MovieChat Forums > Halloween (2007) Discussion > How does dialogue so horrendously awful ...

How does dialogue so horrendously awful get approved?


Apparently the producers didn't even really care what hogwash Zombie came up with as long as it was called Halloween, but someone REALLY should have stepped in before it was too late here. Just examine the following little exchange:

Deborah Myers: Jesus Christ, Ronnie, you know I have to work tonight. Someone around here has got to make some money.
Ronnie White: I'm all broken up here bitch, I can't work.
Deborah Myers: Yeah, and who's fault is that? You're so pathetic.
Ronnie White: You know that new waitress over at the Bingo Lounge? She's been giving me the freaky eye.
Deborah Myers: You mean the whore the big tits hanging down her knees?
Ronnie White: Maybe I will choke the chicken and purge my snork all over those flappy ass tits.
Deborah Myers: Yeah, well have a great *beep* time.
Ronnie White: I will.
Deborah Myers: I hope she likes cripples.
Ronnie White: Bitch, I will crawl over there and I will skull *beep* the s*** out of you!
Deborah Myers: Oh, I will get the crutches for you.
Baby Boo: [Baby Boo starts crying]
Deborah Myers: See what you did loud mouth?
Ronnie White: WAAA! WAAA! That's all that *beep* ever does is cry. WAAA! WAAA! Cry and s***, cry and s***.
Deborah Myers: That's what you do all the time is cry and s***.
Ronnie White: *beep* you, sit on my pole right now bitch.


Seems like something a 10 year old would come up with thinking it was funny, not some 50 year old adult. And most of the rest of the dialogue is just as awful. I couldn't imagine being in film, reading a script containing dialogue so terrible and not being completely embarrassed FOR Rob Zombie. They probably knew this would make money on the name alone and just let him do whatever he wanted, but someone really should have demanded a complete script re-write on this one and perhaps it would have been at least watchable.

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Devil's Rejects. It was so popular and made a lot of people money so they went with that and signed Rob Zombie. He's better with his own material than someone else's I'll give him that. It's his wheel house, it's all he knows. He can't stretch his creativity in any other way. And after Resurrection's poor outing and the popularity of remakes at the time it was a cash cow. Notice not much dialogue or at least the worst of it, was released in advertisements. They made you spend your money to find out the hard way. By then it was too late.

And at this point, Akkad and co. were doing anything to retain relevance. That's why this movie was made the way it was and rightly hated for it. Everything a Halloween movie is not.


"He came home." - Dr. Sam Loomis from the original HalloweeN

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[deleted]

Oh, God yes. There were certain things I thought Zombie did very well in the film and the story telling, but the dialogue? These people were trash. It was so over the top.

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The problem with Rob Zombie as a filmmaker is that he dos some things extremely well in a very original and distinctive way. However, there are certain things he doesn't do so well, and its consistent and he hasn't gotten better.

If he had a writing partner, someone who was a real wordsmith, who could go in an de-Zombie-fy the dialogue sometimes, the finished products would be much better off.

And he always goes just a little too far and it shatters the suspension of disbelief. For his own material, like House of 1,000 Corpses and Devil's Rejects, it works because that's the schtick, but for Halloween, it breaks the magic.

The beginning of the film is damn near flawless accept for two instances. The bit of dialouge posted above, which was basically the opening of the film...I suppose the idea was to set the tone of the chaos Michael lives in, just to really plunge you into it...but as you can see, it's just too terribly and unrealistically written. But it could have been fixed.

The other instance where Zombie gets too Zombie is the "news" footage of the bodies being brought out of the house...dead bodies on gurneys, covered in blood, with no sheet covering them, no body bags, just strapped to stretchers and wheeled out into the street in front of the news cameras? It's inane and stupid and after the shocking violence of the previous scene, it really breaks the spell with it's ultraviolence.

Also, one could argue, that a Michael Myers who has evil inside him but comes from an otherwise normal, loving, compassionate household instead of the sh*tshow Zombie has him living in, would be far more interesting and scary.

I think he's a great director who knows a lot about setting a tone and mood and knows a lot about filming violence and gore well. He just isn't a very good writer on his own.

