_tony_

the only horror i got from this flick was the horrifying acting, directing, and screenplay.

House of 1000 Corpses =

Dr. DVD

I doubt you will be smiling so big after you see the movie.

DVD Smurf

Why would a parent bring their 7-year old to this film remains a mystery to me....

db27

I'd like to see it, but as usual unless its a big movie I don't get to see it cuz I'm in Vermont!

These are the movies I could see within 10 miles.

Agent Cody Banks PG Action 01:41
Anger Management PG-13 Comedy 01:41
Basic R Thriller 01:35
Bowling for Columbine R Documentary 02:00
Bringing Down the House PG-13 Comedy 01:45
Catch Me if You Can PG-13 Drama 02:20
Chicago PG-13 Drama 01:40
The Core PG-13 Thriller 02:15
Head of State PG-13 Comedy 01:35
The Hours PG-13 Romance 01:54
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days PG-13 Romance 01:50
The Jungle Book 2 G Family 01:12
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers PG-13 Drama 02:59
A Man Apart R Action 01:49
Old School R Comedy 01:31
Phone Booth R Thriller 01:20
The Pianist R Art/Foreign 02:28
Piglet's Big Movie G Family 01:15
The Quiet American R Romance 01:58
Spirited Away (Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi) PG Art/Foreign 02:04
What a Girl Wants PG Romance 01:40

Venom

i haven't seen it yet and i am not expecting it to be great or a bomb. but it seems everyone who has seen it and posted hated it. Arrow in the head, from joblo gives it 3 and half out of 4, he seemed to dig it alot but also spotting some script flaws and bad acting as mentioned. but Arrow is a true horror fan and is usually spot on, atleast for my tastes.

http://www.joblo.com/arrow/houseof1000corpses.htm

"In the end, I had a freakin' macabre riot with "House of a 1000 Corpses" even with its shortcomings. I expect mainstream audiences to walk out on this one scratching their heads in bewilderment. As for me, I want to celebrate Halloween with this family. ADOPT ME PLEASE!"

DarthMaul420

Well , I just got back from the late showing. Theater was PACKED. Actually Cinemark had this in one of their bigger theaters. I have not seen this many people at a horror film ... ever. Wait until we see box office numbers before calling it a loss. The film did get a positive reaction from many people when It was over.

My thoughts:

The film was ok at best. Nothing NEW but this was expected! Most of the problems I knew about going in. Much of this movie was Zombie taking things from his fav. films. In doing so, some scenes feel like rip offs of other films. Horror films do generally rip others off though so I can live with it. Just wish he threw some more ideas of his own into the film.

Oh, and to all you critics out there that have to post how bad this film is and that the acting sucked, chill out it's a horror movie! It is based on Zombie's fav. films from his childhood to Texas Chainsaw. Those films weren't exactly made for artistic credit you know ....

Heres some things to look for if you are really into the horror genre. Did anyone catch any others?

1. In one point in the movie, you will know when, Zombie replicates An Evil Dead Poster on screen. I think I was the only one who caught it when I went. It's a spoiler so I won't say.

2. The Obvious TCM-like scenes. This was the weak part of the film IMO. Not much new here. I have a feeling this is where all the cuts were made gore wise though.

3. Considering Universal dropped this film did anyone notice all the posters of Classic Monster Movies through out the film? At one point the screen on a TV said a copyright from universal! Surprised Zombie kept them in there.

4. The Blatent Argento eyes scenes .... very obvious.

5. Scenes similiar to the NOTLD and DOTD news broadcasts.

caiman

Well, I watched this earlier this evening. Like most everyone has said, the acting was bad, the story was nothing new, and the plot fell apart halfway through. But you know what? I liked it. It knew what it was, and that's really the best thing that can be said about a horror movie. It had the cheese, the stupid characters, and the horrendous dialogue, but it never tried to be the next Citizen Kane; it just tried to be a fun, campy horror movie, and it succeeded.

