Halloween and Skulls, Yeah!: Why Moving Beyond Your Own Paradigm Isn’t Always the Greatest Thing
A Review/Ponderance of House of 1000 Corpses by Mike Meyer

I recall a conversation I had a few years back with a friend about the differences between Rob Zombie and Marilyn Manson, back when both were at least marginally relevant to pop culture. As someone who never really sold into the whole Goth thing even at its peak, I explained that I liked Rob Zombie a lot more just because he has more fun with his material, even if his music maybe isn’t as prolific or at the same level of quality. There wasn’t any anger in Rob’s stuff. It’s all Halloween and ghosts and plastic skulls and neon paint and yelling “yeah!” a lot. Nothing complicated but way more fun that most out there. Plus, he’s a fellow horror and B movie fan so I just ate it up when he’d send up Cabinet of Dr Caligari or Faster, Pussycat, Kill Kill! in his videos. And when I heard he was writing and directing a movie, I knew I’d be the first in line. And years of constant debate over content was like putting a cherry on top…and then adding a few more.

The movie itself was a conceptual feast. The first 5 minutes itself is truly Rob Zombie fun with a beyond hilarious poke at public access horror shows. As a former one of those, I salute him. Then Syd Haig…WOW! Not to say that the dialogue he’s given is Shakespeare (or even the best Rob Zombie is probably capable of) but you cannot deny he has an amazing presence. His B movie fame has only been able to land him a bit cameo part in a Tarantino movie, so let’s hope this performance is the one that wakes the world up. From the title to the very end scene was like unleashing the panache of kitschiest Broadway in a Halloween shop. Everything from the editing to the elaborate Dr. Satan design to the simplest costume sight gags makes this a fun movie to take in. Unfortunately though, the design and everything else were hindered under the weight of other creative decisions that really wore the fun of this movie to the nubs.

House of 1000 Corpses is not so much a horror movie as it is a revival of sorts of a smaller genre of films that saw light in the 1970s…revenge movies. I Spit on Your Grave. Last House on the Left. Can’t say I’m a huge fan of the genre on the whole, they’re mean, joyless movies about “eye for an eye” brutal underground, barely snuff film revenge. They’re not a jolly bowl of blood and guts like the mainstream horror serials or their Italian counterparts involving mystical creatures or serial killers who attack the innocent and the innocents’ inevitable escape with a few laughs along the way. Nope, this is the sick doing sick things and then being sicked upon in ways that boggle your senses. And that seemed to be the center of House. It's a revenge picture minus the revenge. There are a lot of scenes of brutal torture and dismemberment that, though they try to add a kitschy funny twist by having them done to the strains of "Brick House" by the Commodores, ultimately turns the audience from jumping up in their seats in fear to just plain tears. One ultimately way-too-effective-for-the-wrong-reason choice Zombie made was to use video when shooting/recording audio for torture scenes to make them more real. And boy, did they. But for all the things that happened to these kids, there was no payback or revenge even in a sick form. Just sadism winning over everything. From a person whose artistic center of joy comes from horror movies comes a horror movie without a whole lot of joy. The best horror films are usually chase movies or a race to conquer/escape the impending doom, punctuated with gore. This one there was almost no chase or suspense at all…just a huge celebration of torture. And that’s only really good for as sideshows for the disturbed, not the center of a movie.

In all, I did enjoy myself. Though the cake itself wasn’t terribly good, the frosting went down smooth and decadent. For the hardcore horror fans, see it to see something you haven’t seen in quite a while. For the casual viewers, you may want to catch something that leaves you with a little less baggage when you leave the theater….and when you drive home….and while asleep in your bed….and the next few weeks.
YEAH!

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