Ok, ok.. Lots of people are talking a lot on the net about Rob Zombie's soon to be released remake of the original John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN.. Dimension Films setting up an official website with the original music accompanied by a dark heavy metal-like gashing sound of a knife.. the music on the site slightly altered. It's sounds more like it's being played by a child's piano instead of the real piano used for the original movie. But that was, of course, so last century.

Knowing "Mr." Zombie the way we do, I am sure there's much more gore than the original. How could there not.

When the original film was released, its cultural impact as quick. It stuck around. It's still played on TV networks around Halloween every year. The music is still known by adults and kids alike..

But what to make of Zombie's ...?

No one knows yet. But reading spoilers from people that saw the film, it's pretty weird. Good thing is, of course, at least according to the spoilers, the masturbation scene is gone.

Thank God.

Thank Zombie, maybe more like it.

This movie is useless in the long scheme of things. There's truly no rhyme or reason for it to have been made .. with of course the constant obsession by Dimension Films to score big with a horror movie.

Horror's appeal is dying lately.. Maybe there's more horror on the regular TV news than on the box office screans. I suppose why pay when it's for free?

Regardless of whether or not the movie has a point, it will go through the normal process: release.. bad reviews.. quick stint in the theater, and life on DVD for the hard-core Zombie fans.

Which is why it's even more pointless. Who exactly is Dimension trying to reach?

The broad appeal of the original was that it was tame gore-wise but scary as hell. Even today, there's still a chilling appeal to it simplicity. .. I don't think Zombie will work that same approach into his re-imagining of the storyline.

As far as horror itself? The genre dying its painful slow death? It will come back again.. It's like professional wrestling. It lays low for a while until a new generation comes around and eats it up like candy. Horror will be re-born. But with the state of affairs in the genre, it's hiatus of popularity is coming at a good time. The Halloween remake is therefore coming at the wrong time: A time when horror is not paid much attention to...

or........ maybe it's just movies in general. Box office experts predicted a huge weekend opening for summer fun film EVAN ALMIGHTY. It was slammed by critics.. and people, the ones that actually PAY for the film, didn't really go in the big mass numbers that the makers of the movie thought.

But in the end, from the rumors I've read, the screenings of HALLOWEEN hasn't been great. The hardcore fans love it.. the rest of us? Not so much.

Time will tell. But my prediction is this and will remain this: In five years, the networks will air HALLOWEEN on TV just like they do now... but it will remain the original Carpenter version. The Zombie fans will have go to Blockbuster....