House of 1000 Corpses

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House of 1000 Corpses is the first film to be written and directed by Rob Zombie. In the film, four college students are driving cross-country to experience weird and unusual tourist spots. The four students end up running afoul of a family of serial killers, called the Firefly family. First things first, I love this movie's cast. The Firefly family is played by Sheri Moon Zombie, Sid Haig, Bill Mosley, and Karen Black. The movie also has performances by Walton Goggins, Chris Hardwick, and Rainn Wilson before any of them really got big. The actors (especially those playing the antagonists) are clearly having a ton of fun. The standouts for me are Sheri Moon Zmbie, Sid Haig, and Walton Goggins. The movie's sets are awesome to. They are pretty balls-to-the-wall insane, and I honestly think they look great. As much as I love the movie's cast, I do have to admit that the character development is pretty thin. Now, I don't have an issue with this when it comes to the Firefly family. We aren't really given any motivation for why they do what they do. The most backstory we get is that one of the family members, Tiny, was horribly disfigured in a house fire. But, we don't really know whether or not this event played into Tiny's backstory. If anything, that lack of development and motivation makes them scarier. I would argue it is one of the film's rare examples of less is more. Where my issues with the character development really start coming into play is through the development of the college students. We don't know why they are embarking on this road trip, only that they are. Because they can barely count as characters, I can't really bring myself to care one way or the other if they live or die. I don't like them, so I can't root for them to live. But, I don't hate them enough to really cheer when they die. I just sort of think "OK, cool," and then I move on. The movie's plot is nothing groundbreaking either. To me, this feels like Rob Zombie's take on The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. A lot of the plot beats are there. A group of twenty somethings is traveling cross-country. They pick up a hitchhiker. They are terrorized by a family of serial killers. The hitchhiker they pick up is one of the family members. One of the family members is disfigured, and has mental problems. Some of the directing choices that Zombie makes in this film are a bit weird, and they can just be distracting. A lot of the time, they take me out of the movie. Your enjoyment of this movie will depend on your opinions of Rob Zombie as a filmmaker. I know people who absolutely hate this movie, and it's not hard to see why. So, do I hate this movie with a burning passion? No. There's definitely stuff about this movie I don't like. But, there's stuff about this movie I really like as well. 

6 / 10