Two young couples traveling across the backwoods of Texas searching for urban legends of murder end up as prisoners of a bizarre and sadistic backwater family of serial killers.Two young couples traveling across the backwoods of Texas searching for urban legends of murder end up as prisoners of a bizarre and sadistic backwater family of serial killers.Two young couples traveling across the backwoods of Texas searching for urban legends of murder end up as prisoners of a bizarre and sadistic backwater family of serial killers.
- Director
- Writer
- Stars
- Awards
- 4 wins & 8 nominations
Sheri Moon Zombie
- Baby Firefly
- (as Sheri Moon)
William Bassett
- Sheriff Frank Huston
- (as William H. Bassett)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThere is more than one instance where you see a poster for two missing young boys. Those boys were actually pictures of Rob Zombie and his brother (the lead singer of Powerman 5000) as children.
- Goofs(at around 4 mins) When Captain Spaulding and Stucky are having their conversation in the very beginning and Stucky is handed the bathroom key it is on a hand that is flipping the bird, however when the gunmen pull him out of the bathroom he is holding the key on a hand that is giving the devil horns and also missing his glasses.
- Crazy creditsAfter the last scene, the words "The End?" are shown.
- Alternate versionsThe original 105 minute version is out there somewhere but has yet to surface. Rob Zombie has stated that the material is not available. Whether this is true or not remains to be seen. It should be noted however that Zombie willingly cut most of the footage described below while the film was shelved and looking for a distributor. In fact, very little was removed to get an R-rating.
- ConnectionsEdited from Basic Autopsy Procedure (1961)
- SoundtracksEverybody Scream!
Lyrics by Rob Zombie
Music by Rob Zombie & Scott Humphrey
Performed by Rob Zombie
Courtesy of Geffen Records 2002
Published by Demonoid Deluxe Music/WB Music Corp. and Gimme Back My Publishing administered by Bug Music
Featured review
In my opinion, House of 1000 Corpses is a fan movie. Fans of both the horror genre and Rob Zombie are likely to love it. Though I do not count myself a fan of either, I do like both at times, and I am quite familiar with both. Those familiar with Rob Zombie are likely to be the only ones who completely 'get' this clever little film - appreciating its depraved sense of humor and nihilism. Zombie's themes are fairly consistent - evil (without the usual religious connotations and clichés), murder, sex, insanity, and stereotype "hillbillies". Zombie's world is not a place for people who are terribly concerned with reality, but, for Zombie himself, it seems to supply endless muse for a prolific and interesting commercial creativity.
Two couples traveling across country and working on a book on bizarre roadside attractions stumble across a filling station / theme park run by a vaguely evil clown with a bad attitude - Captain Spaulding. Spaulding teaches them of a few local legends, including a mad surgeon who worked in a local insane asylum and came to be known as Dr. Satan for the grotesque surgical procedures he applied to mental patients in secret. They pick up a pretty blonde hitch-hiker on their way to see the tree where Dr Satan was hung, and run into some car problems, so the hitch-hiker invites them to her family house. The family, apparently headed by the phenomenally weird Karen Black, makes The Addams family look like the Brady Bunch.
My narrative has described the first 20 minutes or so of the film, and at this point the film, much like RZ's songs, is so campy that it seems a straightforward horror comedy. However, once our protagonists are in "the house", the plot takes a decidedly more sinister spin, and never lets up from that point forward.
This film successfully and entertainingly portrays all of RZ's themes in about the same proportions as his music. Of them all, sex is the least explored, and I, for one, am thankful for that. The film also walks a delicate line between Hannibal Lector grotesque art realism and supernatural forces. For example, at one point, one of the bad guys turns on a cassette player with low batteries so that the voice recorded on it sounds extra-satanic.
If you have problems with blood and other bodily fluids, and utterly repulsive surgically induced variations on the human body, you might want to avoid this film. If you don't have any great objections to standard hardcore horror imagery, or if you like it, you might want to see this. It is masterfully visualized and does a much better job of making horror into art than the standard Hollywood horror fair. This is Rob Zombie's art, and he does it much better than most. This first major effort in film bodes well for his future use of the medium, and I will look forward to his next.
Two couples traveling across country and working on a book on bizarre roadside attractions stumble across a filling station / theme park run by a vaguely evil clown with a bad attitude - Captain Spaulding. Spaulding teaches them of a few local legends, including a mad surgeon who worked in a local insane asylum and came to be known as Dr. Satan for the grotesque surgical procedures he applied to mental patients in secret. They pick up a pretty blonde hitch-hiker on their way to see the tree where Dr Satan was hung, and run into some car problems, so the hitch-hiker invites them to her family house. The family, apparently headed by the phenomenally weird Karen Black, makes The Addams family look like the Brady Bunch.
My narrative has described the first 20 minutes or so of the film, and at this point the film, much like RZ's songs, is so campy that it seems a straightforward horror comedy. However, once our protagonists are in "the house", the plot takes a decidedly more sinister spin, and never lets up from that point forward.
This film successfully and entertainingly portrays all of RZ's themes in about the same proportions as his music. Of them all, sex is the least explored, and I, for one, am thankful for that. The film also walks a delicate line between Hannibal Lector grotesque art realism and supernatural forces. For example, at one point, one of the bad guys turns on a cassette player with low batteries so that the voice recorded on it sounds extra-satanic.
If you have problems with blood and other bodily fluids, and utterly repulsive surgically induced variations on the human body, you might want to avoid this film. If you don't have any great objections to standard hardcore horror imagery, or if you like it, you might want to see this. It is masterfully visualized and does a much better job of making horror into art than the standard Hollywood horror fair. This is Rob Zombie's art, and he does it much better than most. This first major effort in film bodes well for his future use of the medium, and I will look forward to his next.
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official sites
- Language
- Also known as
- La casa de los 1000 cuerpos
- Filming locations
- Four Aces Movie Ranch - 14499 E Ave Q, Palmdale, California, USA(Captain Spaulding's Gas Station)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $7,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $12,634,962
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $3,400,000
- Apr 13, 2003
- Gross worldwide
- $16,829,545
- Runtime1 hour 29 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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