Wednesday, May 1, 2024

House of 1000 Corpses 20th Anniversary: Rob Zombie on His Cult Classic

house of 1000 corpses

The cyborg scientist appears briefly in the movie, but will haunt viewers' nightmares forever, even if he doesn't necessarily fit in with the style of subsequent flicks. The three Corpses leads (Sid Haig, Bill Moseley, and Sheri Moon Zombie) also appear as voices in Zombie's animated film The Haunted World of El Superbeasto. Haig and Moseley made cameos as their characters from both films, Captain Spaulding and Otis B. Driftwood, respectively, while Sheri Moon Zombie voiced one of the lead characters, Suzie X.

The house is the same one used in a 1982 musical

Punctuated by bizarro cutaways and surreal sequences, House of 1,000 Corpses very nearly never saw the light of day, thanks largely to a procession of studio executives who believed they were punk rock enough to ride, only to clutch for their pearls at the last second. It finally hit theaters in 2003, though, much to the distaste of critics—and the delight of a small slice of the moviegoing public. A nasty little stink bomb of a grindhouse slasher, the “plot” of House of 1,000 Corpses, if it can be called that, concerns four kids (including a pre-Office Rainn Wilson) who get lost on the backroads of America while searching for a local legend named Dr. Satan. Instead of finding him, they’re captured by a psychotic family called the Fireflys, who—spoilers—brutally kill off the youngsters one by one.

Director

The film opened on April 11, 2003 without being pre-screened for critics. Frank Schrek of The Hollywood Reporter wrote that the film "lives up to the spirit but not the quality of its inspirations" and is ultimately a "cheesy and ultra gory exploitation horror flick" and "strangely devoid of thrills, shocks or horror." Stacey Snider, who was head of Universal at the time called Zombie up for a meeting.

Full Cast & Crew

House of 1000 Corpses' Captain Spaulding takes his name from a character in Animal Crackers, Otis B. Driftwood comes from A Night at the Opera, Rufus T. Firefly is taken from Duck Soup, and Hugo Z. Hackenbush is from A Day at the Races. Mukes goes to about 20 cons a year now, often dressed as Rufus in a grimy plaid shirt and filthy jeans. Frequently, to gas himself up before an appearance, he’ll watch House of 1,000 Corpses. “It was kind of this crazy carnival going on at Universal in the backlot,” Gibbs said, adding that at night, the crew would climb up the hill “and party at the Psycho house.” Then they’d crash, wake up, and do it all over again. Safety was an afterthought, with one scene calling for an actor to dodge a real ax wielded by another performer whose vision was severely compromised by his costume.

She passes out from exhaustion in the front seat, and Otis suddenly appears in the back seat with a knife. Denise later wakes up to find herself strapped to an operating table, surrounded by Dr. Satan and Earl, who survived the cave-in. The movie ends with Denise screaming in horror and the words "The End?" displayed before the end credits. At the motel, Otis and Baby take a musical group called Banjo and Sullivan hostage in their room, and Otis shoots the roadie when he returns.

Production

Baby gets shot in the calf of her left leg, brutally horse-whipped, and then strangled by Wydell. Tiny suddenly arrives and intervenes, breaking Wydell's neck and saving the Firefly family. Otis, Baby, and Spaulding escape in Charlie's 1972 Cadillac Eldorado and leave behind Tiny, who walks back into the burning house. As Otis drives down the road with Baby and Spaulding asleep in the back seat, he notices a police barricade ahead of them. Realizing that they will not make it out alive, he wakes Baby and Spaulding and hands them each a gun.

Cast

The other two films in the Firefly trilogy aren't even the only sequels Zombie has gone on to make. An animated musical "sidequel" released in 2009, The Haunted World of El Superbeasto, is also part of the tale. Making this happen would be difficult, however, which made him reluctant. The names of the villains were taken from the names of Groucho Marx characters (Animal Crackers "Captain Spaulding", A Night at the Operas "Otis B. Driftwood", Duck Soups "Rufus T. Firefly" and A Day at the Races "Hugo Z. Hackenbush", among others).

house of 1000 corpses

Sequel

When Denise doesn't come home, her father Don calls the police to report her missing. Don, a former policeman, is called to the scene to help the deputies search. They arrive at the Firefly house and Wydell questions Mother Firefly about the missing teens. Mother Firefly shoots Wydell in the head and kills him; Don and Steve are then killed by Otis when they find more bodies of missing cheerleaders in the barn, along with a barely conscious Mary. On October 30, 1977, amateur criminals Killer Karl and Richard Wick attempt an armed robbery at a gas station/horror museum, but are killed by the owner, Captain Spaulding, and his assistant, Ravelli.

