Halloween is an oddity, because not even horror fanatics were clamoring for this franchise to be re-launched, yet here it is. We now have what amounts to a launching pad for another decade of mediocrity from the slasher genre's perennial bronze medalist. The Shape hasn't been endowed with any new qualities in this film that might potentially help him vault over Jason Vorhees and Freddy Krueger -- he's still going to be low man on the totem pole. Occupying that humbling position over the years hasn't necessarily meant that the Halloween series suffered any more discontinuity or shameless retcons than the competition, but there's always been a sense of dogged sameness and an aura of low expectations to each new episode of the saga, starting immediately after Carpenter's original film and going all the way through to the most recent film, which, if memory serves, had Myers chasing after Busta Rhymes in some reality show. That's why it's so perplexing that Zombie's remake recreates the same Michael we've always known -- it's almost as if he wants history to repeat itself.

In fact, all that really separates this Halloween from the 1978 version is the origin story -- it's been expanded by some 30 minutes, so that we now see young Michael (Daeg Faerch) being tortured by school bullies and living hand-to-mouth in a white-trash hellhole with a stripper mom (Sheri Moon Zombie) and a scuzzy stepfather, played by William Forsythe. Those elements combine in Michael's mind to produce a perfect storm of craziness, and he begins to talk less and less, while becoming more violent. Before you know it, he's being carted off to Smith's Grove to become the plaything of the child psychiatrist Dr. Loomis, played repeatedly by Donald Pleasance in the original series and now portrayed by Malcolm McDowell, who recently revealed that he's already signed for three films, if this one goes. What comes next anyone can guess -- Michael breaks out of his confinement and starts killing people, all in the service of some ill-defined mission to find his baby sister, who he hasn't seen since he was a little boy but has a connection to.

I recently alerted you to a little horror film brewing up with the super-scary name, Pearblossom -- a flick about a woman tapped by the creator of the universe to "devour evil, and thereby gain eternal life." Grindhouse babysitter twin Electra Avellan was added to the cast, joining Scout Taylor-Compton (the next Laurie Strode in Rob Zombie's Halloween). Now Dread Central has a handful of other castmates (who have either signed or are in talks) and a bit more about the plot for writer/director Ron Carlson's first horror feature.

As with almost any horror movie, you have to increase the sex appeal with beautiful women. The females in question for Pearblossom, who are totally doomed if Carlson is following convention, are Sophie Monk, who had a role in Click and is July's Stuff cover girl, and Angela Lindvall, the model/actress who played Flicka in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. To even this estrogen the following guys are also on the list -- Charles Napier, who is usually in the military or man-of-the-law type in a slew of films, Danny Woodburn (Employee of the Month) and Patrick Renna, who was just in the horror-thriller Dark Ride.

So, these actors are all coming together for the devouring evil thing, but Carlson's latest description says nothing about the evil-eating: "The film is about a lesbian couple that departs a New Years Eve party in 1968 and meets the creator of the universe while driving the Pearblossom Hwy. It is there where they are put to rest for 40 years and wake New Years Day, 2009. It is about their first 24 hours of survival as these reborn creatures." I assume that in their reborn state, one of them chomps on the bad guys, and I'd imagine that Taylor-Compton and Avellan will be the lovers. This movie could be quite interesting or a huge mess, but I've got to give Carlson props for an interesting premise.

Variety had a slew of tiny players bits the other day, so here's the rundown:

• One of the in-law nieces of Robert Rodriguez has been cast in an upcoming horror movie called Pearblossom. The niece in question is one of those babysitter twins from Grindhouse -- Electra Avellan. According to Bloody-Disgusting, the Ron Carlson-helmed flick is about: "a beautiful young woman who's been selected by the creator of the universe to lead a life of greater purpose. She is instructed to devour evil, and thereby gain eternal life." Hmm, interesting -- acerbic, toenail painting babysitting to chewer of bad things? Or, is her fellow cast member, Scout Taylor-Compton the evil eater? You might remember the latter as the Dean's little sister on Gilmore Girls, who made news a few years ago when she ran away from home for a brief period.
  
• Back in February Erik told us about Matthew McConaughey's upcoming well-cast flick, Surfer Dude. Now there is a younger beefcake to add to the cast -- Nathan Phillips. You might remember the actor from his stint in Wolf Creek, or as the kid in need of protection in Snakes on a Plane. I imagine he'll either be some sort of younger surfing cohort, or maybe Matthew's son? There is still not much being said about the movie, but you can find pictures of the older dude here, and IMDb says its a: " A wave twisting tale of a soul searching surfer experiencing an existential crisis." Rad.
• Finally, there's the struggling Natasha Lyonne. Years ago, she was the alterna-version of the typical Hollywood girl -- cute and snarky, and with both mainstream (American Pie) and indie cred (But I'm a Cheerleader). Then, who knows what happened, but she spiraled into something that could rival La Lohan -- there's the intoxicated driving, threats to molest a dog that led to her becoming a fugitive and the life-threatening period in the hospital. It seems that she has sorted the past out, and is now adding another role to her rising list of movies-to-come. This time, it's a role in the indie film -- The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle -- which comes from award-winning short film guy David Russo. It's a Start-to-Finish project out of Seattle that's a comedy about Dory, a white-collar guy who loses his job and has to become a night janitor for a market research firm. There, he "discovers [that] the janitors are being experimented on surreptitiously, with unexpected results." Welcome back, Natasha!
  

Some new Halloween tidbits today: the first photos of Scout Taylor-Compton as Laurie Strode and Malcolm McDowell as Dr. Loomis have been splashed by Bloody-disgusting.com. For his part, McDowell looks almost exactly as he does for every role, and certainly doesn't seem to have found it necessary to do the chrome-dome Donald Pleasance thing. Taylor-Compton is seen in a group photo along with fellow cast-members Danielle Harris and Kristina Klebe and is sporting some blockish, nerdy glasses. Her two friends each have on Haddonfield High varsity jackets, which is a nice touch.

The folks at BD, who must monitor Rob Zombie's MySpace page night and day, also report that Zombie is peppering his remake with some unusual cameos, including Mickey Dolenz of The Monkees as a gun shop owner. Calico Cooper, the daughter of vintage rock star Alice Cooper, has also supposedly finagled herself into a small role in the film -- she says so on her official website. BD also recently posted a couple of new photos from Zombie's Grindhouse fake trailer, which involves werewolf nazis. Zombie's Halloween is filming now and is currently scheduled to hit theaters August 31.

The folks over at Bloody-disgusting.com have scored an interesting exclusive -- the first photo of Rob Zombie's new Michael Myers in full costume. For my money, he looks almost exactly the same as the old Michael Myers, although in this shot he looks a little worse for wear. He might have been shooting a scene to take place near the end of the film, rather than the beginning, when his mask would presumably be a bit less dirty and roughed-up. Myers is, of course, played by Tyler Mane, who was Sabretooth in the first X-Men film. Even though Myers looks pretty much exactly the same, Zombie has gone on record as saying that his Halloween is not a shot-for-shot remake but "a bit of a prequel and a remake combined," which sounds, frankly, just confusing to me. Shouldn't horror franchises start caring a little bit more about consistency, or am I just kidding myself?

In other Halloween news, the cast continues to grow -- Zombie announced recently the addition of actor Richard Fancy to the cast. Fancy, who will play a character called Dean Carpenter, is one of those actors who you recognize as soon as you see his face, even though it would be hard to pinpoint from memory a handful of big films he's been in. The major cast is already complete, with 18-year old actress Scout Taylor-Compton taking on the iconic role of Laurie Strode, originally made famous by Jamie Lee Curtis.