House of 1000 Corpses (2003) - The Wizard Watches

     Rob Zombie makes his first film debut writing and directing House of 1000 Corpses - a horror movie made for sheer celebration of the gory, gross, and mentally insane. I hadn't seen this film since my first view years ago, but I own, love, and frequently re-watch the sequel (The Devil's Rejects). When I first saw this film, I was left wanting solutions for questions that weren't clearly answered whereas the sequel merely expanded upon and heavily polished the characters and concept. The film is kept afloat by excellent performances from the antagonists, a unique directing style from Rob Zombie, and horror ideas borrowed from all the right places but overall suffers from a mostly-nonsensical plot and a lack of substance.

     The movie starts off on the night before Halloween with a group of four presumably college kids on a road trip across the country, bent on finding the strangest roadside attractions around and compiling them into a book. This time their goal is to make it to a relatives house for the holiday. In their journey, the group stumbles upon Captain Spaulding's Museum of Monsters and Madmen, owned by none other than the clown Captain Spaulding (Sid Haig) himself. After going through the attraction, the guys are drawn into the story of local serial killer legend Dr. Satan and ask for directions to his gravesite. Down the road, the group encounter a hot, nutty hitchhiker called Baby (Sheri Moon Zombie) who can also lead them to the grave. It starts to rain and their car gets a flat, causing Baby and one of the kids to go fetch a tow truck (owned by her brother) and get out of there. However, once everyone is brought back Baby's house with their car, things start to get odd. They meet Baby's eccentric and twisted family and are "invited" to stay and celebrate Halloween. The group goes along with the homeowners antics but then when they start to go too far, Baby and her family's true colors show and suggest that maybe they shouldn't have gone looking for the boogeyman after all.

     The movie is a twisted ride into Hell joined by all shreds of gore and sanity. For horror fans, the sadistic brutality and disturbing action sequences are a wonderful and twisted experience to enjoy. For those craving something more substantial to comprehend, you might want to steer clear of this film. The plot is set up rather well and though the characters fall in line like dominoes, the story does nothing of the sort. Past all the gore and insanity there's nothing to take away from this movie's story other than Dr. Satan was real all along somehow and you should NEVER piss off the twisted f**ks who towed you off the road. Nothing is clearly explained past exposition and the audience is still left with a ton of questions about how and why this all occurred. For the nonchalant horror fan, this is eye candy; for the critical cinemaphile eye, there's nothing but gore, mystery, and fan service.

     Most people say there's a silver lining in everything. With House of 1000 Corpses, there are a few left to save it. In the mess of plot loss and literal bloodshed, Rob Zombie's potential as a director really stands out as well as the entire cast of antagonists. I also felt it was really sly how they borrowed certain aspects from other horror classics to clearly spell out which movies inspired Zombie to make this brilliant monstrosity. I found aspects possibly taken from classics like Texas Chain Saw Massacre varying even to Rocky Horror references. Zombie's directing style is an aesthetic balance of heavy grit and stylized violence. One minute it's gross, bloody, and grotesque without shame and the next it paints the situation as if it were a work of art on canvas. Though at times it felt unsteady, Zombie's direction left a mark on the horror industry - even more so with the sequel.

     The film's biggest saving grace has to be the compelling performances by the antagonists. Sid Haig, Sheri Moon Zombie, Bill Moseley, and Karen Black (the majority of the family and its allies) all instilled the uneasy fear in the audience - the fear of the unknown. All of these characters are twisted psychopaths with motives that no one could even begin to guess; the audience won't have any idea WHAT those crazy assholes will do next. In addition they're all very entertaining. The crude, thoughtless insults flying from each's gullets will have you rolling and Sheri Moon's "Harley Quinn"-like performance as Baby will keep most anyone hooked. One of the most unique things about even the DVD of this film is that the menu is interactive and controlled by you and Captain Spaulding who proceeds to start insulting the viewer. I think Zombie knew the cash was in his characters.

     Rob Zombie's first film baby, House of 1000 Corpses, isn't the best modern horror film by far but it's definitely entertaining eye candy for the average horror fan and worth at least a single watch. The film needed more substance and coherency added to the plot and its development; it needed to be polished. This reason might be why I love the sequel so much - it polishes up all of these aspects. We get to see more of the characters' personalities and tie up more loose ends than established in this film. Zombie definitely has potential as a director, with wit and inspiration from all the right places, but this first run was a bit messy. Nevertheless, it is admittedly better than most horror fodder today and does have a lot to offer for the hardcore horror fan. Let the gore flow and the insanity reign!

(6/10)