Best Buy is running a 2 for $20 special on House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil’s Rejects. I haven’t seen either but was thinking about picking these up blind, knowing that Zombie is influenced by the 70s shock horror films of Wes Craven and Tobe Hooper (I count The Texas Chainsaw Massacre as one the greatest horror films ever; and The Hills Have Eyes is likewise brilliant in many respects).
Any advice one way or the other?
$20 is about right for the two of them. House of 1000 Corpses is almost pure, wall to wall gore while The Devil’s Rejects is more along the lines of Wes Carven.
I saw both. Neither are for the faint of heart. I also enjoyed both. The Devil’s Rejects pick up not long after House of a Thousand Corpses following the same family that perpetrates the evil. The music in tDR was very well chosen.
If you like Chainsaw, I’d predict you’d like Rob Zombie’s two movies.
House of 1000 Corpses has many of the flaws you’d expect from a first-time director. I felt Rob Zombie fell short of the mark on that one, in part by trying to cram too much into one production – everything from his love for comics to his affection for Seventies-era horror-fests of the Texas Chainsaw variety. The Devil’s Rejects, to me at least, was a superior sequel, showing a definite learning curve for Zombie as a director.
Worth seeing, although caveats aplenty on the first one. With me, though, it could come down to a matter of preference – Rob Zombie is definitely more in the Tobe Hooper vein, and I could never quite find any fondness for his work. The Exorcist is more my idea of the quintessential horror film.
Yes. Exorcist is in my top 10 films of all-time. TCM is in my top 100. But I’m willing to give anything with S. Haig a try.
Tiny fucked a stump!
100 Corpses is one of the worst films ever made. BUT. The characters are worth learning about because Devil’s Rejects is actually a good slasher/wrong place/wrong time horror film. You don’t NEED 1000 Corpses to watch Rejects, but it helps.
I avoided both because I heard from people I trust that they stunk. (Michele didn’t like them, for example.)
Re: Michele’s list. I think Blair Witch if fantastic, though I understand how fashionable it has become to call it boring, cheap, etc. I found it scarier the second time I watched it; the first time I was fascinated with narrative structure and the filming technique.
I also thought at least 1/2 of Jeepers Creepers was pretty freakin’ atmospheric. Not Clownhouse, sure. But not a total waste of time.
Last house on the left
SAW
Jeff Goldstein—If you’re a minor, seeing Jeepers Creepers ain’t half as scary as being alone with its director, a convicted pedophile, would be.
don’t waste your time with either one. just watch chainsaw again.
I thought Blair Witch had some brilliant moments, but there was so much tedium in it that it couldn’t be considered an actual good movie.
Never seen Devils Rejects, but I have failed to watch House of 1000 Corpses. My wife and I got about 30 minutes into it, stopped watching out of plain boredom, and returned it to Blockbuster unseen.
It and Alone in the Dark are the only movies in the past few years that we’ve stopped partway through and just returned. We didn’t even care enough to skip ahead and just watch the bloody parts.
Get help.
I don’t know – I thought The Blair Witch Project had its merits. I mean, the brilliance of the guys at Hexen in using the Net to build up major buzz in anticipation, the tremendous attention to detail in crafting the Blair Witch’s “legend,” the artfully-fragmented narrative: surely that merits some regard.
And I really liked the idea of going the M.R. James route, crafting a tale in which the menace was suggested rather than explicit. That was refreshing after twenty years of the Hollywood equation that horror equals gore, and not much else.
So I probably shouldn’t mention I liked their short-lived series Freaky Links either?
Because the whole Roanoke back-story thing was pretty neat….
If you like pure, plotless gutting with the occasional shot of sexual tension and characters that’re flatter than Calista Flockhart’s chest, sure. Go for it.
No seriously. I saw Devil’s Rejects, and the DVD wouldn’t be good enough to wipe my ass with.
Not to mention, it’d really, really hurt to use a DVD as toilet paper.
I’ll send you my copy of Blade Trinity if you skip both…..there are just some images nobody needs to have burned into their brains. You’ll never miss them.
I’ve been meaning to ask if you’ve ever seen <a href=http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=3571″>”Baby Doll” </a>, Jeff.
Crap, I’m out of practice:
“Baby Dollâ€Â
Saw Devil’s Rejects, ugly evil people doing ugly evil things. Think “Last House on the Left” without the uplifting message.
I say skip ‘em.
Agree with you on Sid Haig, Jeff. Captain Spaulding was the only entertaining part of 1000 Corpses.
1,000 Corpses was seriously flawed – but it still seriously creeped me out.
Looking forward to seeing the sequel. And at $20 for the both of them, it’s hard to say no.
Saw a really bad movie by the lead singer of Twisted Sister last year. House of 1,000 corpses seemed like Rob Zombie wanted to make bad movies just like the other washed up rock star. I thought it was awful.
I saw, and enjoyed, THE DEVIL’S REJECTS. Lovely homage to ‘70s splatter films. Some really nice camera work. I’m surprised Rob Zombie turned out to be such a competent director. Great choice of music. Lots of blood and black humor.
No real core or soul to the film, other than an extreme bias in favor of the slaughtering antiheros. Still, worth seeing.
1000 corpses was AWESOME! Captain Spaulding and the “Murder Ride” made me laff until i wept. Haven’t seen Rejects yet, but i’m buying them both for my collection.
They’re gore-mocks, not for the fainthearted, and definitely cultish.
Now…if you really want to be scared….Ju-On and Tale of Two Sisters…asian horror…and the strangest movie i’ve ever seen is the japanese Suicide Club. I will never be able to figure out the baby chicks in the skin-tape room.
With all the 1000 corpses hating, I’d like to add that 1000 corpses is a really a good movie. I guess it’s just taste. However, I can’t say much about the other movie, but 1000 corpses is worth $40 anyway.
Jeff, knowing that you are truly one sick and twisted bastard, you’d likely LOVE House of 1000 Corpses. It’s one of my faves. Sort-of imaginative at times, often incredibly surreal, and it contains the best line EVER in a horror film:
“…I got blood on my best clown suit!!!”
Ian, you owe me a new keyboard. And probably a new wife. She heard me laughing, and looked at me even more strangely after I tried to explain…
Jeff, knowing that you are truly one sick and twisted bastard, you’d likely LOVE House of 1000 Corpses. It’s one of my faves. Sort-of imaginative at times, often incredibly surreal, and it contains the best line EVER in a horror film:
“…I got blood on my best clown suit!!!â€Â