| House of 1000 Corpses (2003) Dir: Rob Zombie Cast: Sid Haig, Bill Moseley, Sheri Moon, Karen Black, Chris Hardwick, Jennifer Jostyn, Erin Daniels, Tom Towels, Walton Goggins, Dennis Fimple. Rated R, Approx: 88 minutes. A Lion's Gate Entertainment DVD Release |
| Rob Zombie�s debut as a writer/director of movies was almost the film that horror fans would never see. It changed studio hands no less than three times and was delayed for three years until Lion�s Gate Entertainment had the guts to pick up distribution and give it a shot. Surely the three years of accumulating hype both helped and hurt the film at the box office. The ad campaigns were fairly clever, consisting of lines like, �the film they didn�t want you to see�� and things of that sort. It was exciting to see an advertisement campaign like this in 2003, as I was certain that sort of marketing was a product of the 1970s and wouldn�t ever have a chance to rear its head again. When the horror community did finally get to see Rob Zombie�s film in spring of 2003, the reviews were wildly mixed. House of 1000 Corpses polarized horror fans in a way that hadn�t been seen since The Blair Witch Project in 1999. Many fans felt that Zombie failed to live up to his promises to delivering a bona fide �throwback� to films of the 1970s and called his film little more than a �glorified music video�. Others enjoyed the approach and saw the film as a welcome breath of fresh air in the era of flaccid Hollywood Horror. I had to watch the film quite a few times before I could actually cement my thoughts on the matter and while I do think Zombie�s debut is a pretty interesting film, I do believe that there�s something to be said for both camps. Corpses could technically be construed as a loose remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Set in the 1970s, it�s about two young couples on a road trip to uncover some of the more bizarre attractions in rural America, after stopping to check out a �murder museum� at a roadside gas station, they find themselves prisoner to a family of psychopaths. They are killed, mutilated, tortured and humiliated (not necessarily in that order) by the pack of crazies in several bizarre and memorable fashions. I was surprised while watching the film to find Zombie�s actors (or �victims�) were so obnoxiously intolerable. I suppose you could argue that to be the point since the second half of the film focuses on the torment of these jerks, but I�ve listened to Zombie gripe about the state of horror films thanks to Scream and its imitators, and I suppose I simply wasn�t expecting his characters to be as annoying as Matthew Lilliard�s doofus character in Scream. Obviously, this film is more about the bad guys and that would explain why the casting for these characters is spot on perfect. Horror fans should love seeing Bill Moseley (Texas Chainsaw Massacre part 2), Sid Haig (Spider Baby) and Karen Black (Trilogy of Terror, Burnt Offerings) pop up in staring roles as members of the sadistic Firefly family. As a longtime fan of both Moseley and Black, it was incredibly special to see these actors on the big screen again. They are the main reason Zombie�s movie works after all, it�s all about them. Part of the delight in watching this film in theatres came from listening to mainstream viewers groan with disgust at random scenes. When Baby Firefly (Zombie�s future wife and sex symbol Sheri Moon) fondles her naked breasts with a skeleton�s hands, people stood up and walked out. Shouldn�t a horror film shock and disturb you? What were these people expecting when they paid to see a movie called House of 1000 Corpses? Now I doubt that this film will have that effect on seasoned fans, but personally, experiencing the revulsion of several audience members was part of the fun for me. It doesn�t all work, but I do think Zombie has got enough horror show moments in this film that do. The last fifteen minutes are especially stunning and scary. Zombie�s style is abrasive, in your face and at times obnoxious. Sometimes it works, like when his characters talk to the camera in brief little character diatribes. We�re allowed some interesting insights into Otis (Moseley) and Baby (Moon) as a result of these moments and they are pretty cool and fairly creepy. Other times however, we�re just being berated with style simply for style�s sake. One scene plays out looking like a picture negative and other scenes of dialogue are repeated over and over again in different ways. It fits the chaotic motif that the director was probably striving to achieve, but it�s still fairly obnoxious and repetitive. Another surprise is Zombie�s success with dialogue. A lot of it is genuinely funny and amusing (just about anything Sid Haig says is a riot). The opening scene set in Captain Spaulding�s (Haig) gas station establishes the tone of the film rather quickly with some very funny lines. Another thing that he pulls off is walking that fine line between humor and horror. It can be tricky to maintain a steady course but this movie shifts gears quite a few times, alternating between making one laugh and cringe, and it never drops the ball. I found Zombie�s film to be a refreshing step in the right direction for horror films at the time of its release. A mean-spirited little cocktail of violence and sadism with a refreshing cast of unbankable stars, and none of that WB nonsense. Here is a movie clearly made for horror fans by a horror fan. He didn�t get it all right the first time around, but it was more than an adequate debut and remains a personal favorite of recent genre outings. |
| Matt's Rating: ***1/2 out of 5 |
| Reviewed by Matt Serafini 08/26/05 |
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