*** Official "HOUSE OF 1,000 CORPSES" Discussion Thread (1 Viewer)

[Michael Allred]

Went to see "House of 1000 Corpses" this afternoon. I'm still not sure what to make of it. I liked Zombie's visual sense, even though I felt I had already seen his tricks in the music videos he's directed.

I suppose I liked it, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it. It's certainly nothing worth waiting 2-3 years for, and its not any kind of horror landmark. I think, perhaps, it was a little too much like "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" instead of merely being "inspired" by it.

Of course, I liked the sadistic aspects of the film (I guess I'm a sicko) and I think some of the images will stick with me for a while.

It's not a bad directorial debut for Rob Zombie, but I hope he goes for something more substantial story-wise next time.

 

[Matt Stone]

I agree with what you are saying. My first impression was that I hated it, and then it began to grow on me by the time of my post early this morning.

I definitely disliked the hallucinogenic third act. That being said, I thought the first two thirds were pretty solid.

 

[Michael Allred]

A few more thoughts after some time has passed....

First, let me say that I'm not in either of the "loved it" and "hated it" catagories. I'm somewhere in the middle. In fact, I'm still lingering in the "I'm not sure what to make of it" group.

Rob Zombie has a great visual sense, that's for sure, but at times he goes overboard with editing...never really giving you a chance to let things sink in. Something horrible, CUT, something sadistic, CUT. I wanna revel in the horror of what's happening, call me crazy. I'd also like the opportunity to give a damn about somebody, anybody in the film, you know, to give you something to relate to? To fear for the victims, some kind of empathy. I had none of that. Zombie basically wrote the victims as just that, victims lead to the slaughter.

However interesting Zombie's style is, it's nothing new. If you've seen any of the music videos he's directed, you've seen all the tricks he's capable of. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing mind you, we've just been there already.

Sid Haig, yup, he did steal every scene he was in, and I hope to see more of him in the future.

The rest of the cast....rather amateur don't you think? What exctly was Zombie thinking in casting a game show host, an MTV game show host at that. Why not Wink Martindale? At least *that* would've been more interesting (admit it, you'd love to see him instead of Hardwick.)

I would've loved to have seen a pay-off at the end. Just somebody having had ENOUGH and go psycho on the killer clan. I kept seeing images of this occuring in my mind – one of the characters going hog wild and taking out somebody, going so nuts that Moseley's character would look at him/her and say "Finally! Someone who understands me!" and then getting his head chopped off. That would've satisfied me to no end.

No, "..Corpses" was not remotely scary...some nightmarish imagery to be sure (the entire final act played out as something you'd wish you'd wake up from but can't), but not scary.

The score was great, production design was filled to the brim – so much stuff that I'd have to watch it a few more times to catch it all, but please, enough with all the "in jokes" and references. Yes Rob, we understand you dig horror movies. Can we move on now please?

It was rather interesting after the movie had ended. There was only a handful of people in the theater (what do you expect at 3:30 PM on Easter?) but I sat there watching everyone leave. Nobody said a word, no laughs, smiles, joking around, animated discussions. They looked like zombies, as if they had absolutely no way to process the assault of images that had just been hurled at them.

I'll give "..Corpses" this much, we haven't seen something quite like this (R rated to boot) in a long while. I hope it does well enough at the box office (and with DVD sales) that more studios will produce livelier horror flicks instead of the absolute crap we've been served ("28 Days Later" has grabbed my interest and even though the trailer for "Cabin Fever" sucked, the plot sounds cool). I like dark films as much as the next guy and ghoul (WTF? Am I the Cryptkeeper all of a sudden?) but I'd like a side-order of a legitimate story to go along with it. I was cringing within the first 10-15 minutes of the movie with this insipid dialogue that sounded as if it was written by a 15 year old Metallica fan and was deathly afraid I had wasted $5 to see this film.

Ultimately, "..Corpses" is a barrage on the eyes but with nothing to captivate my mind, it fell flat as a film. A really cool music video though! I think Zombie has some potential in him, and assuming someone else writes the script and he has a producer or two to filter out the crappier ideas of his, his next film may very well "kick ass" (as the kids say. Wait, I'm 27 years old, can I use that phrase and get away with it?)

I suppose, in the end, I liked it (though it would seem by what I've written here that I didn't) but I'd be very cautious in recommending it to anyone else.

 

[chris rick]

Well I was soooo looking forward to this one...

Good god is this movie wretched--completely pointless, trite, and not scary in the least. Rob Zombie should stick to making music, and he can't even do that very well.

