Hey guys, if any of you have seen this film, I'm wondering what you think of it? It's Rob Zombie's (the singer/musician) film debut, a movie he wrote and directed. Personally, I love the whole story to the film, it blends iconic characters, wacky story twists, monster-movies of the olden days, great scenery, and that whole sense of a demented underground film, but actually perfect instead of lame.

Now, of coarse the main thing is the fact this story was Zombie's life work, one of his biggest influences, and it definatly showed in the story-writing and characters. Production-wise, Zombie's also a great director, there were no problems with any scenes that I could think of, and he went on ahead to become a very successful director with the Halloween remakes and the sequel to corpses. Plus, the soundtrack he wrote for Corpses was amazing.

I think the thing is though, his story was more standout than the directing. He's a great director, no doubt about that, but as much as I can recall the characters and storyline, I can't recall any insanely good angles or shots. Nice scenery and imagery, but this movie wouldn't make you go 'ooo I love how the camera is looking at that certain thing'.

But in the end, I'd rather have a great story than the most unique production on the planet. It really gives me hope as a filmmaker though, Corpses was a debut after all, and Zombie hasn't made many (or any) short films that I'm aware of beforehand. But then again, who knows, either directing may be pretty easy, or Zombie could be just naturally talented at it (or he lets the camera people do whatever they want, who knows).

But yeah, any thoughts on this film?

I didn't enjoy House of 1K Corpses. My problem with it was that it felt like Rob Zombie was playing with other people's toys. The film had a heavy influence from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies, particularly the first and second. The story is pretty much the same as the original only he throws in over the top characters who lack the kind of intensity and fear that their original counterparts had.

The story felt secondary to the murder and effect shots. I feel like Zombie is mostly about taking the audience to that point of bloody gore but he lacks the skill to build suspense, terror, or any of the elements he claims to worship in the old horror films. He doesn't seem to understand how to create characters we're afraid for. That's a crucial element to making a horror movie. We have to transfer our fear and ability to care to the victims but he always creates terribly written "normies" and he spends his time making his crazy carnies so deranged that it's not scary anymore. Not to mention how amateurish it became to constantly cut away to black and white stock footage which only adds to the running time.

I agree, the camera work was ugly in this movie. That's the one thing Zombie has gotten better at with his movies except Halloween 2 which was terribly lit for "grittiness." But I think he's a bad director overall. He is bad at directing actors. It seems like he only tells them to be over the top. Everyone is just either acting crazy or being loud. The only time this changed was because he was following Carpenter's Halloween in his remake which made him tame this element down (but not in the opening scenes -- which were TERRIBLE). I also really hate how he writes. He comes up with the cheesiest characters to populate his banal stories which don't know if they want to be funny or disturbing but it never works in either category. I've never really seen a fully realized character in his movies. They're all caricature like.

I'll stop now. As you can see, I really don't like him as a director and I feel like he's lucky he made a name in music.

Totally horrid, horrid movie. I had already been going off this particular genre of movies, but this pile of steaming turd sealed the deal for me. Wanted my time back after been forced to suffer this poop.