THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Musician Rob Zombie said if you put The Rocky Horror Picture Show and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre in a blender, you get his directorial debut House of 1000 Corpses.
PLOT
The 2003 film takes place in 10/30/1977 and follows young journalists Jerry Goldsmith & Bill Hudley on the road working on a book offbeat roadside attractions with their girlfriends Mary Knowles & Denise Willis. Their latest stop before going home is a gas station/horror museum, "Captain's Spaulding's Museum of Monsters & Madmen". They meet the owner himself that is a professional clown, who guides them on a murder ride exploring iconic murderers including the mythical S. Quentin Quarry aka Doctor Satan. Jerry would be so fascinated of the latter that he would want to see the tree where he was hanged by vigilantes. So, Spaulding gives them a map for him to take and follow. The group then picks up a hitchhiker named Baby Firefly who tells them the tree to be near her home. On the way though, their tire get blown off, unaware it was the cause of a shotgun. So, Baby calls for her half brother Rufus (Robert Allen Mukes) to pick up the car and replace the blown tire with a spare, which takes hours to be done. In the meantime, the group meets the rest of Baby's family: Her matriarch Mother (Karen Black), her Grandpa Hugo (Dennis Fimple), her adopted brother Otis and other half brother Tiny (Matthew McGrory) who is sevrely deformed due to their father Earl (Jake McKinnon) having a psychotic breakdown years prior by burning him alive. After they have dinner, the family puts on a Halloween show for he guests, but it quickly goes south when Mary gets jealous of Baby flirting with Bill. Just when Rufus announces the car to be repaired, the group makes a break for it only for Tiny & Otis to take them all captive after already a group of five high school cheerleaders. In the process, Otis would kill Bill by mutilating his body for art as well as torment Mary while tied up. Baby would commit her own torment by dressing a tied up Denise as a doll for Halloween while partially scalping Jerry. Since Denise never came home, her father Don reports her missing. Deputies George Wydell (Tom Towles) & Stevie Naish (Walton Goggins) question Spaulding about the missing group, who gives them the same map they gave them. On the way, they find their car not only vandalized but also having one of the cheerleaders' bodies in the trunk. Don joins them in questioning the Firefly family, resulting them being shot down by Mother and Otis. As the next night arrives, Otis continues his torment over by wearing her dad's skin as a costume. The hostages get dressed as rabbits and taken to a well but when Mary tries running away, Baby fatally stabs her. Denise & jerry then get placed in a coffin and lowered into the well that being taken away by experimented patients of Dr. Satan himself. Denise breaks away while Jerry gets vivisected but gets chased by a surviving Earl. She's able to outwit him by causing the tunnel to collapse on him. When she reaches the surface by morning, she heads to the road and gets picked up by Spaulding. Little she did notice Otis was in the backseat waiting for her. The film ends with her screaming in horror, being Dr. Satan's latest experiment.
THOUGHTS
Because I had never listened to Rob’s music in advance, I didn’t have a clue on how chaotic it would be but was sure it was going to be in positive quality terms. He goes for an eccentric experience in grungy matter compared to his music videos I’d see afterwards to understand his inspiration. The more appropriate term to define this movie and the rest that would follow is ‘Hellbilly’ named after one of his albums. It fits the description in being utterly gritty and straight up relentless to witness. It’s edited in a manner where you feel the claustrophobia each victim is going through. And said victims do not feel this way without the most shocking villains Rob could ever create. The Firefly family are not icons in the same vein as Freddy Krueger, but they feel immortal due to how each character has their own extravagant personality to display in between the viciousness you expect. Sid Haig is the first enigmatic player because Captain Spaulding is so vulgar and outlandish of a persona to the point of you’d second doubt the possibility of him wanting to harm anyone, that is unless you provoke him. The second he defends himself from amateur burglars in the opening, you know there is more to him than meets the eyes, hence the deceptiveness of being a clown. The fact he basically set the victims up for a trap so easily, before revealing to be in cahoots by the end, proves the movie’s true point that you gotta be careful who to trust or the consequences will be severe. Rob’s wife Sheri Moon is also unforgettable as Baby for being the most childlike of the family despite being an adult. This and her beauty are her true weapons to an advantage when targeting her prey, which is proven effective when flirting with the boys. Once she starts laughing, you just know doom is about to unfold. Bill Moseley was honestly the most terrifying of the family because he’s nihilistic in his ways, thinking he’s doing the world a favor with the violence he’s inflicting. With every move he makes and every word he says, he’s the one guy who feels unstoppable since he’s able to be one step ahead each time. Off of that, he’s much more of a leader than anyone else in the family and although things go south for them in more ways than one, it won’t change how they use their methods to quite an advantage. With such diabolical villains, all you can do is frown for each victim that walks into their trap. Rainn Wilson & Chris Hardwick accurately depict Bill & Jerry as the most clueless people in terms of being self aware. Of course, the interest in Dr. Satan goes to for the sake of their book, but the interest is taken so far they’d pick up a hitchhiker for it and ignored the girls who knew it wasn’t worth it. Bill was so clueless that he didn’t even hear the screaming cheerleaders upstairs, which is worse than trusting Jerry with the responsibilities of the car. If anything, they should’ve tried to bail once Otis showed off that creepy jar. Having said that, the only ones that had common sense were their girlfriends who knew they didn’t need to go the extra mile. Jennifer Justyn & Erin Daniels showed Mary & Denise to be smart enough to know a murder ride was off-putting to look into, but ironically it was their impatience that further drove their demise. Despite their efforts in being final girls, they couldn’t outsmart such a sadistic family. In short, House of 1000 Corpses is a better horror film than expected for just knowing how to introduce a new form of terror. If you’re a fan of horror that happens to enjoy music by Rob Zombie, then this movie is meant for you.
Comments