Okay a harsh comment perhaps--but seriously, this film is utter garbage. Rob Zombie tries soooo hard to make a good horror film that you can feel him trying with every image that he puts on screen. He fails miserably. For one--It's been a long time since I have seen a film with characters that I cared less for than the ones in this film. How do we as an audience even care in the slightest about what happens to the characters in this film; how are we at all involved in this story if not for the simple voyueristic displeasure of the whole experience?

Zombie completely misses the boat with a little bit of important horror film knowledge--all the great horror films have characters who we have a vested interest in--Halloween, Psycho, Night of the Living Dead, Exorcist. Zombie paints his characters as pointless stereotypes of every idiot character that ever died in a bad horror film before this one. Of course, I'm sure Mr. Zombie would say that he doesn't care and that this film is about getting into new territory in horror to breakaway from the "mainstream bullshit" that Hollywood produces in the horror genre. Ironic that Zombie said that of the Scream films, all of which had a sense of self-irony and the purest understanding of the genre itself (especially the first one)

This guy understands nothing of horror. Horror is not simply about some guy putting gruesome images up on the screen (the film also fails miserably in this department)--it's about praying on what's primal, what is truly scary to human beings. To take a recent case; Blair Witch showed ABSOLUTELY NOTHING and that film makes this one seem like absolute SHIT because of this fact. There is nothing, absolutely nothing that is scary about watching people get mutilated on screen. What is scary is when we are watching those people die via mutilation or other means and we have a vested interest in them.

It is ironic that in an age of film where it is said of the horror genre that the only thing that directors go for is gore and "great death scenes" that this jackass acts as if he's breaking new ground with Corpses--when in fact he has crafted a film so much like those that he should truly disdain (and not the superior ones such as Scream)such as Final Destination 2 or Urban Legends: Final Cut. There is nothing redeeming about this film--nothing memorable in the least, nothing scary, nothing funny, nothing enjoyable.

It's sad that there are TRULY talented people trying so hard to get the money to make films and this guy goes and makes this garbage and claims that it is original. My ass! Perhaps I wouldn't be so harsh on this film if it weren't for the claims that it is an answer to the mainstream stuff coming out of Hollywood. Try a little harder next time, Rob. Better yet, scratch that--please don't try again at all. You just wasted an hour and a half of my life that I could have spent staring at a wall.

 

[Mark Palermo]

Chris, where did you hear these claims? I interviewed Zombie at the time of the film's release, and specifically asked him if HO1KC was made in response to the recent teen horror trend. His answer: "It seems like it’s a reaction, but it’s not. There’s just the films and things that I love, and obviously whatever you love comes out in your work, especially in the first things that you do."

Mark

 

[chris rick]

On DVD FIlE in the Zombie interview, he discusses how the last ten years or so of horror are "stale" and says of some of the recent horror entries, "and that's a fucking horror movie"--he also rips into Scream about having a poster that states all that the movie is about--stars in a horror film and not a horror film for a horror film's sake--according to him. What a moron this guy is.

 

[ChuckSolo]

I went to see this film BEFORE I joined this forum and actually wanted to see it because of the TV trailer. I am 48 years old and have NEVER heard any music by Rob Zombie and knew of him only through a T-Shirt my 11 year old nephew likes to wear. Being a horror film fanatic, (most of my 600+ VHS/DVD collection is horror) I made it a point to see this movie. After about 45 minutes of watching I found myself looking at my watch wanting to actually walk out of the theater but loathe to surrender my 9 bucks admission. They should have called this movie "Son of Texas Chainsaw Massacre with a Clown." The performances by most of the actors was abhorrant. The story was nothing more than a rehash of countless slasher movies, and the name "Dr. Satan",........give me a break please. There is NOTHING in this poor excuse of a film that hasn't been done a million times before. I really wanted to like this film, what with the likes of Michael J. Pollard, Karen Black, and Tom Towels, I thought it would be great. I actually think that Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3 with Matthew McConaghey and Renee Zellweger was better and that film had to be the worst in its class. Do us a favor Rob....stick to your "music"....my nephew says your are great at that.

 

[chris rick]

My sentiments exactly Chuck--this film is trash to anyone who appreciates a real horror film when they see one.

 

[Scott Weinberg]

this film is trash to anyone who appreciates a real horror film when they see one.

While I completely agree with those who think that H1KC is a dungheap, the above quote seems a bit elitist and dismissive. I know several lifelong horror fans who quite enjoyed the movie - and these are guys who do know their genre stuff.

Though used in an effort to criticize the film, statements like this effectively insult those people who DID like it. Just because I thought it was crappy...that doesn't mean that those who disagree are clueless about what makes for Quality Horror.

 

[Matt Stone]

I definitely agree with Scott on this one. Stick to trashing the film, not people.

