I come to John Carpenter's 1978 classic Halloween from an odd perspective. I'm a horror buff, and I've been getting the crap scared out of me at the cinema and on video for several decades now. Whether it be current stuff like the Saw films, classics like the Universal Monsters, or mondo obscuro delights like Paul Naschy werewolf flicks from Spain or Messiah of Evil (which I did a Retro Cinema review on a few weeks ago), I've seen it all. Well, not quite all. Despite my status as a hardcore horror junkie I only recently watched Halloween for the first time in its entirety. I've seen bits and pieces here and there over the years, but this was my first time taking in the whole thing from start to finish (and if you just said "that's what she said," then shame on me for handing you such an obvious straight line).

Having been raised on a steady diet of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazines, the idea of a guy going around killing people with a big knife wasn't my idea of a scary movie. I preferred a supernatural angle to my horror, thank you very much, and Halloween just didn't appeal to me upon its initial release. Over the years my prejudice against non-supernatural horror has faded, but having seen many of the films that Halloween inspired -- whether they be sequels, homages or knock offs -- I've developed a deep dislike for slasher films, so I never saw any reason to check out the one that started it all.

A few days ago we learned that a creepy-looking unknown was hired to play the young version of Michael Myers in Rob Zombie's new Halloween flick, and now comes word that a very well-known actor has been cast to play Dr. Loomis -- the character made famous by the late, great Donald Pleasance.

Although schlock-hounds like myself know Malcolm McDowell from his countless roles in numerous B- and C-level genre flicks, the general movie populace would recognize the veteran actor from his work in A Clockwork Orange -- or maybe Blue Thunder. (My favorite McDowell performance came in Nicholas Meyer's really cool Time After Time, and you simply haven't lived until you've seen McDowell's work in Caligula.)

Not to be confused with Roddy McDowall (because good ol' Roddy passed on a few years back), Malcolm McDowell has spent the last several years providing rascally charm or nefarious sneers to movies like In Good Company, Evilenko, Hidalgo, I Spy, Gangster No. 1, Mr. Magoo and Star Trek: Generations. Plus he's freakin' hilarious on Entourage.

...and as skeptical as I've been regarding this new Halloween, I feel I must offer Rob Zombie some praise here. McDowell's a great choice for this type of character: old-school-respected enough to provide a strong screen presence, but shifty-eyed and funny enough to add some color to the flick.

[Thanks to Bloody-Disgusting.com for the tip.]