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House of 1000 Corpses (2003) - Rob Zombie


House of 1000 Corpses pays homage where homage is due. I have learned to expect that kind of thing from Rob Zombie. He really gives it up to the filth films that came out in the late seventies and early eighties. This movie has that "Grindhouse" style to it; film burns, harsh cuts, over exposed scenes. Just to name a few of the features in this movie. That and intense, brutal, gore. Characters are mutilated and dispatched in the some of the most extreme ways. Its pretty cool.


This movie is littered with references and tributes from the obvious to the more obscure. Rob Zombie really does a great job of that and he does it with copious amounts of schlock. To say that House of 1000 Corpses isn't a cheesy movie would be a lie. A lot of the scenes are predictable and the acting, although perhaps it is purposeful, is not the best. At least not from our unknowing and unsuspecting heroes. Aside from Sherri Moon Zombie, the villains and minor characters were all very good, hordes of veteran actors. Karen Black, Sid Haig, Bill Mosley, Irwin Keyes, Tom Towels, Matthew McGrory, and Michael Pollard. Sheri Moon Zombie was not.

The movie is highly stylized and plays out much like a White Zombie music video with a "middle of nowhere hicks meet dumb teenagers" horror plot. The special effects are pretty good and make for a really brutal and bloody feature. The film follows four "dumb teenagers"; Jerry (Chris Hardwick), Bill (Rainn Wilson), Mary (Jennifer Jostyn), Denise Willis (Erin Daniels). On a cross country road trip to do research for a book they are writing. That is until they get side tracked. They decide to investigate a local legend named Doctor Satan, and in their curiosity, stumble upon a psychotic killer family that enjoys torturing their victims.

The soundtrack to this movie is really good too. What would you expect? Rob Zombie's first talent was music. He uses really gritty tunes that are catchy and fit the scenes really well. The old school western music really makes for some creepiness. It all adds to what makes this movie great. The soundtrack is solid, the effects are gory, the acting is atrocious, and the content is extremely graphic. I recommend this movie to anyone that wants to watch a really good old school horror movie.

Boy, I bet you'd stick your head in fire if I told ya you could see Hell. Meanwhile, you're too stupid to realize you got a demon stickin' out your ass singing, "Holy Miss Moley"

S!D
  • Universal Studios didn't want to release the movie. They believed it would get an NC-17 rating. This was filmed in 2000 and not released until three years later. 
  • During its box office run, the movie encountered two instances of the number '666': At the beginning of its run, when its opening weekend was $3,460,666, and at the end of its run, when its per-theater-average (the weekend gross divided by the number of theaters) was $666 per theater.
  • The actual house is the same used in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, which can be viewed during Universal Studio's tram ride.

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