The film earned over $3 million in its opening weekend, and went on to gross over $16 million worldwide. Despite its initial negative reception, the film went on to develop a cult following. Zombie later developed a haunted house attraction for Universal Studios Hollywood based on the film. This was the final film performance of Dennis Fimple before his death in August 2002, and the film was dedicated to his memory. After Denise does not return home, her father calls the police to search for her. Two police officers find the friends' abandoned car in a field with a tortured victim in the trunk.

NECA Celebrates 20 Years of 'House of 1000 Corpses' With Spaulding and Otis Figures - Bloody Disgusting

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Clint Morris of Film Threat slammed the film as "an hour and a half of undecipherable plot" and found the film to be "sickening" overall. James Brundage of Filmcritic.com wrote that the film was simply "hick after hick, cheap scary image after cheap scary image, lots of southern accents and psychotic murders," and was "too highbrow to be a good cheap horror movie, too lowbrow to be satire, and too boring to bear the value of the ticket." Like other cult classics, House of 1,000 Corpses has also benefited from everyone being online all the time. “It’s gotten really big,” observed Cherry, a costume designer who cosplays as Baby Firefly, and once played her in a haunted house at Zombie’s annual Great American Nightmare scarefest.

Despite receiving an unfavorable response from critics, it went on to gross $16 million worldwide. Since its release, the film has achieved a cult following, was developed into a haunted-house attraction by Zombie for Universal Studios, and was followed by two sequels, The Devil's Rejects (2005) and 3 from Hell (2019). House of 1000 Corpses won't go down in history as the most commercially successful horror movie of all time, nor the most critically acclaimed. This hardcore horror film's style plays like a terrifying music video, providing a roller coaster ride of gruesomely colorful scenes. To the squeamish, this movie can come off as shocking, repulsive, and downright unwatchable, due to its gory nature.

House of 1000 Corpses is getting a 20th anniversary re-release in October - JoBlo.com

House of 1000 Corpses is getting a 20th anniversary re-release in October.

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As Dr. Satan yells for his mutated assistant, revealed to be Mother Firefly's ex-husband, to capture Denise, she outwits the monstrous figure and escapes the underground chambers. Moments later, she is picked up by Captain Spaulding, only for Otis to appear in the backseat, which is revealed to be a dream when she wakes up, still strapped to Dr. Satan's operating table, where she meets her doom. The film is set in late 1977, where Jerry, Bill, Mary, and Denise are two couples out on the road in hopes of writing a book on offbeat roadside attractions. When the four meet Captain Spaulding, the vulgar but friendly owner of a gas station and "museum of the strange", they learn the local legend of Dr. Satan.

They steal a car, kill the driver, and go to Kahiki Palms, a run-down motel. House of 1000 Corpses contains more intriguing characters than it's actually able to explore. Take Dr. Satan (Walter Phelan), hands down one of the most interesting beings in the Firefly trilogy.

Keenan McClelland, who works at a comic book store when he isn’t broadcasting himself gaming, watching horror movies, or recording The Every Day is Halloween Podcast to his audience on Twitch, rushed to a midnight screening in his hometown of Orlando as soon as he caught wind of the movie’s release. The Devil's Rejects is a 2005 American black comedy horror film[3] written, produced and directed by Rob Zombie, and is the second film in the Firefly film series, serving as a sequel to his 2003 film House of 1000 Corpses. The film is centered on the run of three members of the psychopathic[4] antagonist family from the previous film, now seen as villainous protagonists, with Sid Haig, Bill Moseley, and Zombie's wife Sheri Moon Zombie reprising their roles, and Leslie Easterbrook replacing Karen Black as the matriarch. House of 1000 Corpses is graphic and disturbing — just look at the title.

As the four take off in search of finding the tree from which Dr. Satan was hanged, they pick up a young hitchhiker named Baby Firefly, who claims to live only miles away. Shortly after, the vehicle's tires burst in what is later seen to be a trap, and Baby walks to her family's house along with Bill. Only moments later, Baby's half-brother, Rufus, picks up the stranded passengers and takes them to the Firefly family house.

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