So here we have Rob Zombie's debut outing as a movie director. For those who don't know (and I can't imagine there's many of you reading this who don't), Rob Zombie started his carrier in the entertainment industry running errands on the set of Pee Wee's Big Adventure, before forming the seminal heavy metal band White Zombie. White Zombie gained notoriety in the late eighties and early to mid-nineties for their energetic horror/sci-fi/fantasy metal music, before Zombie split the band up and released a series of much acclaimed solo albums in the same vein.
If memory serves, at some point in the late-nineties Rob Zombie was involved with Universal Studio's Halloween party/event in which he designed a 'house' type set for attendees to walk through etc. as part of the celebrations (my memory fails on the specific details). This eventually led to the development of the movie in question. Conceived and directed by Zombie, the movie was shot in 2000, but due to various legal wrangles and studio issues, was not released generally until 2003.
So what of the movie? There is a short prologue before the credits introducing the eccentric Captain Spaulding, a foul mouth and ill-tempered clown who runs a gas station-cum-curios museum-cum-friend chicken shack. After the credits it begins as so many horror movies before it have, a group of teenagers/twenty somethings driving through a rural area (in this case Texas) when they have to stop for gas. The gas station they come across just happens to be the aforementioned Captain Spaulding who roughhouses our protagonists before giving them a tour of his 'museum' and directions to the sight of a local legendary/mythical lynching. On the way there (through predictably horrible weather conditions) they pick up an eccentric but beautiful young female hitchhiker, get a tyre blown out and are invited back to said hitchhiker's house while their car is repaired. You can guess where the story goes from here, needless to say the house is as the title implies not a homely Bed & Breakfast welcoming visitors and the Firefly family who dwell there subject their house guests to a series of ever more alarming, bizarre and grotesque situations.
The film is and widely comes across as homage to the early slasher and exploitation films of the seventies. The film contains stylistic references to just about every 'cutting-edge' horror technique of the seventies, shaky-cam, point-of-view-camera, negative exposure etc. and initially this mish-mash of cinematic styles works. The general plot line is also inter-cut with surrealistic snippets of film and home movies of the Firefly family. This style of cinema fits the movie quite well but becomes tiresome as the movie progresses, you almost feel that Zombie was trying to cram too many styles and ideas into an 88 minute movie; he almost seems desperate to pay tribute to all of his favourite movies. And he succeeds, what we have here is an exploitation pastiche, a combination of Texas Chainsaw Massacre; the Hills Have Eyes and stories of the Manson Family. However, this is all combined together with the more modern horror movement some call 'gorenography'. Rather than attempt to shock and frighten us like in the days of old, Zombie builds the uncomfortable tension by explicitly exposing us to extended scenes of emotional and physical torture, physical mutilation and gory injuries and death. This is what prevents the film from coming across as a spoof or a comic book account of serial killing and reinforces its status as pure exploitation.
Don't get me wrong though, I liked this film. It's not a masterpiece by any means and it falls down in a lot of areas, but on the other hand there's a lot to like. Sid Haig's wonderfully over-the-top Captain Spaulding steals every scene he is in, there are some hilarious characters and moments of dialogue such as the prologue with Spaulding when the Firefly's go to buy some booze for their Halloween party. The characterisation of the protagonists, although is quite obvious to any horror fan, is quite well done. The Firefly family are fantastically flamboyant caricatures of the worst of the worst horror movie villains and played with conviction, avoiding the temptation to 'camp' them up. While the movie isn't as shocking or chilling as I may have liked, the slow exposition of gruesome events in an otherwise fast-paced film does well to build tension and repulse the viewer. The ending is suitably over-the-top and does look like something out of a graphic novel, but somehow fits together with the rest of the film. Despite the villains being played convincingly and the general grim rather than camp tone of the film (which could have easily been the other way round in some director's hands), it is so over the top in some places and surreal in others that it's difficult to know whether or not to take this film seriously.
Overall, this film is hardly ground breaking but is a decent entry into the murky genre of horror. Given the inconsistent nature of the horror movie genre which can lump together such films considered masterpieces (The Shining, Psycho, Rosemary's Baby etc.) with some incredible (but often entertaining) garbage (Plan 9 from Outer Space, Return of the Living Dead II, Seed of Chucky), House of 1000 Corpses fairs well. I get the impression that Rob Zombie has the makings of being a capable director who an obvious passion for what he does. On House 1000 Corpses he was honing his skills, which he further improved with The Devil's Rejects and Halloween. I look forward to seeing more from Mr Zombie in the future.
