[Film Review] House of 1000 Corpses (2003)

“Do you like blood, violence, and freaks of nature? Well, then, come on down!”

It’s 1977, and four friends are on a road trip to discover oddities and roadside attractions across the U.S. Two couples - Jerry and Denise (Chris Hardwick and Erin Daniels), and Bill and Mary (Rainn Wilson and Jennifer Jostyn) - end up at Captain Spaulding’s, a combination gas station, fried chicken place, and murder museum. There, they hear a local urban legend about Dr. Satan, who supposedly committed his brutal crimes just down the road. Jerry and Bill, ignoring protests from Denise and Mary, take the group on a hunt for Dr. Satan’s crime scene. On the way, they pick up a hitchhiker, a sexy and irreverent woman called Baby.

Suddenly they blow a tire, or really, their tire is shot out by a man in a bear costume, R.J. It’s revealed that Baby and R.J. are brother and sister, members of the Firefly Family. The four roadtrippers go back to the Firefly home to wait for R.J. to fix the car, where they meet the other Fireflies, including Otis who is angry and loud, Mother who plays innocent, Tiny who seems like a gentle giant, and finally Grampa, the blustering head of the household. Meanwhile, we see flashes of a news report that five local girls, highschool cheerleaders, have gone missing. The tension at the Firefly house builds, through uncomfortable conversations and cringey stage performances. In a way, the Firefly family is “playing with their food,” and torturing the group of friends before killing them. A disturbing, unsettling ramp of confusion leading to pure terror, with an ending that can only be described as The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) meets Friday the 13th (1980), with a very cheeky “The End?” before the credits roll. 

Any other director could take those exact same plot points and make a very different movie. The plot is not what makes this movie special - it’s the feeling and experience of watching. Captain Spaulding inviting the audience into his Museum of Monsters and Madmen is a strong opening to House of 1000 Corpses (2003). It feels like an extended music video, with cuts to unrelated shots that don’t advance the plot, and to characters who do not become a part of the story. It’s footage spliced together to enhance the feeling instead of the narrative. There are overexposed negative shots, and harsh expositions from broad daylight to the dark of night. The vignettes of the Firefly family are meant to remind us of the tapes made by the Manson Family cult. So much of what we see is unexplained, which is jarring in the best way. The Firefly house has tons of texture, and unsettling props everywhere. The visuals and the sound design are equally impressive. The varied soundtrack, the electric guitar, Baby’s grating laugh, Otis yelling and ranting, and tolling bells make this a creepy listening experience. It’s not surprising that Rob Zombie would have a handle on sound design. This is one of the only movies I can think of where the visuals are so impactful, you could watch it without the sound, and the sound is so thrilling, you could just listen without watching. You can almost feel what it would be like inside the house, to touch the dolls Baby has hung on the walls, or to smell the mushy food Grampa is licking off his plate and spitting out when he yells. It seems like Zombie threw in everything but the kitchen sink - this was his directorial debut, and perhaps he wanted to use all his ideas, in case he didn’t get to make another movie.

Rob Zombie used this movie as a conduit to talk to the audience, and to challenge us. Though this movie would later be called torture porn, there is no sexual violence. However, there are many close-up shots of faces and bodies of dead women, which, even if not explicitly sexualized, are very clearly on display more than men. And there is a lot of overlap in sexiness with horror imagery. For example, images of women stripping while also playing with toy skeletons. There are several shots where characters are talking directly to the camera, in a way that can make the audience feel exposed. In the opening, when Captain Spaulding is being robbed and not backing down, the last thing he says to the robbers is “and most of all, fuck you,” and shoots a gun at the camera. This tells the audience that Zombie does not care about our boundaries, and we are in his world now. Later, when the danger is obvious and we are worried for our main characters, the local cops find one of the cheerleaders, dead and in the trunk of a car. She is naked, and has the words “trick or treat” carved into her skin. As the camera lingers on her body, we hear Otis in a voiceover, saying over and over again, louder and louder “hope you like what you see!” The audience is forced to sit with the horrifying image, and question why we may, in fact, like what we see. Near the end of the film, as Denise and Jerry are dressed and bound for sacrifice, Otis speaksto Jerry, but looks directly into the camera and tells the viewer, “It’s all true, the boogeyman is real and you found him.” I hear this as Zombie claiming to be Hollywood’s new boogeyman, a hopeful statement when this was filmed. This film means to push your boundaries and have you question your own comfort with what’s on screen. 

Production wrapped in the year 2000, but Universal was worried about an NC-17 Rating, and refused to release it. Eventually, it was picked up by Lionsgate, toned down to an R Rating, and unleashed onto eager fans, some who had been anticipating this film for years. House of 1000 Corpses is controversial, even among horror fans. But if you are willing to go for a wild ride, take in the sights and sounds like a carnival, and not worry too much about plot, it can be an entertaining addition to your horror rotation. It’s definitely part of mine!

Rest in Peace Sid Haig

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