Movies - House of 1000 Corpses

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	Movies - House of 1000 Corpses

House of 1000 Corpses is a horror film written and directed by Rob Zombie, a Heavy Metal artist, making his debut as a movie director. It was released in the U.S. on April 11, 2003 and marketed as The most shocking tale of carnage ever seen. The movie was produced by Lion's Gate Films.

Plot summary (no spoiler)

House of 1000 Corpses begins with the tale of four youths: nerdy Bill Hudley, his hyper and wise-cracking friend, Jerry Goldsmith, Bill’s snotty girlfriend, Mary Knowles, and Jerry’s level-headed girlfriend, Denise Willis. On the night before Halloween of 1977, the four of them are driving in the middle of nowhere to Denise’s house in a town called Ruggsville. Running out of gas, the group stops at Captain Spaulding’s Museum of Monsters and Madmen, an unusual establishment that serves as a gas station, museum of oddities, haunted house attraction, and chicken wing fry. Inside, the group (whose male members are enthusiasts of offbeat roadside attractions) meet Captain Spaulding, a foul-mouthed, slobbish, and somewhat psychotic clown. After riding his “famous” murder ride, a cheap dark-ride full of monster props and serial killer exhibits, Jerry becomes infatuated with the local legend of a surgeon known as Doctor Satan for his cruel treatment of mental patients. Obsessed with finding the tree where a mob allegedly lynched the mass murderer, Jerry begs Spaulding for hand-drawn directions and coerces the group to drive out in search of it in an oncoming storm. On the way, the foursome picks up a beautiful, but eccentric hitchhiker who later calls herself Baby. She offers to lend shelter to the four when their tire flattens under mysterious circumstances. Inside the isolated farmhouse, the couples meet Baby’s equally eccentric family consisting of Otis Driftwood, a Charles Manson-esque sadist with a messiah complex, Mother Firefly, a flirtatious old hag who dresses in burlesque outfits, Rufus Jr., a hulking brute in bearskin who has a knack for repairing things, Tiny, a silent and deformed freak with a nonviolent nature, and Grandpa Hugo, a crude and dirty old man of banal aesthetic. While the Firefly family tries to entertain the four bewildered guests, it soon becomes apparent to the youths that the family intends to hold them captive for a series of grisly Halloween rituals. While the Ruggsville police and Denise's father begin a vain search attempt, the couples learn more about the legend of Doctor Satan than they would have ever cared to know.

Cast (first billed)

Sid Haig
- Captain Spaulding
Bill Moseley
- Otis B. Driftwood
Sheri Moon
- Baby Firefly
Karen Black
- Mother Firefly
Chris Hardwick
- Jerry Goldsmith
Erin Daniels
- Denise Willis
Jennifer Jostyn - Mary Knowles
Rainn Wilson
- Bill Hudley
Walton Goggins - Deputy Steve Naish
Tom Towles - Lieutenant George Wydell
Matthew McGrory
- Tiny Firefly
Robert Allen Mukes - Rufus "R.J." Firefly Jr.
Dennis Fimple - Grandpa Hugo
Walter Phelan -Dr. Satan

Themes

Backwoods Horror

House of 1000 Corpses is at its heart a tribute to 70's exploitation horror, particularly backwoods slasher flicks like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Hills Have Eyes. The very basic outline of its plot follows the normal backwoods slasher standard: A person or group of people get lost in a rural area they are unfamiliar with and one by one fall prey to some sort of local murderer, often times a whole clan of them. What separates it from others of the genre is the offbeat, surreal style Rob Zombie uses to convey it. Though most backwoods slasher flicks involve no element of the supernatural, House of 1000 Corpses does utilize some elements similar to the Evil Dead series.

American Folklore

The movie also seems to relish in the American tradition of tall tales and urban legends. The back story that the movie is set to (the legend of Dr. Satan), though completely made up by Rob Zombie, is in the spirit of childish campfire stories. The main story starts with a skeptical tone to the myth of the mad doctor, but as the plot progresses, the characters find themselves knee deep in Ruggsville folklore until they actually become part of the legend they were seeking.

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