Written & Directed by Rob Zombie

Released in 2003

Two young couples traveling through the country, trying to make it back home for Halloween, get curious about a side-show attraction ran by the clown of the sticks Captain Spaulding. Our naive lovers get caught up in the mystery of backwood folklore and legend, and re-direct their travels for a detour through the grave of the infamous and horrible Dr. Satan. Unfortunately, a nearby family has their own sadistic plans that happen to involve our curious crew, and ultimately leads them even further away from their destination, and closer to Dr. Satan in the most unexpected way. The instinct to survive is left up to only one of them, in hopes of escaping this nightmare and fleeing this house that truly does hold 1000 corpses, and then some.

Story

Rob Zombie films have always held a zealous expressionism that portrays terrors with almost the same tones as theater does rather than a typical horror flick. Zombie’s genius is hyper apparent by the unique nuances he incorporates in his movies, be it with script & story, production quality, editing and music choices, his work is one of a kind ; House of 1000 Corpses is no different from that same caliber. As the first installment in the trilogy of this story-line (House of 1000 Corpses, The Devil’s Rejects, 3 From Hell) its a strong start of introducing us to this deranged family and getting to know each main character through their very gruesome and brutal acts. It’s immedieatly revealed that this family has kidnapped and tortured a group of cheerleaders and they don’t waste anytime tormenting their new victims. I think its safe to say their methods of “releasing” these murderous urges, are quite gut-wrenching, and it’s never really clear as to why they do this, yet everyone in the family takes part of it; we’re talking at least 6 people who have killed for what seems to be years upon years, who all live together, and yet not one of them has been caught and captured by police. At one point, the couples are invited to dinner and then to watch the home talent show, which is a crude comedy act by Grandpa Hugo and a lip sync number by Baby Firefly. The whole thing is absurd, but during the show one of the gals instigates a fight, and from there things just go straight to the depths of hell. I wonder if everyone would have just acted cool about everything, if the family might have let them go, or if they act like they were down for the murders and didn’t find their behavior off-putting at all, the family might have thought they were alright and let them go home…I try to plan for myself incase I’m ever captured by insane people to either act like it’s no big deal or act even more crazy than them, that’s the trick, out crazy the crazy.

What makes this story intriguing is there’s not a whole lot of backstory on our evil ménage, all we know is that each character, Captain Spaulding, Mama Firefly, Grandpa Hugo, Tiny, RJ, Baby Firefly, and Otis, simply love murdering folks, dismembering their bodies, and keeping a colony of zombified beings underground. There’s hints of ritualist tendencies, perhaps demonic sacrifices, yet they also don’t seem to be the spiritual kind. Besides that, Dr. Satan lives underground plaguing his victims with some sort of immortality that keeps them simultaneously dead and alive, I think, it’s also not clear, but its all pretty rad honestly. I did root for the gal who attempts to escape, and through her journey we see deeper into the demented reality of this environment, which was a really clever way for us to digest it all. As I stated, there wasn’t too much explanation as to motivation for this type of behavior, how are all these corpses still alive underground, who are the people hanging out in Dr. Satan’s lair, who and what the hell is Dr. Satan in general, but somehow the story itself was so entertaining and fast paced, you end up not really caring about being bogged down with the details. You even want the “villains” to get away with it because they’re just so good at what they do. There was hardly any attachment I felt with the couples anyway , even when one of their dads goes on a search for his daughter, you just simply don’t care either way, but in general terms, you know it’s all pretty bad.

Imagery & Production

Production design was by Gregg Gibbs (The Devil’s Muse, The Hillside Strangler, 2:13), and cinematography was from Alex Poppas (Ghost Hunters, Haunted Towns, Alien Encounters: Declassified) & Tom Richmond (Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist, Little Odessa). Yea…it was pretty f*****g sick. To start, Spaulding’s gas station and side show attraction was outrageously wicked. The ride taking our travelers through different set ups with various serial killers, all mannequins that popped out at you, seemed like it really had been ran for years but still gave that thrilling feeling of being on a ride where you might not make it out. The Firefly household was packed from wall to wall with dressings and props that made it all very realistic and lived in by manic murderers. The underground lair was filled to the brim with skeletons, cobwebs, rusty surgical equipment and torture contraptions. Coupled with Poppas & Richmonds shot styles, capturing disoriented and perplexed angles and distorted composition, only when it needed it of course, the entire film is definitely entertaining and excited to look at from start to finish.

