Halloween DVD: Writer/Director Rob Zombie
On DVD December 18th
By: BC
After being committed for 17 years, Michael Myers, now a grown man and still very dangerous, is mistakenly released from the mental institution (where he was committed as a 10 year old) and he immediately returns to Haddonfield, where he wants to find his baby sister, Laurie. Anyone who crosses his path is in mortal danger.
BD: So the unrated cut is NOT the “workprint” version, correct?
I don’t know what this bullshit workprint is, something got online which I never saw. But during the course of cutting a movie, there’s like 50 different ‘workprints’, you know what I mean? So whatever’s online, I don’t know. Because every day you recut the movie and it’s different. So the version from the day that someone decided to steal the movie and put it online is one of the 300 versions we were cutting. So I don’t know what that is, but the one on the Unrated DVD is not that. The Unrated version has stuff no one has ever seen; stuff that was never in any cut. And also we went back and made it real movie - redo the music, redo the sound, remix it, make it all look good. The unrated version is definitely the most deluxe version of all.
BD: Sometimes on these recut versions we end up actually LOSING some stuff that was in the theatrical for one reason or another; is that going to be the case here?
There’s one thing from the theatrical that’s gone. I filmed two different scenes for when Michael escapes from Smith’s Grove. And the one that’s in the unrated version, I went back to the original scene that I filmed, which I liked better. Because I was never really sure, sometimes you film something and you’re not sure if it works, and then you get a chance to go back and put in the original version. And the theatrical version will be released too, so that lets people get what they want.
BD: How about Bob’s death? In the ‘workprint’ his death was totally different...
That’s not back in any cut, that’s a deleted scene.
BD: How about the Adrienne Barbeau scene?
That’s another deleted one. That was one I just didn’t like how it came out. With the Bob’s death thing, it was kind of weird, because what happened that night, that was not what I ever intended to film. But, as with anything, the schedule... when you’re making a movie you just run out of time, you know? And we were filming in Pasadena, and they shut you down by a certain hour, so I was like “Shit I’m gonna be shut down any minute, I gotta film SOMETHING to conclude Bob’s story.” So I filmed that, but I never really wanted it. So later I filmed it the way it was originally intended.
BD: And one other one I was curious on: the graveyard scene with Michael digging up the tombstone?
That’s a deleted scene too. Some of those things too you can’t really cut back into the movie because the timeline wouldn’t make sense. You know, “how can he be here when we just saw him there?” So some of those scenes didn’t go back in not because they were bad or anything, but they just wouldn’t fit in the timeline.
BD: So in addition to the new stuff in the film, there is also going to be a whole bunch of deleted scenes separate?
Yeah there’s tons of stuff that I deleted from the movie, because you don’t think it’s good enough to be in there, or you just don’t need it. The one thing about unrated cut is that you don’t want to shove a bunch of crap in there, so people watching the unrated cut say “Wow this version is long and boring.” It’s longer, but I didn’t put in anything I didn’t feel made the movie better. I didn’t just put in anything just to put it in there.
BD: Which ending are we going to get?
The theatrical ending is the only ending to me. The other ending is like a deleted scene; I just never thought it worked.
BD: And are we going to get another documentary like 30 Days In Hell?
Sort of, we filmed an entire documentary, of which we didn’t have time to finish. But what we did was make a bunch of smaller documentaries. Some day when we have time we’ll cut the 2 hr documentary, but on the DVD it’s broken up: one about the actors, one about Michael Myers, one about the mask... there’s like 4 or 5 smaller documentaries. One’s just about the cinematography.
BD: Plus there will be commentaries and stuff, right?
Yeah, there’s a lot of everything. I packed the two discs with as much as they would accommodate. So there are all the deleted scenes, which there are quite a bit, interviews with all the actors, the documentaries, casting sessions, commentaries, blooper reels, basically everything we could find.
BD: So moving on from Halloween... where the hell did this CHUD rumor come from?
Where does any rumor come from? Somebody just says it and everyone starts to believe it. And sometimes the rumors have a bit of truth to them, like someone sent me a script or whatever, but this one was just 100% false. I don’t know if they are really even remaking it; I haven’t heard anything at all.
BD: So what IS next? Superbeasto?
Superbeasto’s almost finished. I’m on tour now; I don’t get off tour until February. At which time we will finally finish the music on Superbeasto and it’ll be done, but I don’t know when the release is yet. And then I’ll be working on the next movie; compiling what it will be. Everyone’s on strike so you can’t do anything right now but once all that blows over, we’ll start the next thing.
BD: OK one final question: Is Loomis dead or not?
Whatever they want it to be! (Laughs) It’s up to Malek Akkad. I said “I know what he is, but you can do whatever you want with him!”