A ways into the film, I was still on the fence about whether I was liking it overall, but the last few scenes really sealed the deal for me. There is some crazy, ****ed up, cool-as-hell stuff that happens in the last 10 minutes or so. Everyone has said that the film isn't scary at all, but there were some moments in these last few scenes where I was inching my way towards being a little creeped out.

Overall it was just an entertaining, gory, fun movie that feels refreshing after the many recent crappy horror movies that take themselves so seriously. If you like horror movies, go see this.

Oh, and the ending was absolutely perfect.

Julie Walker

Well i thought the film was a blast & caught a packed after midnight showing at the Mall of America.

The audience was made up of a mix of 'hardcore' horror fans & the teeny bopper crowd. Surprisingly no one walked out of the film. Though a few were upset with the film for being to mean & disturbing. So much so that the girl next to me,sat curled in her chair,with her head in her lap since she could'nt take looking at the screen much longer since she was repulsed by what she saw(she hated the ending btw.. & will no doubt have nightmares,hehe).

Anyway the audience was great. Their were groans,people huffing under their breath how sick the film was...& the best part of all. Simultaniouslly clapping & cheering in delight when the end credits hit!

Then they stood about talking about the film for a few minutes..& if the cheers were any indication. They loved the film which is more than i can say about 99% of my other theater experiances where the audiences were very dormant & bored with the usual crap being spewed on the screen.


So while the film is not original(what film is today..since everythings been done pretty much?). It was a breath of fresh air from the tame by the numbers crap churned out today. This is a REAL horror film in terms of being campy,outrageous,sick,disgusting,mean spirited,unpleasent,unhappy ending..& just a very bleak ride that will unsettle you in many ways.

Basically everything missing from horor today that takes itself much to seriously(& tacks on a happy ending).


So if you go in with absolutely no expectations & judge the film on it's own merits(like i did). You may end up enjoying it. Yet if you go in expecting the greatest & most original horror film ever made. You will be disapointed.

So sit back..& let the pure insanity take over & drag you down the nightmarish road.

Rob did exactly what he said he intended & for that i thank him. This is the most memorable horor or any theater going experiance i've had in years!



Oh yeah...i loved the pitch black dark humor in the film. The audience seemed to get it as well & laughed out loudly. Then were silent in disgust the next once the tone went back to just yucky & unpleasent.

Trigger

Caught this tonight. The theater was packed full of smelly unshowered mall goth-punks wearing various metal accessories and danzig t-shirts. Not that there's anything wrong with that, it's just that I thought this group went extinct in the mid 90's. Anyway - the film was fairly mediocre. It wasn't scary at all... nor was it disturbing to me at all. It was more or less a Texas Chainsaw Massacre type of film. The gore effects were decent and the characters were somewhat interesting (although not in the least bit unique, new or fresh). The acting was well done - especially considering the cast. A few great B-movie regulars make appearances too. The film generated an appropriate atmosphere and I can't really fault Zombie for much actually.

House of 1000 Corpses was fairly dull though... but only because I had seen this all before. Perhaps to the unseasoned moviegoer, this sort of film would be new and fresh. Perhaps that's what he's banking on. The crowd I saw this with no doubt had seen Texas Chainsaw Massacre before (I would assume)... the fact that the theater was full makes me think this film might have legs depending on how many smelly mall goth punks there are still living in their parents basements thirsting for the next crappy cult horror schlock fest.

In the end, it wasn't bad and it wasn't all that great - but I can't help but be impressed with the fact that Rob Zombie made a film that wasn't complete crap. This film does even marginally well and there's bound to be a sequel or two. Some people will really love this film for what it is, some will perhaps be shocked and appauled by it and then there will be those that just find it more redundant than entertaining. I fall into the last category. I may rent it on DVD if they release a version uncut, but I'd have to be pretty bored that day to actually watch it.

