House of a Thousand Corpses (2003)

The Horror Apocalypse finally reviews one of the most hyped horror films in recent years, Rob Zombie's "House of a Thousand Corpses", with some decidedly mixed thoughts. Four teens find themselves stranded in the remote countryside after looking up a local legend about a certain "Doctor Satan", and find themselves at the mercy of a family of inbred, murderous freaks. Sound familiar anyone?

Director Rob Zombie, a well-known horror aficionado, achieves here on some levels and fails on others. Stylistically speaking, this film kicks major ass. For a low budget flick, the set design and just plain overall look of the film rule. Think of a cross between the weird images of "Texas Chainsaw", "Tourist Trap" and "The Funhouse" mixed with a hearty dose of LSD and you'll see what I mean. There are just some extremely cool visuals in this film and I dug Rob's use of old movie footage, split screen views, and the like. In terms of violence, the flick was low on actual gore but high on the sadistic side of things. I was truly amazed at what the censors allowed to remain in the film.

For the family themselves, veteran genre actor Bill Mosley steals the show as Otis, delivering a truly demented and intense performance. The dude just plays psychos really damn well, as any genre fan can attest to his performance as "Chop-Top" from Chainsaw 2. The rest of the family are all fucked up in their own unique way, and every character works fairly well. It's the victims though, that really did not do anything for me. I felt a lot of the horrific elements to the film never really hit home for that fact that they are directed at your standard cardboard characters, especially the two young girls who looked so similar I could hardly tell them apart, let alone which one was alive or dead.

The first half of the film is a fairly intense roller coaster ride filled with lots of nice little touches, like the scene of Otis shooting a cop, while director Zombie makes the viewer, along with the cop, wait about thirty seconds before the actual pulling of the trigger. The scenes of Otis in a human skin suit are also fairly intense and creepy, and the whole family's tormenting of the wayward youths is just as nice and sadistic as it gets. It's the second half of the film that seemed to stumble a bit to me, particularly the introduction of the Dr. Satan killer. I never was really sure what the hell was going on, and the whole chase scenario just seemed to go on and on, to the point where I just wanted the family to catch the damn girl and end it. If only the story developed the victims a little better, perhaps this flick would have seemed more threatening. Plus, the fact that I'm extremely jaded probably comes into play as well. I think that after all the hype surrounding this film it's hard to live up to any of it.

I do however, applaud Rob Zombie for delivering a film that drastically changes pace from all the teenybopper, cookie cutter slasher flicks we've had shoved down our throats since the success of "Scream". If the trendy and oh so hip cast of Dawson's Creek were in the role of the victims here, my heart would have most assuredly burst with joy. "House" is an interesting debut that achieves in terms of intensity and style, though is a bit short on storyline for most mainstream moviegoers. I however, am not one of those individuals, so I say this is one House worth a visit, no matter what it's shortcomings. And yes, a sequel is on the way.