House of 1000 Corpses

For the song of the same name, see House of 1000 Corpses (song).

House of 1000 Corpses
Theatrical release poster
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 (2003-04-11)
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.

Plot

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), the vulgar but friendly owner of a gas station and "Museum of the Strange", 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 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 (Robert Allen 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; 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 the four friends by acting flirtatiously. 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 for halloween, and Jerry is scalped.

After Denise does not return home, her father, Don (Harrison Young), calls the Police to search for her. Two cops (Walton Goggins and Tom Towles) 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 cops 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 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 (Walter Phelan) 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.

Cast

• Sid Haig as Captain Spaulding
• Bill Moseley as Otis B. Driftwood
• Sheri Moon Zombie as Baby Firefly
• Karen Black as Mother Firefly
• Chris Hardwick as Jerry Goldsmith
• Erin Daniels as Denise Willis
• Jennifer Jostyn as Mary Knowles
• Rainn Wilson as Bill Hudley
• Walton Goggins as Deputy Steve Naish
• Tom Towles as Lieutenant George Wydell
• Matthew McGrory as Tiny Firefly
• Robert Allen Mukes as Rufus "RJ" Firefly Jr.
• Dennis Fimple as Grandpa Hugo Firefly
• Walter Phelan as S. Quentin Quale/Dr. Satan
• Jake McKinnon as Rufus "Earl" Firefly Sr.
• Harrison Young as Don Willis
• William H. Basset as Sheriff Frank Huston
• Irwin Keyes as Ravelli
• Michael J. Pollard as Stucky
• Chad Bannon as Killer Karl
• David Reynolds as Richard "Little Dick" Wick
• Joe Dobbs III as Gerry "Goober" Ober
• Gregg Gibbs as Dr. Wolfenstein

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]

Development

Pre-production

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.

Writing

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.

Production

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.^{[citation needed]}

Release

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.

Box office

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.

Critical reception

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.

Sequel

Main article: 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.

Soundtrack

Main article: House of 1000 Corpses (soundtrack)

See also: House of 1000 Corpses (song)

Zombie composed the film score with Scott Humphrey. It is isolated on the DVD as a separate audio track.

References

1. ^ Ulmer, Gary (Summer 2003), "Interview with the Zombie", Dark Realms Magazine issue 11: 14–16, http://www.monolithgraphics.com/darkrealms.html 
2. ^ House of 1000 Corpses
3. ^ http://www.filmthreat.com/Reviews.asp?Id=4247
4. ^ House of 1000 Corpses Movie Review, DVD Release - Filmcritic.com

External links

• House of 1000 Corpses at the Internet Movie Database
• House of 1000 Corpses at AllRovi
• House of 1000 Corpses at Box Office Mojo
• House of 1000 Corpses at Rotten Tomatoes