494: House of a 1000 Corpses

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_00]: 201. Let's get to House of a Thousand Corpses, which is Rob Zombie's first movie.

[00:00:09] [SPEAKER_00]: It came out in 2003, written and directed by Zombie. Stars Sid Haig, Karen Black, Bill

[00:00:18] [SPEAKER_00]: Moseley, Sherry Moon Zombie, Rainn Wilson, Walton Goggins, Chris Hardwick.

[00:00:25] [SPEAKER_00]: And the synopsis is, two young couples traveling across the backwoods of Texas

[00:00:31] [SPEAKER_00]: searching for urban legends of murder end up as prisoners of a bizarre and

[00:00:37] [SPEAKER_00]: sadistic backwater family of serial killers.

[00:00:42] [SPEAKER_00]: So recently I've been watching Eli Roth's History of Horror series, which I

[00:00:49] [SPEAKER_00]: highly recommend you check out if you are just a fan of movies in general but

[00:00:54] [SPEAKER_00]: especially the making of and of horror. Rob Zombie is someone who I've been

[00:01:00] [SPEAKER_00]: familiar with. I've seen a few of his films over the years. I don't think he's

[00:01:04] [SPEAKER_00]: ever gonna be a favorite filmmaker of mine but he is someone who, almost like

[00:01:09] [SPEAKER_00]: Michael Bay, where he has a very discernible style. I don't think he has

[00:01:15] [SPEAKER_00]: any masterpieces under his belt yet but simply by being different makes him

[00:01:21] [SPEAKER_00]: interesting. So I figured he would be a cool one to talk about.

[00:01:28] [SPEAKER_00]: Firstly, background with Rob Zombie. I only saw, started watching his movies

[00:01:33] [SPEAKER_00]: maybe four or five years ago so I got to him pretty late. Had always heard the

[00:01:39] [SPEAKER_00]: name but just never got around to watching his movies till recently.

[00:01:45] [SPEAKER_00]: Some of these were first-time watches so that was another excuse to do this show

[00:01:51] [SPEAKER_00]: just to give me a reason to go through all of them for the first time.

[00:01:56] [SPEAKER_00]: And this one, House of a Thousand Corpses, had always heard pretty crazy things

[00:02:02] [SPEAKER_00]: about, really didn't know what to expect other than it being just a, almost like a

[00:02:08] [SPEAKER_00]: haunted house, Texas Chainsaw-esque kind of horror film.

[00:02:13] [SPEAKER_00]: What I was talking about with his very discernible style, some Rob Zombie-isms

[00:02:17] [SPEAKER_00]: that we'll get to later specifically, but for one he very much wants to live

[00:02:24] [SPEAKER_00]: or his movies to live in the same world as like Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The

[00:02:29] [SPEAKER_00]: Hills Have Eyes, a lot of Tobey Hooper films, John Carpenter films and many

[00:02:35] [SPEAKER_00]: other directors. And so you really could like throw a rock and probably hit the

[00:02:41] [SPEAKER_00]: Texas Chainsaw Massacre house in these movies.

[00:02:45] [SPEAKER_00]: Which isn't inherently a bad thing but especially at this point I am getting

[00:02:50] [SPEAKER_00]: pretty tired of the filmmakers who just have to reference things like Texas

[00:02:56] [SPEAKER_00]: Chainsaw Massacre where it's someone getting stuck at a random abandoned house

[00:03:01] [SPEAKER_00]: or house in the middle of the country and then they just happen to be serial

[00:03:06] [SPEAKER_00]: killers and they terrorize these people. But considering this one came out in the

[00:03:11] [SPEAKER_00]: early 2000s it was a bit of a reboot I guess or a refresher into that as

[00:03:17] [SPEAKER_00]: opposed to 20 years later.

[00:03:21] [SPEAKER_00]: But I think the thing that I was surprised by with this one is

[00:03:26] [SPEAKER_00]: considering it is a debut movie he really goes all out into making this

[00:03:34] [SPEAKER_00]: movie memorable and really making it seem like he has way more of an

[00:03:39] [SPEAKER_00]: understanding of filmmaking or experience as a filmmaker than he did

[00:03:43] [SPEAKER_00]: at the time. Because he did come from the heavy metal world, the rock world, and he

[00:03:49] [SPEAKER_00]: did have experience with that but not as a feature filmmaker though.

