Rob Zombie's Halloween movies have always been divisive among diehard fans of the franchise, and here's the biggest reason they didn't fully work. To be fair, a remake of Halloween was always going to be a controversial prospect, no matter who directed it. Halloween is a movie so respected and revered that many horror fans consider it possibly the greatest film in the history of the genre, and even many who don't generally like horror are happy to cite John Carpenter's classic as an exception to the rule.
Still, that controversy was only exacerbated immediately by hiring Zombie to direct, who at that earlier point in his career was still already someone with equally vocal fans and detractors. His first two films, House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects, tended to be efforts people either loved wholeheartedly or hated with a passion. While The Devil's Rejects is generally regarded as Zombie's best work, even it wasn't without backlash, mainly due to the uncomfortable levels of violence and torture involved.
There are certainly lots of little reasons why Zombie's Halloween movies didn't quite work, but there's one big reason as well. At the end of the day, Zombie's signature creative style just generally mixes with the Halloween universe like oil and water.
The Biggest Reason Rob Zombie's Halloween Movies Didn't Work
John Carpenter's Halloween, while not exactly high-brow in subject matter, is probably the classiest slasher film ever made. Carpenter shows lots of restraint, leaving most of the violence up to the imagination. So much of what Michael Myers does is also designed to creep out and psychologically unsettle Laurie Strode, and by extension the audience. Halloween is positively Hitchcockian at times in how it plays with suspense. While some of Halloween's sequels would later indulge in explicit gore, they still at least usually tried to strike a tone somewhere near Carpenter's, because it's what fans came to expect.
On the other hand, Rob Zombie - with the notable exception of Lords of Salem - seems to have one mode as a writer and director, and that mode is unrelenting, unapologetic carnage. He also tends to make most of his characters rednecks and/or white trash with foul mouths. There's nothing wrong with that in principle, and Zombie's fans sure love it. But Halloween is a low-key, suspenseful, suburban horror tale with little gore. Rob Zombie's Halloween is basically Halloween without the subtlety and restraint. The film is packed with blood and guts, rampant cursing, characters of little redeeming moral value, and an unrestrained sensibility. So in essence, it's a Rob Zombie movie.
When fans sit down to watch a Halloween movie, most don't want The Devil's Rejects, they want Halloween. Zombie's sequel, Halloween 2, didn't do anything to help matters in that regard, going a weird surreal route and making the characters even less likable. That's not to say that Zombie's Halloween films are dreadful, or have no merit. The first Halloween, especially, can be quite good when not trying to copy Carpenter. The problem is, they don't at all feel like Halloween movies, and stick out in the franchise like a sore thumb.
