have gotten so derailed with everything else, you’ll be like, ‘Wow, this is a whole different world.’ I didn’t know if watching a 10-year-old would be compelling or interesting, but I think it worked out great.”
When exploring the backstory for one of the scariest horror figures of all time, the former White Zombie frontman says his main goal was to make it a real story about true psychotic behavior. “I never really waned to play him as the Boogeyman, like John Carpenter did. I didn’t want to make him supernatural, or anything like that. So, I did research on psychotic behavior and about children that kill other children because that’s where this would have started. And, I wanted to degenerate Michael, so that he became less and less of a person, until he turned into what they would refer to as the Boogeyman. I always wanted to create the backstory, so that even when he was adult Michael Myers, you had some sense of a character, and it wasn’t just a scary guy in a mask.”
“A textbook psychotic, which is what I figured Michael Myers to be, is someone who has no connection to other humans and has no sense of right and wrong, but who can also be very charming and manipulative,” continues Zombie. “That’s what I wanted young Michael to be. You can see that he’s playing his mother, and everybody. They talk about how his eyes will deceive and destroy you because he’s always completely conniving and aware of what he’s doing, but at the same time, he’s completely unaware of the results of his actions. Little kids do things, like start fires or torture animals, and they just have no sense of it. They don’t see the animal as another creature with feelings. They don’t have that connection in their brain. Ted Bundy is a good example of that. He was incredibly smart and charming, but completely insane.”
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Tyler Mane as Michael Myers, director Rob Zombie and Daeg Faerch as young Michael Myers in MGM/Dimension Films' Halloween.
| With the film relying so heavily on Michael Myers’ backstory, finding the perfect young actor was imperative. “When you’re casting, you know it when you see it,” says Zombie. “Daeg Faerch was in the first group of kids that came in. There were other kids that were really good actors, like Skyler Gisondo, who plays Tommy Doyal. He auditioned for Michael Myers, and he’s a really good actor, but he just wasn’t right. He was too all-American looking and too friendly. I needed somebody that had a little more of an odd look. And then, I saw Daeg’s picture and thought he looked perfect. I was like, “Oh, my God! I hope he can act.” And, he was just great. He’s really smart and he’s got good instincts, for a kid. He doesn’t have that affected Hollywood quality, like kids do when they have a stage mom who’s taken them on a million auditions. He feels like a real kid, and that’s what I was trying to find.”
Zombie’s wife, Sheri Moon, plays Deborah Myers, Michael Myers’ mother, in Halloween. Being married to the film’s writer/director gave Moon the advantage of not having to audition for the role. “Rob wrote the part for me and I said, ‘Yeah, I’ll do it,’” Moon declares. “I trust him. He writes great characters and great roles, so what else could I say? We have a great working relationship, and he’s not going to do anything to misguide me or make me look bad. It was great.”
Playing such an emotional role, as the mother of a psychopath, was difficult for Moon, who says she was exhausted by the end of filming. “I don’t want to sound like a crybaby about it, but at the end of the day, after crying and screaming and being tortured all day, by the fact that your son had just murdered your family, it was really mentally and physically exhausting for me. And then, with the insane asylum stuff, just going in and having to visit young Michael in there and not even knowing what to say to him anymore and having nothing get better, it was draining. But, thankfully, Malcolm McDowell would interject some humor, now and then, and I would burst out laughing. I’m sure there’s a really funny blooper reel. He did a lot of funny things.”
Although she loves acting, Moon doesn’t have any interest in auditioning or pursuing other acting projects, aside from working with her husband. “I don’t go out for other roles,” she reveals. “I have a very full life. I work with Rob, whenever he does a project, and I have my clothing line, Total Skull (www.TotalSkull.com) , and I go on tour, dancing with him. I don’t subject myself to the audition process. I’m fine with whatever character Rob writes for me. I’ve also worked with Tobe Hooper (writer/director of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre), who I respect. I did a movie with him, called Toolbox Murders, and I had a nice time. But, I don’t have the time to go on auditions. I don’t care to audition for crappy projects. I trust that Rob is going to do quality stuff. If someone approached me with something that was interesting and I trusted the director, then maybe I would do it. But, I don’t seek it.”
 Moon’s next film project is as the voice of Susie-X in the adult animated feature The Haunted World of El Superbeasto, due out in 2008, and based upon Zombie’s comic of the same name. “I play the sister of El Superbeasto (voiced by Tom Papa), a retired Mexican wrestler superstar. He causes trouble and creates a path of disaster, and relies on his sister, Susie-X, to come in and clean it up for him. It’s sort of Austin Powers meets The Munsters. It’s really colorful, raunchy, sexy and adult. It’s definitely rated R.”
Zombie hasn’t committed to his next project yet, but he is definitely keeping his options open, as he would like to branch out from the horror genre. “When I finish one film, I never know what the next film will be, but I don’t only like horror movies. I don’t even know if my sensibilities are best suited to horror movies. My favorite types of movies are really violent crime movies, like Straw Dogs or Taxi Driver. I like romantic comedies, too. Romantic comedies have a bad rap now, but if you mention something like Brining Up Baby, everyone says, ‘Oh, that’s a classic!’ My only parameters for anything that I do is to feel some sort of connection to the material.” |
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