Every Halloween Movie Ranked From Worst To Best

Plot: This remakes the original film but expands hugely on Michael Myers' backstory.

An underrated instalment without a doubt, as horror remakes go this one is not bad at all. It does perhaps miss the point by giving Michael Myers a backstory when part of his appeal was him being such a mysterious figure but at the same time, at least writer-director Rob Zombie did something different and tried to make the story his own.

It's very much a film of two halves. The first one, which looks at Myers' childhood, is actually pretty good. The scenes with the young Michael Myers (Daeg Faerch) are interesting and unsettlingly brutal - especially when Daryl Sabara (Juni from Spy Kids) is the first murder victim. This stuff does get pretty thought-provoking at times and it was refreshing to see a 2000s horror remake deviating from the original so much.

The second half of the film, which depicts Michael's rampage, is weaker. It's thrilling enough but it's overly gory and isn't scary at all, while Scout Taylor Compton's Laurie is very annoying (thanks to the writing, not Compton's performance), although Malcolm McDowell's excellent Dr Loomis and the otherwise good cast counter-balance that issue.

All in all, this is a seriously flawed movie but there's plenty to admire and it's definitely preferable to most other horror remakes from that time (looking at you, Nightmare on Elm Street 2010).