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USA 2003
Director: Rob Zombie
Cast: Sid Haig, Sheri Moon Zombie, Bill Moseley, Erin Daniels, Karen Black, Rainn Wilson, Jennifer Jostyn
Rating: R
Release Date: 11 April 2003
Running Time: 1 hour 29 minutes
The Movie Review
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HOUSE Of
1000 CORPSES |
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One Corpse in the house is enough to scare the heck out of most people, but 1,000 corpses?! That's just purely insane dude. Talking about catchy hyperbolic title, nice! Right now there are already so many people familiar with the name Rob Zombie in the movie realm, but in 2003, his name and his first movie here were relatively unknown to international moviegoers. In 2003, horror fans likely expected to see something else, the remake of Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and House of 1000 Corpses eventually left fairly unnoticed. Is it a good thing or bad thing? Let's just see. One thing for sure, the contents of House of 1,000 Corpses surely ain't for everyone.
The plot is fairly regular. A bunch of dumb-as$ young adults who work as reporters are hunting news for off-beat road-side attractions near Ruggsville. There they meet the owner of a local gas station/freak museum, Captain Spaulding (Sid Haig). And the clown Spaulding tells them about the urban legend of a serial killer called Dr. Satan complete with a map to locate a tree where Dr. Satan was hanged by the angry villagers. Unbeknownst to them something far far more scarier and sadistic are lurking in the dark. Will these nosy city cats survive the ordeal?
First movie ladies and gents. First. And certainly it comes with both praises and flaws. Should moviegoers give him some slack? It's up to you, but as a reviewer I've got to admit that Rob Zombie does have talent in directing which he proved it in the sequel to this, The Devil's Rejects (2005). This means that of course his first movie here comes with definite flaws. The most annoying one is none other than the story itself. It starts off promising but then it starts to deteriorate to a bundle of mess. It seems that every scene is just there for shock for shock sake only. I seriously think it will not intrigue most seasoned horror fans out there. I actually began to lose interest a couple of times and to stifle yawns.
The good and memorable thing about this horror film is arguably how good Rob captured and combined the elements of colouring, lighting, montage and look of several scenes to be something that would really remind you of those exploitation/grindhouse/drive-in movies from the 70s. And not just that, but the characterization of all the villains is also a good job well done. Of course this is also thanks to how well the cast performing their role. Bill Moseley and Sid Haig are just great. They really added something lively to the already moth-eaten plot.
Okay I gotta admit I didn't expect this movie to be so memorable and I didn't expect anything from Rob, the truth is I was curious about seeing Sid Haig. I've seen and liked and kept many of his movies from the 70s, and I guess you explo fans might have the same reason as me as to watch this movie in the first place. Just like I expected, Sid Haig is just great, no such big surprise about that, but his wicked clown face in this movie is simply well... wicked!. But it's Sheri Moon that's a surprise, the wife of Rob Zombie's performs very convincing in her acting debut.
Pay attention now folks, this is not the type of happy happy joy joy exploitation flick that you can also enjoy while munching popcorns. Nope! This is the one that falls to disturbing level that made me really didn't feel like eating or drinking anything. Gore, blood and explicit sadistic acts are big contributions to this horror film that will likely sicken instead of amuse you. But thankfully Rob put on some dark (very dark) humor in those brutal violent scenes so at least we still could feel that this movie was made to entertain and not to fully disturb. Heck one scene even looks like coming directly from Alice in Wonderland!
And talking about Alice in Wonderland as an inspiration for House of 1000 Corpses, Rob was quite slick for picking up two of the most creepiest places in the world as the source of inspirations of some scenes. First is when Baby Firefly is showing off her creepy doll collections, this is likely based on a real place called La isla de las Munecas or Island of the Dolls in Mexico, an island where you can find abundance of drop-dead-scary looking dolls that were also mutilated hanging on the tress! It was created and designed by Don Julian Santana to appease a little girl spirit who had drowned nearby. Nice...
The second one about the lair of doctor satan with all the skeleton chandelier was unmistakably borrowed from Sedlec Ossuary, a church in Czech that houses skeletons of estimated 40,000 - 70,000 people. House of 70,000 corpses anyone?
All in all, I only recommend this for 70s movie enthusiasts or die-hard fans of gory exploitation movies. For others, it's better for you to visit other houses.
> Visit this places where Sid Haig is in with a bunch of gorgeous inmates: The Big Doll House (1971) and The Big Bird Cage (1972).
> Sid Haig in Blaxploitation flicks with Pam Grier: Coffy (1973) and Foxy Brown (1974).
© iwan pranowo of Movielogy.com
posted: Monday, 1 August 2011 08:52 pm
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