House of 1000 Corpses – Film Review

An empty fuel tank and a flat tire lead two couples down a terror-riddled road to the House of 1000 Corpses. “House of 1000 Corpses” is at its core a story of family – a cast of twisted individuals who, with each slash of a throat or stab thru the chest, add bodies to their sick human menagerie.

Chances are, when you hear the name Rob Zombie, you likely think of blood, guts, and a strange cannibalistic style of filmmaking that no other director has been able to replicate. He’s easily one of the strangest but most fascinating directors in the history of horror. How do I feel about him? Well… not too strongly.

2003’s House of 1000 Corpses was Zombie’s directorial debut, serving as a black comedy horror film loaded to the rim with blood and guts galore. And even though I strongly dislike this movie, I will say right off the bat that at least the film has an incredible sense of style to it.

It feels so raw and unfiltered, and even at times, feels a bit realistic. There’s nothing more unsettling than watching a horror film that feels real for whatever reason it may be. Sometimes, a small budget will make a horror film feel real because there isn’t a huge budget on display meaning there aren’t as many special effects and CGI.

The budget here is $7 million which isn’t all that much honestly, and that may be why out of all of the films in this series, it feels the most unsettlingly realistic. Aside from the style on display, House of 1000 Corpses is a hugely pointless film that fails to tell a coherent story, instead opting for a strange bloodbath every other minute.

Look – some horror fans absolutely love to watch films that are like this. Sometimes, people just want to watch a movie where a group of innocent people get killed or tortured by some crazy killer with little else to offer. That’s fine if that’s the kind of horror fan you are. But I am not that kind of horror fan.

Personally, I need my horror films to actually boast a compelling story with interesting characters. Having a horror film be absolutely nothing but gory death scenes over and over again is not only plain old boring, it’s annoying after a while and a huge waste of potential.

During the entire film, I kept waiting for there to be something of legitimate interest on screen to make me enjoy the film, but that never happened. It’s just a bunch of scenes featuring some crazily creepy people giggling and acting strange before torturing and murdering a group of people.

It’s especially one of those movies that’s going to be hugely boring on rewatch too, seeing as how the entire movie is just kill scene after kill scene. There’s really nothing about the film that will make you want to revisit it to see if you missed any fun secrets along the way. There are no secrets.

House of 1000 Corpses may have a cult following these days, but make no mistake – it’s not deserving of that status. Is it stylish and inspired? Absolutely. But instead of trying to tell a great story with interesting characters that the audience can feel attached to, director Rob Zombie opts for the lazy path every single time.