Monday, October 6, 2014

Movie Review: "House of 1000 Corpses" (2003)

Image Source
Movie"House of 1000 Corpses"
Director: Rob Zombie
Year: 2003
Rating: R
Running Time: 1 hour, 29 minutes

Two guys named Jerry (Chris Hardwick) and Bill (Rainn Wilson) are traveling across the country with their girlfriends Mary (Jennifer Jostyn) and Denise (Erin Daniels). They are writing a book on weird roadside attractions in the US. They come across a freak and murder museum/gas station and fried chicken restaurant run by a clown named Captain Spaulding (Sid Haig), which is perfect for their book. Captain Spaulding tells them about the legend of Dr. Satan, a local serial killer who was hung from a nearby tree. He gives Jerry directions to the tree and sends the group on their way. While driving to the hanging spot, they see a hitchhiker named Baby (Sheri Moon) trapped in the storm and they pick her up. While giving her a ride home, their tire is mysteriously blown out and Baby offer to have her brother tow their car. They reluctantly agree, and this decision would be the worst of their lives, as Baby and her family are actually a psychotic group of serial killers.

A WILD @hardwick APPEARS!!

This movie is much more gory than it is scary. It's filled with a lot of horror film cliches, such as teens on a road trip stopping in a small town, and picking up a hitchhiker, then getting abducted by local inbred freaks. These cliches don't stop it from being pretty entertaining. The movie has an avant garde, student film type of look and feel. It switches in and out of different cameras, going from completely clear to a grainy, home movie appearance every now and then. Some of the cutaway shots are so random and have nothing to do with the scene at hand, and yet it all sort of meshes together with the plot and creates this weird and intriguing yet random mix of grotesque, bizarre horror. The plot itself is rather simple and the story is nothing spectacular or new, but its offbeat characters, its graphic violence, and its outlandish weirdness make for a rather enjoyable horror movie!

Doctor Satan is one of the stupidest and cheesiest names of a horror villain we've ever heard of, let's get that out of the way right now. It doesn't lend to a lot of creativity, but it does lend to the humorous atmosphere that runs throughout the movie. Sid Haig's performance as Captain Spaulding is the first that comes to mind. He is uproariously hilarious with his brash, country clown attitude and terrible makeup and plain street clothes. Also, the horror museum/gas station/fried chicken restaurant as the setting for the beginning of the film is funny all by itself because, again, it's so completely random and that makes it funny. Unknowingly, Chris Hardwick is also in this movie, and we were quite pleasantly surprised to see him! He plays the same nerdy dork that he always does, but this time he's a horror junkie on top of it. Sherri Moon is Rob Zombie's wife, and he puts her in everything he directs. She's weird as hell. Beyond the acting, all of the practical makeup work in the movie is quite well done, the sets are cool and freakish, and the methods of murder are ghoulishly delightful.

Overall, this movie is sick and twisted, and we liked it a lot.

My Rating: 7/10
BigJ's Rating: 7/10
IMDB's Rating: 6/10
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 19%
Do we recommend this movie: Sure, why not?
~~~~~~~~~~
One year ago, we were watching"Bloody Birthday"

No comments:

Post a Comment