House of 1000 Corpses

 



Director - Rob Zombie (31, Lords of Salem)
Starring - Sid Haig (Spider Baby, The Devil's Rejects), Sheri Moon Zombie (Halloween, Halloween II), and Bill Moseley (Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, Evil Bong)
Release Date - 2003
Genre - Horror
Tagline - "The most shocking tale of carnage ever seen"
Format - Bluray (Personal Collection) (Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

 

     When I hit high school I was a full fledged horror fan.  I was obsessed with it and spent every cent of my allowance buying movies and comics.  This was the time where I was an avid Rob Zombie fan.  Like most metal and rocks fans of the time I was obsessed with him thanks to the Twisted Metal games which featured him on the soundtrack.  In 2003 I was a sophomore and he announced his first horror film House of 1000 Corpses.  I fucking shit my pants at the news.  Sadly, there was no theater near me at the time so I had to wait for a physical release.  When it was released on DVD I had to have it and I'm glad I bought it.  The DVD menu alone was worth the price.  To this date I have yet to find a DVD with a menu as fucking cool at that one.  I loved the movie and watched it so much I burned myself out with it.  With news of Zombie's third film in the series Umbrella has released the first two films House of 1000 Corpses and it's sequel The Devil's Rejects on blu and was kind enough to send a review copy my way.  Thanks guys!

     The film follows two couples who are on their way home after traveling the country and documenting roadside attractions.  They stop at Captain Spaulding's Museum of Monsters and Madmen where they hear about the legend of Dr. Satan.  They decide to investigate it further and meet a female hitchhiker named Baby (Sheri Moon Zombie) who takes them back to their house for a Halloween they will never forget. 
    
     I always loved this film.  As I said earlier, I pretty much watched this one non-stop for a few years before giving the DVD a retirement.  It's been about 10 years since my last viewing and I have to say that it did not hold up well.  Don't get me wrong, the movie is fantastic but some of the things that I didn't mind so much are actually working against the film.  It's still a fantastic modern horror film but it doesn't have it's faults.  The acting in this one is fucking fantastic.  Zombie wrote some unforgettable characters with this one and pulled together a cast that brought them to live.  These performances are unparalleled in horror and almost every character is one you will never forget.  Their actions hold the scenes and the lines will be quoted for decades.  Bill Moseley and Sid Haig were already genre icons before this film but they moved to pop icons with their performances here.  We also get some great performances from two other pop culture icons Rainn Wilson and Chris Hardwick who was relatively unknown at the time.  They all do fantastic jobs and make these characters larger than life.  The story for this one often gets compared to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.  I can see why.  A farmhouse out in the country that is home to a family of serial killers.  I can see why people compare the two but there is more to the story here than TCM.  We get urban legends, medical oddities, a group of characters that you follow compared to TCM's one.  The story has a lot going on which is also it's biggest flaw.  The movie struggles to figure out what kind of movie it wants to be.  We have a road trip horror that leads to the TCM style set up that ends with the evil doctor and his medical experiments.  Its a solid movie but it just doesn't know it wants to be.  There is also these random inserts that will remind viewers of Rob Zombie's music videos.  They serve no purpose to the film but do extend the running time.  Finally, this one has some fantastic effects.  We only get a few deaths here and there that are mostly gun shots but we do get some insanely amazing effects later in the film.  We get some top notch practical and costume effects that are still amazing even by today's standards.  The film isn't as gory and as brutal as other horror films of the time but it very effective at creating atmosphere.  Overall, House of 1000 Corpses is a fantastic horror film.  It was very ambitious for the time but it did not age well.  The characters are now iconic and the effects are insane but there some things this young director should have done differently.