| House of 1000 Corpses | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Rob Zombie |
| Produced by | Andy Gould |
| Written by | Rob Zombie |
| Starring | Sid Haig Bill Moseley Sheri Moon Zombie Karen Black Chris Hardwick Erin Daniels Jennifer Jostyn Rainn Wilson Walton Goggins Tom Towles |
| Music by | Rob Zombie Scott Humphrey |
| Cinematography | Alex Poppas Tom Richmond |
| Editing by | Kathryn Himoff Robert K. Lambert Sean K. Lambert Robert W. Hedland (uncredited) |
| Studio | Spectacle Entertainment Group Universal Studios |
| Distributed by | Lions Gate Films |
| Release date(s) | April 11, 2003 |
| Running time | 88 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $7 million |
| Box office | $16,829,545 |
House of 1000 Corpses is a 2003 exploitation horror film written and directed by Rob Zombie; it is his directorial debut. It was released in the United States on April 11, 2003 by Lions Gate Entertainment.
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In 1977, Jerry Goldsmith (Chris Hardwick), Bill Hudley (Rainn Wilson), Mary Knowles (Jennifer Jostyn) and Denise Willis (Erin Daniels) are two couples out on the road in hopes of writing a book on offbeat roadside attractions. When the four meet Captain Spaulding (Sid Haig), a vulgar but friendly owner of a gas station and "Museum of Monsters & Madmen", they learn the local legend of Dr. Satan. 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 (Sheri Moon Zombie), who claims to live only miles away. Shortly after, the vehicle's tyre bursts 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 (Robert Mukes), picks up the stranded passengers and takes them to the family home.
Soon following, the four friends meet Mother Firefly (Karen Black), Baby's mother; Otis Driftwood (Bill Moseley), Baby's adopted brother; Grampa Hugo (Dennis Fimple), Baby's grandfather; and Baby's deformed giant half-brother, Tiny (Matthew McGrory). While being treated to dinner, they discover that the family lives on weird Halloween traditions. Mother Firefly then explains that her ex-husband, Earl (Jake McKinnon), had previously tried to burn Tiny alive along with the Firefly house. After the dinner is over, the family puts on a Halloween show for their guests, where Baby offends Mary by acting flirtatiously toward Bill. After Baby is threatened, Mother Firefly tells the friends to leave and that their car is repaired. As they try to leave, though, they are attacked by the other members of the Firefly family, knocked unconscious and captured. Not long after, Otis creates a work of art out of Bill's body, Mary is tied up and abused, Denise is bedbound while dressed as a doll and Jerry is scalped because he cannot guess Baby's favourite movie star.
After Denise does not return home, her father, Don (Harrison Young), calls the Police to search for her. Two Deputy Sherrifs, George Wydell Tom Towles and Steve Naish (Walton Goggins, find the friends' abandoned car in a field with a tortured victim in the trunk. Don is called and arrives at the scene to go with the two Deputies to search for information. They arrive at the Firefly house and upon finding bodies, the three are quickly killed. Later that night, the three friends are taken to an underground well (they are dressed as rabbits, a reference to something Otis had said earlier in the film about how "scared kids run like rabbits, run little rabbit, run!") and Mary manages to escape, only to be killed by Baby moments later. Meanwhile, Jerry and Denise are lowered into the underground chamber, where a number of undead figures pull Jerry away and leave Denise to find her way through the underground lair. As she journeys through the mysterious chambers, she encounters Dr. Satan and a multitude of mentally handicapped patients. Dr. Satan has Jerry on his operating table, horribly torturing and skinning him alive. As Dr. Satan yells for his mutated assistant, revealed to be Earl, 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 and passes out from exhaustion in the front seat, only for Otis to appear in the backseat with a knife. The duo take her back to Dr. Satan and she is last seen being tortured by Dr. Satan.
The names of the villains were taken from the names of Groucho Marx characters (Animal Crackers' "Captain Spaulding", A Night at the Opera's "Otis B. Driftwood", Duck Soup's "Rufus T. Firefly", and A Day at the Races' "Hugo Z. Hackenbush", among others). While this was left as a subtle allusion in the first movie, the sequel The Devil's Rejects brought it out into the open, with the names becoming integral to the plot. Dr. Satan was inspired by a 1950s billboard-sized poster advertising a "live spook show starring a magician called Dr. Satan" that Zombie has in his house.[1]
Rob Zombie had a very small list of credits in film at that point. He had done animation for the 1996 film, Beavis and Butt-head Do America, tried to write a script for The Crow: Salvation, and directed some of his own music videos but little else. He had little directing experience but he wanted to get involved with film. Zombie designed a haunted maze attraction for Universal Studios which lead to a friendship with them. Bill Moseley presented Zombie an award for his design in 1999. Moseley would later star in Zombie's film. Back in the late 90's and in 2000, Rob Zombie was instrumental in reviving Universal Studios annual "Halloween Horror Night". The musician used his knack for the gruesome and macabre, to lure fans to the California, and Florida theme park venues, to witness and experience this man's vision of horror. Due the popularity this garnered Zombie, Universal was extremely interested to see what he could do with a camera, and was all too eager to greenlight his vision of terror.
Zombie had discussed his idea for a film with his friends and they all seemed to like the idea. Zombie starting working on his idea after White Zombie disbanded and after his debut solo album. Zombie took his script for House of 1000 Corpses to Universal with his manager Andy Gould to pitch the project.
Universal Studios loved Zombie's script and greenlighted the project. Zombie would serve as writer and director. The film was shot on a 25 day shooting schedule in 2000. The starting budget was $3–4 million, but finished at $7 million.
The film was completed in 2000; Stacey Snider, who was head of Universal at the time called Zombie up for a meeting. Zombie feared Snider would give him money and say "go re-shoot everything". Snider feared the film would receive an NC-17 rating. Snider told Zombie that they were not releasing the film. In a way Zombie was relieved. He would rather have them dump the film than having him going back and re-shooting his vision. After several years in limbo, Zombie was able to purchase the film rights back from Universal, and sell them to Lions Gate Entertainment.
The film pulled in $3,460,666 on its limited opening weekend and $2,522,026 on its official opening weekend. The film grossed $12,634,962 domestically and $4,194,583 in foreign totals. Altogether the film made a worldwide gross of $16,829,545; a success based on its $7 million budget.
The film opened on April 11, 2003 without being pre-screened for critics. Those who viewed it gave it generally negative reviews. 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 ultragory exploitation horror flick" and "strangely devoid of thrills, shocks or horror."[2]
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.[3] 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."[4]
Though not popular by critics, the film has developed a rather large cult following. It was followed by a sequel, The Devil's Rejects.
Zombie produced a sequel in 2005, The Devil's Rejects. Many cast members returned from Corpses, except Karen Black. When Black demanded a higher salary — which Zombie could not afford — to reprise her role in Corpses, Leslie Easterbrook was approached and later cast as her replacement. The film received mixed reviews, but the critical reception was generally better than its predecessor.
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 voiced one of the lead characters, Suzie X.
Zombie composed the film score with Scott Humphrey. It is isolated on the DVD as a separate audio track.
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