[00:03:56] [SPEAKER_00]: Watching this I don't think I would necessarily think oh this was his first

[00:04:01] [SPEAKER_00]: movie. I would think oh this is probably mid way through his career something

[00:04:06] [SPEAKER_00]: like that because there is every single style of camera work of different color

[00:04:13] [SPEAKER_00]: palettes, there's infrared black and white found footage, nonlinear

[00:04:18] [SPEAKER_00]: storytelling, psychedelic visuals, the costume and production design are off the

[00:04:25] [SPEAKER_00]: charts, circus-esque crazy almost exaggerated horror Tim Burton sort of

[00:04:31] [SPEAKER_00]: style. The violence is as with all Rob Zombie's movies are incredibly extreme.

[00:04:39] [SPEAKER_00]: There's slow-mo it's pretty impressive like I was really taken aback like

[00:04:45] [SPEAKER_00]: whether or not this is all very superficial him trying too hard he

[00:04:51] [SPEAKER_00]: obviously made a very big impact with this movie that not a lot of other

[00:04:56] [SPEAKER_00]: filmmakers I guess maybe have the courage to do first time around and it

[00:05:02] [SPEAKER_00]: makes sense that if this is your first movie and you're saying hey take me

[00:05:07] [SPEAKER_00]: seriously this is a good way to do it. It's almost like how when Steven Spielberg

[00:05:12] [SPEAKER_00]: first showed his short films to different studio execs he knew based on his

[00:05:19] [SPEAKER_00]: personal knowledge of film the fancy camera works and edits that would trick

[00:05:25] [SPEAKER_00]: these people into thinking hey this guy knows what he's doing he's like way

[00:05:29] [SPEAKER_00]: better than just an amateur. And I think that's what Rob Zombie did in this

[00:05:34] [SPEAKER_00]: especially because you see as his movies go on they get a little less crazy

[00:05:40] [SPEAKER_00]: especially when it comes to camera work and style even though they're still very

[00:05:45] [SPEAKER_00]: heightened they're not nearly as insane as this one in my opinion.

[00:05:51] [SPEAKER_00]: Talking about some more specifics though with this one the opening is great with

[00:05:56] [SPEAKER_00]: Captain Spaulding and that whole character is amazing and so entertaining

[00:06:01] [SPEAKER_00]: the performance is great the makeup everything works about it and

[00:06:05] [SPEAKER_00]: actually that's another thing most Rob Zombie characters just look gross like I

[00:06:12] [SPEAKER_00]: think he's one of the only filmmakers out there where I think he intentionally

[00:06:16] [SPEAKER_00]: wants to make everything in his movies look pretty grotesque everyone's sweaty

[00:06:22] [SPEAKER_00]: everyone looks like they haven't showered in days they live in really crappy either

[00:06:29] [SPEAKER_00]: trailers or rundown homes most characters have really gross teeth as well like

[00:06:36] [SPEAKER_00]: every time they smile it's meant to be very unsettling and stomach churning at

[00:06:41] [SPEAKER_00]: least that's how it is for me. He does also mainly have blonde women in

[00:06:47] [SPEAKER_00]: his movies not that that's inherently a bad thing but I think he sort of has a

[00:06:52] [SPEAKER_00]: obvious personal type personal taste in his films when it comes to casting and

[00:06:57] [SPEAKER_00]: he did marry Sherry Moon Zombie later on. The music him coming from a music

[00:07:05] [SPEAKER_00]: background the score is very heavy in rock and just edgy head-banging very

[00:07:11] [SPEAKER_00]: bombastic sort of music. One and I'll get to circle back around to

[00:07:19] [SPEAKER_00]: specifics sorry but one thing that I don't like he doesn't seem to or care

[00:07:26] [SPEAKER_00]: about one or the other doesn't seem to notice or care that basically everyone

[00:07:31] [SPEAKER_00]: in his movies are screaming all the time they're either yelling crying

[00:07:37] [SPEAKER_00]: screaming curse words or just screaming in terror and I can only watch so many

[00:07:43] [SPEAKER_00]: of his movies close together because they become very tiresome in that way he

[00:07:48] [SPEAKER_00]: thinks that simply by having characters be at 11 out of 10 all the time that

[00:07:55] [SPEAKER_00]: makes it dramatic that makes it intense and really that's not the case

[00:08:01] [SPEAKER_00]: so he doesn't really have a subtlety when it comes to that direction of

[00:08:07] [SPEAKER_00]: actors and performance since most of his films I would say they almost are always

[00:08:13] [SPEAKER_00]: meant to feel like a twisted nightmare very surreal lots of Dutch angles and

[00:08:20] [SPEAKER_00]: never really giving you a sense of grounding I think that is what makes most

[00:08:26] [SPEAKER_00]: of his movies feel lesser than or it makes me not want to revisit them as

[00:08:32] [SPEAKER_00]: often because almost no one in his movies feel real it feels like we never

[00:08:38] [SPEAKER_00]: really get a chance to actually sit down with someone who feels like an actual

