Review of House of 1000 Corpses (2003) by Michael T — 10 Dec 2009
Rob Zombie is definately a big fan of horror movies, particularly the very violent and nhilistic films that came out in the early 1970s. He was also a member of the influencial industrial-metal act, White Zombie and had his own solo career.
Zombie has always incorporated a lot of a B-movie horror schtick into his act. I first started hearing about this film in the early 2000s and was intrigued. Set in the 1970s, inspired by 1970s horror movies, with Sid Haig, Karen Black, and Michael J.
Pollard in the cast? And the film was suposedly shelved by its original distributor (who wanted Rob to direct a hip "ironic" horror film ala SCREAM). Well, its not a rip-off of 1970s horror films, but its not exactly a totally original tribute either.
Zombie has a fan's deep appreciation for the genre but decided to throw in everything but the kitchen sink into the plot. WRONG TURN, a slightly shorter and better directed (tighter and more disiplined) film stands as a better tribute to the "backwoods psycho family" genre.
Zombie did elicit some good perfomances from his cast, particularly Sid Haig. I almost docked it a star because I suspect that this film's success led to the current "torture porn" wave of crappy genre films like HOSTEL.
This review of House of 1000 Corpses (2003) was written by Michael T on 10 Dec 2009.
House of 1000 Corpses has generally received mixed reviews.
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