The House of a 1000 corpses

I got to know of Rob Zombie and the oeuvre of his works courtesy the Good Samaritan (pbuh) and I started off with the Devil’s Rejects. It got me curious enough to want to watch the movie that started it all. But alas…it splattered, and how!
While the Devil’s Rejects was tautly made and isn’t deliberately titillating per se, ‘The House….’ is very much of that ilk.
The Firefly family are sadists, cannibals and the kind of “people” who have elevated suffering, pain and mutilations to an artform.
But what I did NOT expect was a host of other characters who resemble the Creature from the Black Lagoon and Swamp Thing to crawl out from the nooks and crannies and remind me of Jason and Crystal Lake.

The movie is unhinged to say the least. Sheri Moon’s high-pitched and inane laughter each time she strikes a blow and terror into her victims was grating on the nerves and very typical of a deranged individual and terribly B-grade Elviraish movie-type as well. Those days when the evil doctor or the crazed psychopath lets loose that ‘spine-tingling’ all-important maniacal laughter are very passe and ineffective. 
Sure, if you watch Boris Karloff or Christopher Lee doing it, it still makes sense because they’re from that era where movies were made in a particular fashion and evil had to conform to the stereotypical notions of being bad, ugly and scary.

But this movie seems more contrived and the dark humor forced. Maybe more so because it centers around Halloween’s Eve and Halloween itself and every sick freak who thinks himself the devil’s incarnate or worse is out in full regalia and trying to harness his powers and invoke the spirit of darkness, under the full moon. I mean c’mon….is cliched what you were aiming for Rob?

But the movie’s been shot well and especially parts where the victims are being dispatched are shown in a manner which isnt grade A slasher. But the weirdass line-up of half-dead hellish assistants that the Firefly family keeps on hand is laughable!. One guy actually seemed like a cross between Predator and an unmasked Jason.

All in all? It was boring and so not up the expectations. Go straight for Devil’s Rejects…this one will entertain only the very avid Zombie fans or those who can deal with gore and entrails and sadistic perversions 24/7.