costanza187

I found the movie to be quite disturbing

Dr. DVD

Saw it at a late show last night. Like everyone else, my showing was packed. I somehow knew that a movie like this would require a midnight showing to get the full effect and have the maximum crowd. Lots of young adults and harcore horror fans in there, not to mention some rather attractive babes, no doubt there with boyfriends returning the favor for How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days. More irony, it was playing in the same theater room that was playing Gone With The Wind the last time I was in it. (For the restoration)

The actual movie: after reading all of the negative reviews in here, I thought it would suck but went because not going after following it this long would be anti-climactic. Let me say that while the movie had its flaws, I found it quite enjoyable. None of the stupid teen slasher mumbo-jumbo, just a good old fashioned blood and gore creature feature. For people who say it had bad acting and little plot, well, it was a blood/gor creature feature like the ones made in the 70s, what did you expect? None of those films really had it going in the basic artsy areas either. I had more fun watching this movie than I did watching more mainstream drivel like the I Know What You Did Last Summers, Deep Impact, Godzilla, and Unfaithful. Heck, this was even better than a lot of recent attempts at creature features like The Relic or Wishmaster.
In short, this movie is somewhat exceptional in that it doesn't cater to the teeny bopper crowd. Also, while he needs to fine tone his directing skills, one cannot deny that Rob Zombie has the potential to become a great horror film maker in the future. His visual style is quite impressive IMO, and kudos to him for not relying on CGI to create an environment. The acting was rather shoddy except from the character ones, but they did a great job, and Sid Haig had the audience rolling every time he was on screen.
Overall, not great, but a nice change of pace. Watching the movie, I got the feeling that a lot of stuff was cut out, which it obviosuly was to get the R. I truly think that had this movie been released unrated, we would have gotten the real disturbing horror movie everyone wanted. Here's looking forward to a packed DVD that will hopefully have both versions!

clemente

Can I say that I'm amused at all the folks saying, "It's a bloody horror movie, why did you expect good acting and a good plot?"

I'm amused because these are some of the same people that severely bash other flicks because of the same traits....only difference, this one plays to your likes.

Something to ponder.

Dr. DVD

Well, if I went to see Lord of the Rings or Chicago and got something like this, I would be disappointed. I adjust my likes for whatever movie I see. What I don't like are movies that try to be something more than they need and try to stop for a moment and be serious when it really isn't merited.

In short, I wouldn't have liked House of 1,000 Corpses if I had gone in wanting The Hours (though lord knows a Rob Zombie track would have been better than Philip Glass).

Sunday Morning

I appreciate horror films. I grew up on some of the best in the seventies and eighties and watching the universal classics of yesteryear.

I just viewed the latest film from the genre in our year (and past couple of decades for the matter) that has released mostly crap: Zombie's house of 1,000 corpses.

What a pity. I was expecting something interesting but what I got was something while disturbing, was also amateurish and dumb. It now joins that ever growing heap.

It's also a pity rob zombie, a self pronounced dedicated fan of true horror films including some of the best of the genre in the 70's, also stoops to be self-referential like most of films in the genre today.
There is some fun humor, some even hinting at being smart, but there are also plenty of dumb moments filled with annoying editing and characters that are just not interesting.
I didn't care about the victims, I didn't care about the villains.
They all seemed pretty stock. Maybe that was the point. Either way I walked out not caring.

Zombie's fetish for remaking the texas chainsaw massacre hopefully is now buried... Along with those cynabites from the hellraiser films he just had to include.

At least the goth kids in the audience enjoyed it.

Sunday Morning

Oh, side note...glad to see sid haig is still working. He was the best thing about this film.

As much as I like karen black, she just left a bad taste in my mouth here. Yikes.

DarthMaul420

Horror movies have never been made for their "art". It's either for money or for fun. Rob made this one for fun. Why should we critique it as such?

clemente

And big budget Hollywood popcorn movies are made for art? They're made for money or fun. The directors of those movie make them for fun. Why should we critique it as such?

DarthMaul420

I can't think of one big budget popcorn film made for fun? They are made for the 200+ million in returns that the box office supplies...

by the way, i don't bother reviewing them either ...