 

[Mark Palermo]

What a moron this guy is.

He made a movie you didn't like, and has a different understanding of the horror genre than you. You're right, he's a halfwit.

 

[Justin_S]

Like Blair Witch?!?

THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT is a horror masterwork in my opinion, and shouldn't even be compared to the decent but not great HO1KC.

 

[Greg O' Connel]

I just finished watching this movie, and I want the past 90 minutes of my life back. Too stupid to be scary, too stupid to be funny, just too stupid to be anything but stupid. It's like it was written by a 14 year old, and a particularly dim 14 year old at that.

 

[Matt Stone]

THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT is a horror masterwork in my opinion, and shouldn't even be compared to the decent but not great HO1KC.

That's the point, it's all about opinion. As I'm sure your know, some people loathe Blair Witch...but that doesn't mean it's cinematic garbage.

 

[chris rick]

quote:

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What a moron this guy is.
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He is a moron--He sells his film by talking about the mainstream crap that's come out in the horror genre and IMPLIES in those comments that he's going to do something as an answer to that mainstream stuff he loathes so much; the joke is that his film is so much worse than those films he despises that he doesn't even realize it. If you're gonna make comments like Zombie did about other horror films, then your film better damn well try and break away from the things you criticize. Zombie is an idiot simply because there is not one attempt at anything original in House of 1000 Corpses, and he tries to act as if their is going to be in his comments.

I also have the biggest problem with the fact that this guy gets a terrible film like this made solely based on his name recognition, and there are people out there STRUGGLING to get superior material made. Sadly though, their names aren't Rob Zombie and a large portion of the public hasn't heard of them--that's a travesty. But it's the way it will always be, and the only way to protest it is to blast and ultimately NOT WATCH terrible films made by hack talents like Zombie.

 

[ChuckSolo]

Chris, while I don't care for the movie I do however refrain from saying that Zombie is a moron. Definately misguided though. I think he started a project based on his interpretation of what a "real" horror picture really should be and instead ended up with a batch of poorly put together cliches. I defy anyone to point out ANYTHING in this film that smacks of any creativity or originality. As for the "Blair Witch Project" I found it somewhat enjoyable mainly because of its creepiness and because it was something that hadn't been done before. Witness the sequal, which was thoroughly dissapointing, and did itself degenerate into another "slasher" type film. It is too bad that Clive Barker has all but disappeared from the horror scene. His early work was at least fresh. Before "Hell Raiser" degenerated into what it became, the whole premise of the first movie was pretty new. If Rob Zombie wants to do another movie, it should be something that has never been done before. He shouldn't borrow cliches from movies he derides.

 

[chris rick]

Yeah Blair Witch 2 was horrible too, I forgot that one. What a shame that is too considering the first one is a landmark horror film.

 

[Dennis Castro]

I have to say that I loved this movie!

I can understand all the hate, but I look at it as a very dark and disturbing comedy. I laughed my a## off the whole time. You can say that there is no plot or not much of one and that's true. There didn't need to be much of one. There is just enough to provide Zombie with a canvas to paint a collage disturbing scenes and images. I don't look at it like he ripped off other films. He was able to poke fun at the genra while at the same time showing his appreciation and paying tribute to his influences. I'm familiar with Zombie’s artwork and his music, and I’m not at all surprised at how this film turned out. Well check that. I am to a point, after reading all the negative reviews this film received.

I'm not as well versed in horror as some of you are, but I enjoy horror flicks once in a while. I watched this with a friend who is an avid horror fan and he loved it. I don't mean this to come across as insulting in any way, but some people take things a little too seriously sometimes.

 

[Jesse Blough]

Hey, what can I say? I liked it.

Then again I also liked Blair Witch 2, Featdotcom, Thirteen Ghosts, House on Haunted Hill, and Ghost Ship.

... Then again I hated The Sixth Sense and it took me a couple of viewings to get into The Others.

So I dunno what to make out of that. It doesn't look good on my part :b

 

[Paul_Medenwaldt]

I finally saw this movie yesterday, recorded it off of Cinemax and what a pile of horse shit. I wish there was an icon for a horse taken a dump, because i would use it right now.

I don't hate this movie, but with every scene, it seemed like this movie wanted me to hate it. I'm not sure how to explain this feeling.

Maybe I just couldn't get past the TCM comparisons or maybe it was just the annoying characters or maybe it was not knowing what the characters were doing, or what the point to the killings were? I guess I would of liked a little more background info in the movie.

The only cliche plot line that didn't appear in the movie was that the teenagers stumbling upon this house and then the lone surviving female thwarting the plans of these insane characters and killing them all. It was nice to see the teenagers get it in the end.

Paul