[00:08:42] [SPEAKER_00]: person which is fine there's nothing inherently wrong with that but that sets

[00:08:49] [SPEAKER_00]: him apart from other people in horror that have a way of at least for me

[00:08:54] [SPEAKER_00]: connecting with characters more and feeling like alright there's horror in

[00:08:57] [SPEAKER_00]: this but I can believe that this is a real place a real location and he

[00:09:02] [SPEAKER_00]: occasionally gets that I'm not saying that's always the case but circling back

[00:09:07] [SPEAKER_00]: around the look of the house of the family is very good it's just completely

[00:09:13] [SPEAKER_00]: covered in just random crap or imagery circus stuff garage sale purchases for

[00:09:22] [SPEAKER_00]: lack of a better term it's just completely filled with I don't know if

[00:09:27] [SPEAKER_00]: eye candy is the right word but jam-packed with stuff pack rat sort of

[00:09:32] [SPEAKER_00]: vibe going into this for the first time I

[00:09:36] [SPEAKER_00]: didn't know Rainn Wilson was in it he did this right before he got cast in the

[00:09:40] [SPEAKER_00]: office so it's kind of cool to see him in something else

[00:09:44] [SPEAKER_00]: Walton Goggins Sherry Moon Zombie I don't think she's an

[00:09:49] [SPEAKER_00]: amazing actor but there's something about her that is entertaining and kind

[00:09:54] [SPEAKER_00]: of over-the-top but it just works in the context of Rob Zombie movies

[00:10:00] [SPEAKER_00]: the murder history ride with Captain Spaulding is awesome where he takes you

[00:10:06] [SPEAKER_00]: through the different serial killers of the mid late 20th century

[00:10:12] [SPEAKER_00]: the just in case you haven't seen it the fish boy visual with one of the

[00:10:18] [SPEAKER_00]: characters the scene with Sherry Moon Zombie and

[00:10:22] [SPEAKER_00]: one of the victims where she's scalping him pretty much is effective and the

[00:10:27] [SPEAKER_00]: final tunnel nightmare sequence with the guy in the I don't know if it's a gas

[00:10:33] [SPEAKER_00]: mask or whatever it is but with the axe there is a point still it's only about

[00:10:39] [SPEAKER_00]: 90 minutes there was still points towards the end where all of the mixtures and

[00:10:45] [SPEAKER_00]: constant in-your-face style of everything did become a little

[00:10:50] [SPEAKER_00]: repetitive I'm like alright I get it like you're going all out

[00:10:55] [SPEAKER_00]: so I feel like the first two acts were by far the strongest and the most

[00:11:00] [SPEAKER_00]: creative and the most interesting overall one strong mark though that

[00:11:06] [SPEAKER_00]: always makes me more forgiving is he does make the serial killer family fairly

[00:11:13] [SPEAKER_00]: memorable and in horror that's not always the case the killers the monsters

[00:11:18] [SPEAKER_00]: aren't always that impactful and in this I do think they are and that's why he

[00:11:23] [SPEAKER_00]: would go on to make a whole trilogy with these characters which I like that

[00:11:30] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know how other people feel comment if you have a way to comment but

[00:11:34] [SPEAKER_00]: I appreciate that because that's not really something even now we don't get

[00:11:38] [SPEAKER_00]: many adult or horror trilogies

[00:11:42] [SPEAKER_00]: besides that not a whole lot of other big points it is worth watching if you

[00:11:47] [SPEAKER_00]: want a crazy psychedelic experience this is not a bad one to start with especially

[00:11:52] [SPEAKER_00]: if you are new to Rob Zombie it would be having now watched all of

[00:11:59] [SPEAKER_00]: his movies would be middle of the pack I guess ranking wise I don't think that

[00:12:04] [SPEAKER_00]: there's a Rob Zombie movie that I truly hate now but I still didn't love this

[00:12:11] [SPEAKER_00]: one as much as I thought I would or as much as maybe others do

[00:12:16] [SPEAKER_00]: Oh and quickly I don't know if this is a big issue that people have or it's a hot

[00:12:22] [SPEAKER_00]: take I think the title of the movie is a

[00:12:26] [SPEAKER_00]: little misleading it's called house of a thousand corpses and I know it's about a

[00:12:31] [SPEAKER_00]: house that's filled with bodies but it's nowhere near the amount that the

[00:12:39] [SPEAKER_00]: title suggests so I think that they could have found a different again that's

[00:12:43] [SPEAKER_00]: a title that intrigues but watching it now it's like that is kind of a

[00:12:50] [SPEAKER_00]: misnomer for me so that one is a heavy three and a half out of five