"Why you asking so many jackassy questions?"
I can't seem to stop watching House of 1000 Corpses over and over again. It's just... it's so much fun, especially compared to The Devil's Rejects, which was after Rob Zombie knew what he was doing. In H1KC, he's still sort of flinging everything at the screen to see what sticks, and that's a recipe for entertaining drive-in cinema if you ask me.
-He uses split-screen! He uses split-screen a lot. But I love split screen, at least when it's not being haphazardly applied to one of my favorite tv shows in its autumn years (Buffy, I'm looking at you here, and I'm not smiling).
-And the soundtrack is so cracked out -- yeah, there's some good Rob Zombie stuff, but there's also Slim "Bullfrog" Whitman and The Commodores and all kinds of other random stuff.
-It seems like every few scenes in the first half there's a clip from a 30s Universal horror movie. There's The Old Dark House! There's The Wolfman! There's House of Frankenstein! There's The Munsters! Rob Zombie loves pop culture so much, y'all.
-There's Sig Haig as Captain Spaulding, obviously an instant classic ("Goddamn motherfucker got blood all over my best clown suit!").
-There's a Bill Mosely cameo roughly every twenty minutes -- which is completely ridiculous, given that he's also the lead villain. It's like Zombie was all, how can there possibly be more Bill Mosely in the film? Could we turn Bill Mosely into a paste of some kind and smear him all over the print, perhaps?
-The male bad guys are all named after Groucho Marx characters. Why? ... Why not?
-Our two male protagonists are Rainn Wilson (I'm not an Office fan, but he always seems very funny) and Chris Hardwicke (erstwhile host of Singled Out -- 90s nostalgia ftw!). I think I'm nursing a crush on Chris Hardwicke now. As I believe I did when I was twelve, as well -- funny how these things don't seem to go away.
-But I love chris Hardwicke in this movie; Jerry is such a raging dork. And so very much the stand-in for all us horror fans and serial murder -- well, enthusiasts is the wrong word, but you know what I mean.
-And then there's Karen Black. It seems like Karen Black was an actual, like, B-list leading lady back in the day. I'm baffled by this, as she has always been kinda freaky-looking and just a little bit crosseyed.
-Fishboy!
-(Am I the only person who finds this movie consistently hilarious?)
-Awesome 70s wardrobe stylings -- sheepskin coats all around! Those are hard to pull off now without verging from "retro" to "pimpin" -- believe me, I have tried.
-Now, granted, Sheri Moon is not at her best here. She's so awesome in The Devil's Rejects and I don't know if it's her or Zombie getting in the way of that here, but the giggling is just way, way too much.
-Aww, Tiny. And when Denise wakes up, and instead of screeching like a loon she asks Tiny to let her go, that's when you decide it's okay if she lives.
-But there is a thing where you don't entirely have somebody to root for. I mean, after watching the movie six or seven times, I did decide I had that crush on Chris Hardwicke, which gave me some motivation to root for the kids, but Mary is entirely insufferable, and Bill's kind of a wet blanket. Meanwhile Mother Firefly and Otis and Grandpa are kind of a hoot.
-Aaand I've been drinking wine, so if I was planning on some kind of clever summary getting at why I've been watching this movie on a constant loop for a week... it's pretty well history now.
I would tell you all about my shitty weekend, but suffice it to say: flat tire... church... trips back and forth to Woodbridge... expensive cab rides... hangovers... badness. Blah.
-He uses split-screen! He uses split-screen a lot. But I love split screen, at least when it's not being haphazardly applied to one of my favorite tv shows in its autumn years (Buffy, I'm looking at you here, and I'm not smiling).
-And the soundtrack is so cracked out -- yeah, there's some good Rob Zombie stuff, but there's also Slim "Bullfrog" Whitman and The Commodores and all kinds of other random stuff.
-It seems like every few scenes in the first half there's a clip from a 30s Universal horror movie. There's The Old Dark House! There's The Wolfman! There's House of Frankenstein! There's The Munsters! Rob Zombie loves pop culture so much, y'all.
-There's Sig Haig as Captain Spaulding, obviously an instant classic ("Goddamn motherfucker got blood all over my best clown suit!").
-There's a Bill Mosely cameo roughly every twenty minutes -- which is completely ridiculous, given that he's also the lead villain. It's like Zombie was all, how can there possibly be more Bill Mosely in the film? Could we turn Bill Mosely into a paste of some kind and smear him all over the print, perhaps?
-The male bad guys are all named after Groucho Marx characters. Why? ... Why not?
-Our two male protagonists are Rainn Wilson (I'm not an Office fan, but he always seems very funny) and Chris Hardwicke (erstwhile host of Singled Out -- 90s nostalgia ftw!). I think I'm nursing a crush on Chris Hardwicke now. As I believe I did when I was twelve, as well -- funny how these things don't seem to go away.
-But I love chris Hardwicke in this movie; Jerry is such a raging dork. And so very much the stand-in for all us horror fans and serial murder -- well, enthusiasts is the wrong word, but you know what I mean.
-And then there's Karen Black. It seems like Karen Black was an actual, like, B-list leading lady back in the day. I'm baffled by this, as she has always been kinda freaky-looking and just a little bit crosseyed.
-Fishboy!
-(Am I the only person who finds this movie consistently hilarious?)
-Awesome 70s wardrobe stylings -- sheepskin coats all around! Those are hard to pull off now without verging from "retro" to "pimpin" -- believe me, I have tried.
-Now, granted, Sheri Moon is not at her best here. She's so awesome in The Devil's Rejects and I don't know if it's her or Zombie getting in the way of that here, but the giggling is just way, way too much.
-Aww, Tiny. And when Denise wakes up, and instead of screeching like a loon she asks Tiny to let her go, that's when you decide it's okay if she lives.
-But there is a thing where you don't entirely have somebody to root for. I mean, after watching the movie six or seven times, I did decide I had that crush on Chris Hardwicke, which gave me some motivation to root for the kids, but Mary is entirely insufferable, and Bill's kind of a wet blanket. Meanwhile Mother Firefly and Otis and Grandpa are kind of a hoot.
-Aaand I've been drinking wine, so if I was planning on some kind of clever summary getting at why I've been watching this movie on a constant loop for a week... it's pretty well history now.
I would tell you all about my shitty weekend, but suffice it to say: flat tire... church... trips back and forth to Woodbridge... expensive cab rides... hangovers... badness. Blah.