Review of The Haunted World of El Superbeasto (2009) by Barry S — 19 Sep 2009

As Rob Zombie's "Halloween II" concludes a very underwhelming theatrical release, his long-awaited "The Haunted World of El Superbeasto" is finally making its way onto DVD and shows that the director may be more at home in R-rated animation than live-action fare.

Based on his own comic book series, Zombie clearly enjoys the fact animation provides him with no limitations, so he can be as excessive as possible and present all the gratuitous gore, violence and nudity that he wants; this approach serves him well because even when there are stretches of the film that don't work, his willingness to try anything ensures that were still be plenty of moments that do.

Indeed, the film is consistently humorous and entertaining does contain a lot of genuinely clever ideas, including an hilariously self-referential "Team America"-like soundtrack; film buffs will get a kick out of the numerous voice cameos and homages to famous horror flicks (including a recreation of the prom scene from "Carrie", set to a song entitled "Why'd They Have to Rip Off Carrie?").

And, yes, this probably contains more animated boobs than any other film in history, and actually presents a climactic cat fight under a ballad called "It's Okay to Jerk Off to Cartoons"!