[rosebud.]

My two main concerns with Zombie's Halloween were the pacing and the lack of suspense. His movie spends way too much time on Michael as a kid, and while the drunken bastard step dad and stripper mom were a nice touch, it just went on for way too long (not to mention that the young boy's acting skills were quite... well, they weren't really up to par with everyone elses). But then the film jumps forward suddenly and loses all of the suspense that the "Michael stalking Laurie" sequence had in the original film. In the Carpenter film, Michael follows Laurie around in the car, stands ominously behind bushes, then darts away when he's spotted. In Zombie's, he just sorta stands next to trees, hulkingly huge, and follows her down the street at about 20 feet away, where everyone can see him. After this rushed and non-suspenseful series of scenes he starts to murder people. I liked how Zombie handled the violence, but the pacing during the massacre sequence (aka the whole last half of the movie) was awkward and varied too much in my opinion. It would speed up and crank along, moving nicely and gaining momentum, possibly even a hint of suspense, but then it would collapse on itself. Another minor complaint is that the final encounter with Michael was oddly structured, and while I enjoyed it, it just left some hunger for a big thrilling moment, which I feel was never delivered.

All in all, it's good in it's own right, and it just goes to show that in most cases the remake never tops the original.
Lucky for us, the ending (hopefully) eliminated the possibility of Zombie making sequels.

Peace.