Those avidly following Stitches Laughing (hi Mom) will recall I ended the last post saying that I would next write about a Zombie movie, and you no doubt thought it was going to be Night of The Living Dead or 28 Days Later or Shaun of The Dead, but then when you saw that it was House of 1000 Corpses you probably said, 'That's not a zombie movie!' but then you noticed that I spelt Zombie with a capital 'Z,' so it was actually a name, and then you remembered that House of 1000 Corpses is directed by Rob Zombie, and then you went 'Oh, I see what he did there; this Vicariator guy is a fucking genius!' and while, yes, I do appreciate the compliment, I could do without the swearing, mother.
Rob Zombie (or coochie-kins to his friends) made his name during the 1990s in alternative groove horror metal band White Zombie. White Zombie kicked some serious ass. They have a great sound. Slick, electronica-drenched guitar grooves are dirtied up by Zombie's 'Kurt Cobain with a tracheotomy' vocals. Every song is like a mini scary movie, and many of them actually use samples from old horrors. Here is my personal favourite (I was going to embed the video - which Zombie directed - but the audio is crappy). White Zombie sound better the louder you play them. Crank it up!
Rob Zombie is a talented guy. Not only is he an accomplished musician, he has written and drawn comic books (his artwork even inspired the tripping sequence in Beavis & Butthead Do America), he helped design a horror maze at Universal Movie Studios, and in 2004 he made his feature film directing debut. Zombie cut his teeth (no doubt into fangs) as a director of music videos for White Zombie and other metal acts. His first foray into feature films was when he wrote an, ultimately un-produced, sequel/reboot to the Crow franchise. After that fell through, Zombie turned his attention to an original idea, the movie in question, House of 1000 Corpses. The reason I chose to watch this film is quite simple; there's a big scary clown on the cover:
House of 1000 Corpses is set in 1977 and follows a group of annoying twenty-somethings who are travelling through backwater America compiling a travelogue on offbeat roadside attractions. They pull into a gas station run by Captain Spaulding (the clown character on the cover, played by Sid Haig) who brings them through his horror sideshow called the Museum of Monsters & Mad-Men. Here, he introduces them to the local legend of Dr. Satan. The annoying twenty-somethings want to know more, so Captain Spaulding gives them directions to where they can find the tree from which Dr. Satan was hung. The annoying twenty-somethings head off into the stormy night. When their car breaks down, they are given shelter from the storm by a group of philanthropic hillbillies, the Firefly family. Sorry, not philanthropic; psychotic (I always get those mixed up, which has resulted in many unnecessary deaths). Anyway, it is at this point that the fun begins, and Zombie gets to play with his gory toys.
House of 1000 Corpses is a very well crafted movie. It's nicely shot and edited, the performances are pretty good, it has some clever dialogue, and delivers very effective gore and some really creepy imagery. Zombie is a horror aficionado; he named himself after one of the genre's most iconic creatures after all! He is well versed in its tropes, but his interest lies in the darker, more cynical horror of the 70s, than the later trend for slasher popcorn movies. For this reason, I was expecting House of 1000 Corpses to be shot in a very gritty style, so it came as some surprise to see how vibrant and colourful it actually is.
The colour palate is rich and vivid, though the movie juxtaposes these crisp images with gritty Super 8 footage from time to time. In lesser hands these flash cuts would have been distracting, but they really do enhance the viewing experience here. While visually House of 1000 Corpses is closer in style to Zombie's animation than to the 70s exploitation flicks he is so in love with, tonally, it is true to its influences. House of 1000 Corpses is essentially a grindhouse revival movie that predates the movement popularised by, well, Grindhouse (in which Zombie actually directed one of the fake trailers, Werewolf Women of The SS)
The focus here is entirely on the villains, predominantly Baby (Sheri Moon Zombie), Otis (Bill Moseley), and Mother Firefly (Karen Black). This is the film's greatest strength, and ultimately, its greatest weakness. They are twisted, mean, and evil, and there is a certain macabre pleasure to be had in anticipating what horrible act they will commit next. However, there comes a point where I just didn't want to be in the presence of these horrible people any more. Zombie grew up in carnivals, and from an early age he was surrounded by freaks and sideshow performers. That stuff became everyday to him, and he takes great pleasure in exaggerating it on the screen. He really loves his crazy hillbillies! The over the top performances, coupled with the bright colour scheme makes House of 1000 Corpses feel almost like a cartoon at times, albeit one closer in tone to Itchy & Scratchy than Bambi. House of 1000 Corpses
I might have been more engaged if the victims had been something other than meat for the hillbillies to hack up, but I guess that was never the intention. The victims are here to be victims. No matter what the movie, it helps if you care about the protagonists. Bill (Rainn Wilson) is probably the best developed character, but rather than stay with him, we instead follow Denise (Erin Daniels). All I can tell you about her character is that she is someones girlfriend (I don't even remember which of the guys she was going out with). She is basically there to scream as we follow her through one nightmarish scenario after another. This is fun for a while, but only on an aesthetic level. I quickly reached a point where I was numb to all the fucked up menace and imagery. There are certainly some cool scenes (when Denise comes face to face with her father is wonderfully morbid), but more often than not, the horror just didn't connect.
Many of the villains are named after Groucho Marx characters. Captain Spaulding is a character in Animal Crackers. Rufus, and the Firefly clan itself, are named for Rufus T. Firefly in Duck Soup, and other family members take their names from Otis B. Driftwood in A Night at the Opera and Hugo Z. Hackenbush in A Day at the Races. In light of my current research, I found this very interesting. The Marx Brothers were essentially a clowning act. They developed their act in vaudeville theatre, which was itself a derivation of the circus and minstrel shows of the nineteenth century. In particular with the Captain Spaulding character, naming a clown after a vaudville act, which in turn have their roots in the circus, in some ways brings the whole tradition full circle.
As a clown, Captain Spaulding is a decent creation, but the truth is, he's just a vulgar hick who happens to dress up like a clown as part of his show. He certainly has personality, but you could remove all of his make-up and the character would remain the exact same.
House of 1000 Corpses is a decent - or more accurately, an indecent - viewing experience. It doesn't demand much from its audience, and it just about delivers on what it promises. Unfortunately, I strongly feel that Zombie and his band of freaks had much more fun making the movie than anyone will have watching it.
Zombie returned to this world and these characters in 2005 with The Devil's Rejects. This time he jettisoned the comic book tone of House of 1000 Corpses in favour of a much grittier style. While I really do like the look of House of 1000 Corpses, this new approached suited the material far better. Stephen King ranked The Devil's Rejects as his 9th best movie of 2005, and wrote of it, 'No redeeming social merit, perfect '70s C-picture cheesy glow; this must be what Quentin Tarantino meant when he did those silly Kill Bill pictures.' The same could be said of Grindhouse. While Tarantino and Rodriguez are film geeks playing at making a naughty movie, I feel that Rob Zombie is the real deal.
One last thing (which was actually the first thing) that struck me about House of 1000 Corpses, is the opening title sequence. It consists of a montage of various American backwaters inter-cut with horror imagery and archive footage, all to the tune of a gritty country rock tune. Sound familiar? It should if you're a fan of a certain hit vampire series. True Blood has received a great deal of praise - and rightly so - for its excellent and iconic title sequence, but I think more than a little inspiration was taken from the House of 1000 Corpses opening credits.
Next up, I'm going to take a more lazzi-faire approach.
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