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Review: House Of 1000 Corpses (2003)

House Of 1000 Corpses (2003) Review by Margot Kidder.

Oh what a mistake Universal made when they dropped this movie. But it's Lions Gate who are set to reap the rewards in this somewhat troubling new movie from well known 'odd' rock star Rob Zombie and his directorial debut House of 1000 Corpses. For this movie is sick, twisted, derranged and very very disturbing.

Set in the Fall of 1977 (October 30th to be precise), the movie documents a 24hr period between 30/10 to 31/10 and the tragic tale of 4 teenagers out in the highways and byways of outback USA that fateful evening. The kids are out on a hunt of all the best and creepiest roadside shows and oddities in the USA which they wish to write up about for a book. Pretty much standard horror fare so far. When the kids stop off at a gas station run by a man with a passion for clowns and guns, thats when their evening takes a turn for the worse as he gives them directions to an old tree which, supposedly is part of the myth of a local legend called Dr. Satan. On route to the house the kids pick up a hitchiking girl and get so far before their tyre blows out. Luckily she announces her brother has a tow truck and so offers to tow them to her place so they can fix the car...

For the duration of it's 90min running time i was left gripped to the screen wanting to watch this movie through to the end. Somewhat worryingly this wasn't because i found the movie scary. Far from it, this isn't that type of movie. What it is though is deeply troubling to the mind and your thoughts as to why the hell you'd want to watch this in the first place if it wasn't to be scared (something which i find myself asking still now a good 15mins after i finished watching the movie).

At first you'd be forgiven if you were watching an Oliver Stone movie as Zombie (Robert to his friends lol) shows a somewhat obvious love of Mr. Stones work in this movies style, camerawork and editing. We are treated to a barrage of fast moving cuts, flashes, sounds and strange 1950's imagery along with the appropriate splashes of blood, wails of peril and traditional screams all much needed for a movie of this calibre. The somewhat 'eclectic' soundtrack also helps to shuffle this movie along at a reasonable pace.

It's quite clear that besides Mr. Zombie's directorial influences, we can see the movie has also been inspired by such movies as Natural Born Killers, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Frankenstein aswell as a whole homage to the early 50's and 60's hammer movies. This movie somehow melds all of these together in a colourful and well edited manner, unfortunately it seems as though the movie must have run out of money near the end as we see less fancy camerawork and effects as the movie evolves in to more standard schlock fare.

I'm still unsure of what to make of this movie. I know it was good and i know i enjoyed it, but i'm not quite 100% sure why. Although in it's naked premise for a movie it is standard horror fare, the way it was rolled out to the viewer was genuinely original and entertaining. We are treated to 80mins of just plain disturbing imagery and then BAM! up comes the ending. But all is not as it seems. I won't give it away, but to put it simply, the ending made a very refreshing change to the majority of Hollywood Scream style schlock we have all become accustomed to in recent years.

House Of 1000 Corpses isn't a movie i think i could watch again, although maybe with friends at a party things might be different. I can safely say though this is a nice slice of entertainment and well worth watching, just don't expect to feel quite as comfortable as you did when you hit the play button...

Recommended.

Final Score: 7/10 ''Guess what? The Boogeyman is real, and you've found him.''

http://us.imdb.com/Title?0251736

gheeez, your review makes me WANT to watch it.. even though im scaredy.. .. i'll do it!

man this looks soo fuckin scary thanx mystic for the review

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Originally posted by deftones6


How are you rating the video and audio without actually having the movie????

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i make a suggestion to everyone reading this...

DO NOT WATCH THIS MOVIE WHILST STONED!!!!!

oh my fucking sweet shit.. ill have to watch this one again sobre.. but GOD DAMN! this is one of the craziest fuckin movies ive ever seen.. it freaked my shit the fuck out...

acting is a little lacking.. but.. as far as direction goes.. jesus fucking christ.. zombie.. keep making movies.. cause you make some crazy fucking shit

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"Nothing says OBEY ME like a severed head on a fence post,"

I agree..this movie is way out there..if you're not in the right frame of mind to watch this you could be seriously messed up for life..

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"If somebody said to me, in twelve years you’ll be in a band with your brother and two carrot munching geezers who don’t like football, I would've said 'fuck off, I’m not joining the Bee Gees." -Noel Gallagher 2005

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Originally posted by petrocs
I agree..this movie is way out there..if you're not in the right frame of mind to watch this you could be seriously messed up for life..

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I usually agree with your take on movies Mystic. But not this one.

This was the biggest waste of an hour and a half I've had in a long time.

It was like watching a low-rate metal video from the early nineties. (something like GWAR!)

Maybe if they had even TRIED to come up with some original ideas, it might have made it more interesting, but nope. The 'disturbing' bits were done in a way that just made it look naff and completely unrealistic.

A big zero out of ten for this one from me.

I was more disturbed looking up that chicks nose in The Blair Witch Project.



Billy

Uhg. How to make a low budget horror film for 10 million dollars.... I dunno, I guess if Mystic can't figure out why he likes this movie so much, I can't figure out why I dislike it so much.

It's not so much a movie as it is a series of disturbing images linked together by the faint hint of a story. There are some bits of entertainment in it, but they're kind of few (the scenes with Captain Spalding) and far between. Mostly, this is just mindless screaming and running along with some creepy in-breds thrown into the mix.

The hot chick....is hot but a little annoying. The main bad guy (Otis) looks like Riffraff from Rocky Horror Picture show, but demoned-up by Zombie. And the "final boss", Dr. Satan is to ax handling what the Storm Troopers were to expert marksmanship (that means shooting, kids).

Okay, so he can string together some mildly disturbing imagery. But can he make an actual movie? I dunno, I didn't see anything in this attempt that gives me hope for Rob's movie career.

3/10

-K

that chick baby [sheri moon] is hot.. thats all i gotta say she was worth the 4$. but the movie, was more of a comedy to me.

i'm a big fan of Rob Zombie, luv his music and loved his movie, i found it funny and freaky, i actually want 2 watch it again...i hope he kepts making movies...