House of 1,000 Corpses - Review

                                          Exploitation.....ah, exploitation. Yeah, exploitation sucks.

One must know how to distinguish pornography from art. Rob Zombie's "House of 1,000 Corpses" is pornography, and that's what it wants to be; a gory exploitation film all about violence and without any moral standards. It also comes without characters, story elements, or for the most part, entertainment. There are little moments of inspiration hidden within, and the film isn't really unwatchable, but it's a mess. And not a beautiful one.

       As I said, "House of 1,000 Corpses" is all exploitation tactics and little story-telling. Here, Zombie has good characters; all of who he never characterizes. He also has a story which he tells; as well as in-jokes that he never renderes laughable. There is a lot that went to waste here.

  

    So the story is a typical horror set-up; you've got your kids who go on a roadtrip, stop at a flamboyantly weird gas-station run by a clown, and somehow end up in the house of hell itself. There's a family within the house; and they're all, quite literally, "bonkers". They'll kill without remorce; and they're nigh sadists in the way they carry out their unholy acts. So the rest of the plot is all torture and meaningless violence; all done without a point and without regard for whether we care or not.


   Zombie obviously wants us to like this film, but it's never entertaining or inspired enough to work. Somehow I think it would have been enjoyable if it had a genuine sense of humor, but no, this Grindhouse-hororr film is just to messy for that. If only for Captain Spaulding (the awesomely quirky killer clown), "Corpses" isn't as bad as some horror movies. But that does not excuse it from being forgettable and unworthy of a viewing. I'm sure that Zombie thinks of his audience as the kind of people that will cheer when his film explodes in an angry combustion. But me, I'll just be scowling.