House Of 1000 Corpses
Taken as an obvious homage to Tobe Hooper’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Rob Zombie’s first directing effort can almost be looked at as an artsy-fartsy European style take on the material, with its bright colors, disorienting narrative style, and intricate set design. However, where Hooper’s approach as a filmmaker was from a detached, objective stance with an almost documentary feel, Zombie chooses to present his story as if he is actually CELEBRATING the sickness and decadence of the satanic family who are the stars here. One major rule broken is how Zombie refuses to have a character who is a moral center, doing everything he can to distance the audience and make them thoroughly dislike the group of unlucky victims who stumble into their lair, going so far as having the two males argue about the hottest Manson Family chick when we first see them (and having the ultra-smug Rainn Wilson as one of them adds to this), and having at least one of the females be a super snotty bitch to boot. Zombie takes a page out of Tarantino’s book by bringing some long forgotten cult genre stars back to the forefront, like Sid Haig, Karen Black, Irwin Keyes, Tom Towles, and even Michael J. Pollard. Indeed, the film starts off with great promise as two thugs try to rob Haig’s gas station / horror museum, only to be taken out with extreme prejudice. Haig in his clown getup as Captain Spaulding brings great enthusiasm, and his interaction with Pollard in the opening scene is pretty hilarious. Once the designated victims enter the story and are directed to a site where a serial killer was lynched, things begin to degenerate story-wise, and certainly isn’t helped by the moronic and distracting “segue” pieces that happen every time we come to a new scene (you almost expect to see Austin Powers dancing in). Once they get to the house and encounter the family led by Black’s bizarre mother, one son who barely speaks and another who is 7’6 and mute, it’s clear that Zombie wants us to revel with him in the twisted depravity they wish to unleash, with the occasional funny line (Grandpa: “What are you, Jimmy Olsen, cub reporter for the Daily Asshole?”). Things are partially redeemed by two of the psycho performances: Bill Moseley (known to many as Chop-Top from Texas Chainsaw 2, which is probably the reason he was cast here) as Otis, insanely trying to bring an “us against them” rationale to his sick misdeeds, riveting when he has a cop dead to rights before executing him, and frightening as he mocks the victims in the closing moments of the film (“Run, rabbit, run!”); Then there is Sheri Moon as the daughter known as Baby, as sexy as she is frightening, and yet more appealing than either of the two female victims as she senses the effect that her hotness has on their boyfriends. Despite that, the film retains a curious lack of sexuality for some reason, as if Zombie wanted to focus on murder and mutilation but held back on that aspect, which makes much of the proceedings mundane rather than disturbing. The biggest issue though, is that much of what we see makes zero sense (one girl is thrown in a cage and seems to be attacked by naked people, but Zombie cuts the shot too suddenly, yet minutes later we see the girl again unharmed), and the last 20 minutes really shits the bed, with the surviving girl running through an underground cavern while being chased by a creature straight out of Hellraiser, and the viewer becomes more annoyed than scared because almost nothing is put into context. In the end, a film with some good moments, but it never adds up to a cohesive whole…
5/10