Renaissance of slasher films, started with Scream in mid 1990s, left many nostalgic fans of the genre somewhat disappointed. The main reason was new Hollywood paradigm based around PG-13 rating, which mandated that even the darkest and scariest horror films must tone down violence, gore, sex and other exploitation content. That new tameness became even more apparent when Hollywood horror films began to get compared with horror films from other cinema industries, especially French, which were significantly more transgressive. One of film makers to try to fill this gap was Rob Zombie, American heavy metal musician and horror film fan who tried to bring slasher genre to its low budget exploitation roots with his 2003 feature debut House of 1000 Corpses.
The plot begins on October 30th 1977 when four youths – Jerry Goldsmith (played by Chris Hardwick), Bill Hadley (played by Rainn Wilson), Mary Knowles (played by Jennifer Jostyn) and Denise Willis (played by Erin Daniels) – meet Captain Spaulding (played by Sid Haig), eccentric owner of local gas station and horror museum. The four are in search of roadside attraction and Spaulding tells them legend of Dr. Satan and points them towards the tree that character had been hanged. On the way they meet hitch-hiker named Baby (played by Sheri Moon) who would lead them to her family home. They meet the eccentric family of Fireflys – Mother Firefly (played by Karen Black), Baby’s adopted brother Otis (played by Bill Moseley), deformed giant brother Tiny (played by Matthew McGrory) and Grandpa Hugo (played by Dennis Fimple). It soon becomes apparent that the family have rather sinister plans with their guests that would, following series of increasingly unpleasant interactions, escalate into abduction, torture and killing.
Rob Zombie was obviously inspired by classics of 1970s low budget horror cinema like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Hills Have Eyes. This can be seen not only in plot elements like victims coming to bad end at isolated house or family of freaks and eccentrics, but also through gritty dark cinematography and many shots that deliberately made to look rough around the edges. But even more apparent is Zombie’s willingness to make his film more violent and more transgressive in terms of showing victims being scalped, dismembered and tortured, while Sheri Moon, who would later marry Rob Zombie, doesn’t mind appearing nude in couple of scenes. Zombie also uses opportunity to put as much of dark humour as possible, with Fireflys being much more interesting and, at least in term of their looks, more memorable than their bland and forgettable victims. They are played by diverse set of actors, while Sid Haig as Captain Spaulding delivers one of the most iconic characters of 21st Century horror cinema. However, very Zombie’s bursts of creativity are quashed by rather clumsy MTV-style manner of direction that makes House of 1000 Corpses irritatingly “artsy” and pretentious and look more like a music video than actual horror film.
Zombie originally developed House of 1000 Corpses as theme park attraction for Universal, only to later turn it into script for feature film. He finished production in 2000 but, despite relatively low budget, the film remained unreleased because studio executives were uncomfortable with the high level of violence and gore. Zombie had to work hard for it to be obtained for distribution by MGM, only to story to be repeated before film finally got released by Lionsgate. The critics were mostly negative and Zombie later even agreed with most of complaints, but the audience thought otherwise. The House of 1000 Corpses had good box office and gradually developed a cult status. This led to two sequels - Devil’s Rejects in 2007 and 3 from Hell in 2019.
RATING: 5/10 (++)
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