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Agree with all that. Wasn't a fan of 1000 Corpses, but loved Devil's Rejects. Perfect formula of humor, violence. Lords of Salem is decent and 31 just has too many of his homeboys in it. Get some new blood. I know employing your friends, but still....

His own stuff's good. Doing someone else's stuff, a la Halloween...not good, not what people are used to. Can't fault them for that.


"He came home." - Dr. Sam Loomis from the original HalloweeN

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[deleted]

I did like some of it. The Doom style POV chase with the night vision goggles are tough to follow, given my vision issues. What really killed me was sitting in the theater and waiting 5-10 minutes or an eternity it felt like, for the sheriff's head to get blown off. I know, tension, but that was fast forward material there. I thought the movie was broken/frozen.

I felt Rejects had the horror, the sexy, the humor, all the things that make those movies great. There was little of that in Corpses that I remember. I do remember the chicken "lover" bit. That was hilarious, and of course, the Thelma and Louise blaze of glory ending. Don't remember much other than what I stated about Corpses, not enough to like it as much.

Wasn't a big fan of snuff films like I Spit on your Grave and Last House on the Left, or the remakes for that matter. That's what Corpses felt like. This is the 21st century, that stuff doesn't work anymore.



"He came home." - Dr. Sam Loomis from the original HalloweeN

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He's a talented director; his weakness is that he has no nuance, especially when it comes to characters. He lacks subtlety, which work for something like the Devil's Rejects, but for something like Halloween, the lack of elegance is jarring. Zombie is good at depicting brutality without it seeming like torture porn, and he shoots well( except for the shakey cam), but he needs to dial it back a little ( which I think he did with the Lord's Of Salem, which I love).

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Zombie is good at depicting brutality without it seeming like torture porn


How does it not seem like torture porn?

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Although it IS brutal, his style of violence still serves his stories, no matter what you feel about said stories imo.

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His two original stories revolve entirely around a family of psychobillies who brutally torture and murder people. Of course his style of violence serves the story, because that's all there is to the story.

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I still wouldn't classify it as torture porn; zombie has more grindhouse sensibilities.

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Good post, stranglewood.

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Totally agree with amodestproposal. Well said.

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You are right. That is the dialog written by a child. lol This movie is a terrible remake. It lost the spirit that is Michael Myers...and good writers.

In a world ruled by the dead, we are forced to finally start living.

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The problem is that Rob Zombie's Michael Myers seems less evil than John Carpenter's. Carpenter's Michael personified evil. He was just a little boy that killed his sister for no reason, and then evolved into a something totally devoid of humanity, a living demon. Zombie's Michael was almost a tragic figure. You kind of root for him to kill the dad because he was such a POS. There's no mystery to why he was the way he was. And then he seemed to try to reach out to his sister, by showing her the picture. Would he have tried to kill her if she had understood and not rejected him? Maybe. That is not evil personified.

All of that said, I don't totally hate this film. The problem is that he was supposed to be Michael Myers. If this was a stand alone film, it could have been an interesting commentary on the nature vs. nuture debate of personality development. Instead, it was just a bad remake.



Hollywood is a place where they'll pay you $50,000 for a kiss and 50 cents for your soul.

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Well. A typical Zombie movie. A total hack writer, who can't write dialog for *beep* Kinda like Walking dead's Robert Kirkman. Also a total loser in that department.

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The original Michael had no motive but could have had a motive and the wondering what it is makes pondering that motive more fun than actually hearing it. Carpenter added to the intrigue by never having Michael speak and very rarely showing his face. This worked as well as the mystery - he was something between a real life man and superhuman.

This, as is typical of Zombie, had no subtlety. He could have gone with many interesting angles but having Michael as the long-haired, grungy, dead-faced screwed up product of a redneck, white trash, pervert stepfather was about the most predictable angle they could have gone with. I've seen fan made Halloween interpretations with more interesting insights.

His dialogue is reminiscent of a man who has never really grown up beyond hearing dirty words and tittering over them when he was 14.

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The dialogue definitely wasn't good. Probably one of the biggest downfalls of the film, along with the acting. Which I assume the acting and the poorly delivered dialogue sort of go hand & hand.

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Rob zombie does a good job with visuals. I don't have much else nice to say about his film work.

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