Julie Walker

I think their's a huge difference between a movie made for 'fun' & one made for only $$$$.


House=made for fun

Enough!=made for box office.


Yes today i actually had to suffer through the crappy J Lo film Enough since my cousin wanted to watch it. Which is hilariously stupid & i'm sure mindless mainstream would fall for it. It was boring,predictable. All the cliches in the book..& then some. Tryed to be a 'serious' film about domestic abuse..yet it's made for the short attention span crowd. Within the first 10 minutes. Shes already married & has the 'perfect' life. By the 15mn mark..the 'realization' comes in & the abuse starts. Then the rest of the film stretches the credibility mark by going overboard with her running from state to state(at exactly the 30mn mark). The abusive husband knowing her every move,tracking her down,has hired goons after her...& so on & so on. After suffering through 80mn of this crap. I turned it off since i didn't want to watch the rest. I knew how it would end.


Basically it was fluff in the extreme. No fun to be had with the film,no serious message to get across since it panders to the short attention span crowd. It does'nt bother trying to build up the unease & tension between the two. Instead it speeds along with no real time to truely fall for the film since it's so obvious.


Anyway this or just about all movies by Dimension made today are the perfect example of films made solely for $$$,while trying to masquerade as a 'serious' work of art. Only a moron would fall for it. Now Enough has some camp value from the stupidity of it. Yet there just wasn't enough that i was bored within the first few minutes of the film.

Oh yeah..can't forget those annoying title cards that flash every few minutes "No way Out" ect trying to tell us exactly what is now going on in the story. Yet the cards are only flashed onscreen for a microsecond. That rather than adding to the atmosphere. It comes off as forced & superficial since the movie doesn't even take it's time trying to actually build up a story & make you care for the charecters.

Now if it was made for 'fun'. The film may have turned out much better & should've ran 90mn rather than dragging it out to 2 hours which is really pushing it.

Dr. DVD

For all naysayers, whom I myself borderline of joinging if it weren't for the fact that I thought the film fun at some points, I think we should wait for Zombie's DVD release of the unrated film to see what he really wanted. He has said many times that what we are seeing is what was essentially left over after many cuts were made at the inistence of a studio.

Also, he's a Goth Music Artist who makes mostly videos, and it is his FIRST movie. He has time to grow and I definitely see him making that ultimate horror movie on down the line, just not today.

Julie Walker

Well i wonder what the truth is over the cuts the film suffered?

Rob originally said only a few seconds were cut which he was surprised by. So he said don't expect to much of a difference with the uncut version when released.

Then again that could've been just 'safe' talk before release so people would'nt skip the film in theaters. Just like how a author can't usually bad mouth a adaption of their work before it's release. Since the studio wants to make as much $$ as possible off it.


Now i've heard that supposedly somewhere in a interview with Rob. He said 10-15mn were cut before getting a R. Yet i can't find this piece of info expect somones vague mention of interviewing him(yet does'nt say where..hence may just be a lie).



Anyway the film i saw last night. I would say was a extremely hard R rating. The people saying their is no gore left at all are exagerating in the extreme.

Their's plenty of nasty imagery & a nice mean tone which makes it seem even more unpleasent than whats really shown. Yet you do still get bits of skinned bodies,cannabalism,brain surgery/torture while the victim is still alive & so forth.

Yet a few of the violent moments did seem cut like the pre-credit sequence & the portion with the cheerleaders. It could either be a result of bad editing/direction or the MPAA.

We won't know for sure until the unrated version is released.

Yet the film is still very strong & extremely twisted.

If not for gore. Just the tone & content of the film itself is what made Universal drop it. Afterall most major studios today only want to release 'safe' material..& anything remotely 'unsettling' to the mainstream is a no no.

Yet the audiences reaction. Many of which seemed like the usual mainstream type who see every little thing 'just because' actually applauded the film(while some were very upset..but still raved about it). Most likely since it was something new(for them) & actually did go all out being disturbing & just plain messed up. Basically what horror today has shyed away from thanks to the studios looking for the next $$$ maker & forgetting about being daring & different.