Of course, other big players on this team that majorly contributed to this iconic work of art, Art Director Michael Krantz, Set Decorator Lisa K. Sessions, Costume Designer Amanda Friedland, the Editors Kathryn Himoff, Robert K. Lambert, and Sean K. Lambert, the entire makeup and art department, everyone who had a hand in bringing this world to life, absolutely killed it, in the best possible way. Besides our lead cast having the best all American anarchist, blue grass, baby doll, backwater, “I have bodies in my basement but I love rock & roll and Betty Boop” esthetic, I was beyond impressed with the work they did on Dr. Satan and his minion The Professor; it just took this films visual strength to a whole other level for me and made it even more horrifically surreal, not to mention the half fish half human corpse bit! There’s this constant essence of realistic possibility throughout the film where you believe all of this could happen in our waking world, which are the scariest kind of horror films in my opinion, but when the darker and more sinister aspect of this realm is revealed, and they tip toe over the edge of supernatural and sci-fi, it still never went too far or past the point of existence, well besides the zombies…maybe. It was stated by Rob Zombie that Universal invested close to $17 Million to fund this film, only to decide to shelf it after it was made because of it being “too much.” The film was then resold to Lions Gate years later and they decided to have a proper theater release. Can you imagine having so much money as a production company, pay millions of dollars in producing an indie-film, only to then to not approve the film to distribute and have no problem never showing it or getting their money back, that’s just as gross to me as the imagery in the movie.

Performance

Lets start with our cast of unsuspecting victims, we have Erin Daniels (as Denise Willis), Jennifer Jostyn (as Mary Knowles), Chris Hardwick (as Jerry Goldsmith), and the hilarious Rainn Wilson (as Bill Hudley). All of these poor people face a terrible fate and the portrayal of each of them was stellar. In all honesty, I didn’t totally feel bad for Daniels & Jostyns characters because they really portrayed the “annoying girlfriend” troupe so their deaths were more entertaining than disheartening. They stretch out Erin’s role until the very end, which gave us that sweet satisfaction as well, although as I stated earlier, I did root for her for a little while. Her character is supposed to represent one of us who might have a chance at escaping a similar circumstance, she’s our hope, but this family is just way too good at what they do. It was definitely interesting seeing Rainn Wilson in this type of space. There wasn’t a whole lot of room for his comedic genius, and watching him portray a more serious or fear-based part made my concrete image of him as Dwight from The Office unsettled, but he was the only actor I recognized from this roster so I’m wondering if this film was his “big break” or why he didn’t continue in the horror field. These 4 made a good group to go through what they went through, I think each of them did well in their performance, however I don’t see them being real couples, or even friends, at all. They just didn’t seem like there was an actual connecting factor between any of them, I’m not even sure how these type of people would meet because they all are vastly different from each other with conflicting personalities. Or maybe our main villains were just so much cooler than all of them, there wasn’t a need to have a more cohesive gang.

Now on to our stars, Karen Black (as mother Firefly), Dennis Fimple (as Grandpa Hugo), Matthew McGory (as Tiny Firefly), Sheri Moon Zombie (as Baby Firefly), Robert Allen Mukes (as Rufus), Bill Moseley (as Otis), and the forever legendary, Sid Haig (as Captain Spaulding). I think it truly takes a certain kind of person in their everyday life to be a bit weird or just “off” somehow, to embody these characters and deliver such a convincing performance. We know Matthew McGorys presence is always so fascinating just because of the unique body he naturally has, we also see him do an amazing job in Big Fish, and he was honestly the most normal one out of that entire family. Fimple and Black were very inviting and welcoming of the travelers, but ultimately were still partaking in the killings. Mukes had a simple role of being the tow truck guy and the sniper shooter, pretty solid as expected, can’t really mess that up. Haig’s infamous character is what puts the staple in this franchise. It’s always a bit unhinged, a bit comedic, a bit threatening, like every clown that exists I suppose. Sheri Moon is just merely a one-of-a-kind person, I don’t think there’s anyone else who could play the parts she does. She’s child like, but extremely demented, but still embodies her sexuality and love of all things bright and glittery. Moseley was my absolute favorite, I enjoyed watching him the most. His character epitomized the “I’m smarter than my entire family and everyone on this wretched planet” theme. He seemed to be like the ringleader of this maniacal circus. I wanted to be a neighbor to this family just so I can watch them all day but at a safe distance. All of these amazing actors have played in other films, but this particular movie has seemed to immortalize not just their images, but their reputations as these fictional people.

What Does it Mean?

Don’t pick up hitchhikers? Curiosity kills you and all your friends? Don’t stop at the clown themed gas station in the middle of nowhere? So many possible messages that could be exhibited. There could also be no epiphany arch or life changing meaning, and it’s just a bare bones journey of 4 people who all meet their unforeseen destiny of death. Bad luck of the draw really. I think our bad guys had their own motives and inspiration to be the way they are, but no one really transformed, besides physically. Well that’s not entirely true, Otis said they made his creativity come back full force, so it wasn’t all a linear adventure. Truthfully, I really didn’t get a cinema standard elucidation of any form of message. However, If I had to summarize the point, I would say, if you go looking for Satan, I guess you’ll find him and all his demons too.

House of 1000 Corpses, one of my must watches for every Halloween season, a brilliant piece of filmmaking, a gnarly team of both cast and crew, and just overall a a really good scary movie. I highly recommend horror fans watch it.