If memory serves, at some point in the late-nineties Rob Zombie was involved with Universal Studio's Halloween party/event in which he designed a 'house' type set for attendees to walk through etc. as part of the celebrations (my memory fails on the specific details). This eventually led to the development of the movie in question. Conceived and directed by Zombie, the movie was shot in 2000, but due to various legal wrangles and studio issues, was not released generally until 2003.
So what of the movie? There is a short prologue before the credits introducing the eccentric Captain Spaulding, a foul mouth and ill-tempered clown who runs a gas station-cum-curios museum-cum-friend chicken shack. After the credits it begins as so many horror movies before it have, a group of teenagers/twenty somethings driving through a rural area (in this case Texas) when they have to stop for gas. The gas station they come across just happens to be the aforementioned Captain Spaulding who roughhouses our protagonists before giving them a tour of his 'museum' and directions to the sight of a local legendary/mythical lynching. On the way there (through predictably horrible weather conditions) they pick up an eccentric but beautiful young female hitchhiker, get a tyre blown out and are invited back to said hitchhiker's house while their car is repaired. You can guess where the story goes from here, needless to say the house is as the title implies not a homely Bed & Breakfast welcoming visitors and the Firefly family who dwell there subject their house guests to a series of ever more alarming, bizarre and grotesque situations.
The film is and widely comes across as homage to the early slasher and exploitation films of the seventies. The film contains stylistic references to just about every 'cutting-edge' horror technique of the seventies, shaky-cam, point-of-view-camera, negative exposure etc. and initially this mish-mash of cinematic styles works. The general plot line is also inter-cut with surrealistic snippets of film and home movies of the Firefly family. This style of cinema fits the movie quite well but becomes tiresome as the movie progresses, you almost feel that Zombie was trying to cram too many styles and ideas into an 88 minute movie; he almost seems desperate to pay tribute to all of his favourite movies. And he succeeds, what we have here is an exploitation pastiche, a combination of Texas Chainsaw Massacre; the Hills Have Eyes and stories of the Manson Family. However, this is all combined together with the more modern horror movement some call 'gorenography'. Rather than attempt to shock and frighten us like in the days of old, Zombie builds the uncomfortable tension by explicitly exposing us to extended scenes of emotional and physical torture, physical mutilation and gory injuries and death. This is what prevents the film from coming across as a spoof or a comic book account of serial killing and reinforces its status as pure exploitation.
Don't get me wrong though, I liked this film. It's not a masterpiece by any means and it falls down in a lot of areas, but on the other hand there's a lot to like. Sid Haig's wonderfully over-the-top Captain Spaulding steals every scene he is in, there are some hilarious characters and moments of dialogue such as the prologue with Spaulding when the Firefly's go to buy some booze for their Halloween party. The characterisation of the protagonists, although is quite obvious to any horror fan, is quite well done. The Firefly family are fantastically flamboyant caricatures of the worst of the worst horror movie villains and played with conviction, avoiding the temptation to 'camp' them up. While the movie isn't as shocking or chilling as I may have liked, the slow exposition of gruesome events in an otherwise fast-paced film does well to build tension and repulse the viewer. The ending is suitably over-the-top and does look like something out of a graphic novel, but somehow fits together with the rest of the film. Despite the villains being played convincingly and the general grim rather than camp tone of the film (which could have easily been the other way round in some director's hands), it is so over the top in some places and surreal in others that it's difficult to know whether or not to take this film seriously.
Overall, this film is hardly ground breaking but is a decent entry into the murky genre of horror. Given the inconsistent nature of the horror movie genre which can lump together such films considered masterpieces (The Shining, Psycho, Rosemary's Baby etc.) with some incredible (but often entertaining) garbage (Plan 9 from Outer Space, Return of the Living Dead II, Seed of Chucky), House of 1000 Corpses fairs well. I get the impression that Rob Zombie has the makings of being a capable director who an obvious passion for what he does. On House 1000 Corpses he was honing his skills, which he further improved with The Devil's Rejects and Halloween. I look forward to seeing more from Mr Zombie in the future.
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