I was surprised by the reaction though. I though many of them would walk out in disgust. Yet they toughed it out through the end...& then the applause sealed the deal.

Since i've seen most of the 'watered' down horror films released in theaters today. From the Scream sequels(the original rules though!), I Know...& so on. Yet at everyone of those showings. The audiences were dormant & bored. Even a big film like Sum of All Fears. They were bored & just shrugged it off as 'meh..same old'. Since the films follow the same formula without adding any spice to the mix to liven it up & make it at least more interesting. That they become so played out & boring.


So House for many today will be that something different & may be the last unless Hollywood decides to let horror makers roam free to do as they please without any 'involvement' from the studio heads/marketing groups & so on who think they 'know' what audiences want..& hence are responsible for the drivel we've suffered with for so many years in every genre!

Sunday Morning

It's very twisted and disgusting.
This film doesn't seem watered down, It seems dumbed down.

For me though, a real horror film doesn't need excesses of gore or flashy editing, it needs atmosphere, some assemblage of wit and suspense as well as giving "the goods".

Parts of 'corpses' had suspense and wit, but nowhere near enough of it. And i'm very sure it's not because the film was edited to make an R rating. It's because of the writing and directing.

DarthMaul420

Julie, I have only been to two films in my life that have gotten standing cheers after they were over. Two Towers and this film.

Let me explain why this film is important to the horror genre.

I grew up watching low budget, badly acted and written, horror films. I love them and I know many on this board do as well. Some of you may not understand it and thats ok. This film falls in that catagory. As a mater of fact, this is the first new film since the 70's that felt like it derived from the serial horror film of long ago. Altough it wasn't a great film, for those of you comparing it to Oscar winners,I enjoyed having that nostalgic feeling of yesterday while watching it.

So why is it important? The same reason that most studios said no way. Look at Jason X. New Line barely made the budget back on the theatrical run. Studios are seeing this and thinking there is no more interest in horror flms. That the negative press is not worth risking the studios name on anymore. (Think of Paramount)The truth is, people are just sick of slasher films. Twenty years of the the same thing has killed it. If you look at the box office numbers some of the biggest hits in this genre over the last 10 years have not been slasher films! The Exoricst re-release, The Blair Witch Project, and even the first Scream were atempts to change the genre a little bit. They all worked. If this film pulls in the cash Universal will shake their head in disbelief and maybe people in these studios will start giving the genre a chance again.
Actually, if this film makes over 25 million, I'm sure we'll see more studios interest in horror again.

Not just Rob Zombie either. Hopefully their is a line of new directors this film can influence to get out there and make more films. Horror has traditionally been a way for new directors to learn and then move on. So I say, let's see some more!

UKingdom

Can someone provide spoiler tags and maybe just share a bit of what they saw?

What's so disturbing about it?

What's the nasty gore in it?

What's the unhappy ending?

I am not going to see this movie until it comes out on DVD but I'd like to hear what all this talk about "this is incredibly disturbing, etc etc etc" is about.

starseed

I just saw this movie, and will say that it is one of the worst films I have seen in a great while. I love horror movies, but found Zombie's movie to be a total rip-off of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. There is not one original or inspired moment in the entire 88-minute "film." Zombie fills the running time with clips from old black-and-white television shows, and strangely pieced-together footage of the more sadistic characters in the movie giving "interviews" or something. Do you know why he does this? Because without this, the movie would barely be an hour long. I personally was not scared by this film. I did not even jump, though many people in the theater did. It simply wasn't suspenseful; it wasn't even campy really, it was just BAD. Now to respond to UKingdom's requests:

The unhappy ending is that

The most disturbing part for me was a scene in which

You can get detailed information about the gore here. I was so disappointed by this; I *wanted* to like House of 1000 Corpses, but the movie needed a little more intelligence, and a point.