Product Description: Two young couples take a misguided tour onto the back roads of America in search of a local legend known as Dr. Satan. Lost and stranded they are set upon by a bizarre family of psychotics. Murder cannibalism and satanic rituals are just a few of the 1000+ horrors that await.Cast: Sid Haig Bill Moseley Sheri Moon Karen BlackDirector: Rob ZombieSystem Requirements:Run Time: 88 Mins.Format: BLU-RAY DISC Genre: HORROR Rating: R UPC: 031398218180 Manufacturer No: 21818
Amazon.com: It's sick! It's twisted! It's House of 1,000 Corpses, and it's more fun than a wholesome bowl of "Agatha Crispies"! Dropped by two studios (Universal and MGM) and doomed to obscurity until Lions Gate Films gave it a limited theatrical release, Rob Zombie's gonzo horror flick is a blood-spattered throwback to the gore-fests of the '70s, lending new meaning to the term "box-office gross." Most critics misunderstood this unbridled exercise in graphic style and violence, but for devoted horror buffs it's a refreshing rebuttal to the comparatively "polite" frights of the post-Scream era. While paying homage to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Last House on the Left, Motel Hell, and other gory classics, Zombie's ramshackle plot (two young couples are terrorized by an inbred family of homicidal maniacs) lacks a crucial sense of dread, but his pastiche of vivid colors, grainy fetish-films, and photo-negative imagery is guaranteed to hold your attention. A bona-fide cult item, this House is definitely worth a visit... if you dare. --Jeff Shannon
Possibly The Most Evil Film Of All Time Rob Zombie brings the viewer thru a series of camp and silliness in the first part of the film, almost a teenage slasher flick. And, somewhere along the middle, becomes one of the most unsettling films you'll ever view. Inplied and visual evil are successfully transposed to the screen by first time director and writer Rob Zombie. Equally good score by Rob Zombie, and a exceptional role as the evil sister by Zombie's wife, Sheri Moon.
the kingdom of god on earth Rob zombie has given us a masterpiece parabale of christian fun-duh mentalist messianic dominionist reconstruction. Praise jah the kingdom is coming.
just. not. good theres nothing scary about this disjointed gore fest. i was interested in the beginning but after the hour or so of "creative" video editing and the inverted colors, the continuous semi-understandable chanting and random addition of characters, zombies,etc it just made me feel stupid even watching this film, if you can call it that. i think that if you could cut this film down to 5 minutes and put it to some of Zombies music it would be a mediocre music video, but as a movie it sucked.
The Boogeyman has a whole crazy family! I actually saw Devil's Rejects first, not knowing it was the sequel to this. I have read over and over that DR is so much better than House. I think they are both pretty good in their own right and can both stand on their own.
I have to say there really wasn't a lot of tension or suspense for me while watching this movie. Nothing that made me jump out of my seat. But, I still enjoyed the wild ride. Sheri Moon is pretty fantastic as the crazy baby. I also loved her in DR and Zombie's remake of Halloween. Believe it or not she is one hell of a great actress. Yes, at times House is crowded, frenzied with all sorts of visuals that are tough to make out. There's tons of gross-out stuff. It reminded me a lot Texas Chainsaw. But I think the Firefly family is far more interesting than the Sawyer family. (I am basing this on the 2003 remake of TCM, not the original which I haven't seen) The visuals in Zombie's film are superior, and the storyline although similar to so many of these slasher movies is different enough to make me want to watch the whole thing.
I loved seeing Rainn Wilson in this. The rest of the victims I didn't really care for or identify with. I hated the clown guy in DR, but here, he's pretty funny.
The soundtrack song selections are awesome and thoughtfully placed
Overall there is clever dialogue, unique character development, colorful imagery and some damn fine performances. You're in for a psychedelic ride with this movie.
A String of Images, Lacking Plot, Lacking Purpose House of 1,000 Corpses is less a movie in the traditional sense, and more a music video.
Going in, director Rob Zombie obviously knew the *feeling* he was going for, and some visual iconography with which to express it -- 70s feel, pumpkins, messed up children's dolls, etc. -- but what he didn't really have as much sense for are things like plot, character, conflict.
Too make up for these deficits, he culled all of the horror tropes and cliches he knew, usually running with the most time-honored. Scary clown? Check. Stupid teens w/ broken-down car? Check. It's hard to say whether certain decisions were "homage" or just plain copying (the psychotic, rural-redneck family straight out of Texas Chainsaw's many sequels, and the creepy babydoll-wearing matron pulled from Baby Jane) but taken together it's a mess of a movie. All of them, by themselves, interesting to disturbing images, perhaps... but the entire experience is haphazard and disjointed, and missing out on some crucial elements.
Among the elements its missing are a central conflict between protagonist and antagonist. The stupid teens that stumble their way into the charnel-house never have any particular hope or ambition of getting out of things alive, and once they're caught, they're caught. For a conflict to work, whatever passes for the "hero" must have some semblance of plan or at least a fighting chance; here, we just watch to see how their deaths will pan out. There's no conflict in this film because nothing is standing in the way of the murderers' designs. It's all easy pickin's.
The plot is ramshackle. Officers are thrown into the film and then summarily dispatched, having caused nothing more than a few more minutes to tick off the clock. It's as though Zombie decided, well, in this kind of horror film there are always a couple of local cops that get offed. And so, there must be some here, too! The murderers dine with their teen-victims, fix their car, let them go... and... then assault them.
Why let them go (let alone fix their car), if the overall plan was murder? Sure, we could invent a reason, like "they wanted to play with their minds," but I think the actual reason is probably that Zombie envisioned a scene where scarecrows would "come to life" and attack. And so, he twisted the plot out of shape to realize that vision.
This is not a good movie. It's not particularly scary, and fails at nearly every level of what we would call "drama." The only justification for the events in this film seems to be that Zombie wanted those events to happen so that he could film them. They serve no other purpose -- advancing plot, characterizing, developing theme -- that a person might look for in a story. Visually, which is where this particular movie lives or dies, I would say that it's over-produced. The movie just doesn't warrant the many "tricks" (cuts to grainy footage, negative prints, etc.) that are employed, and usually to no great effect or purpose. But there is a certain amount of command in the direction, and if the director had an actual script to work with, who knows but it might not have sucked.
I'll give it a second star for some decent visual work, and the fact that many of the films this one hearkens to are some personal favorites of mine. That said, it never nears their quality, and fails on many basic, fundamental levels.
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