House of 1000 Corpses

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

House of 1000 Corpses
Directed by	Rob Zombie
Written by	Rob Zombie
Produced by	Andy Gould
Starring	Sid Haig Bill Moseley Erin Daniels Sheri Moon Zombie
Cinematography	Alex Poppas Tom Richmond
Edited by	Kathryn Himoff Robert K. Lambert Sean K. Lambert Robert W. Hedland (uncredited)
Music by	Rob Zombie, Scott Humphrey
Distributed by	Lions Gate Films
Release dates	April 11, 2003
Running time	88 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$7,000,000
Box office	$16,829,545

House of 1000 Corpses is a 2003 horror film written and directed by Rob Zombie, and is his directoral debut as a filmmaker. It was released in the United States on April 11, 2003 by Lions Gate Films.

Following the standard horror movie structure, the film focuses on four college students traveling throughout rural America who become intrigued by a local legend regarding the mad scientist Dr. Satan. While looking for his site of hanging, they experience car trouble and are taken in by the Fireflys, a large and complicated family that is revealed to be made up of sadistic serial killers.

Plot

The film takes place in rural Texas, the date is October 30th, 1977, and four twenty year-olds (Jerry and Denise, and couple Bill and Mary) are driving through the countryside to write a book based on their experiences. They make a brief stop at Captain Spaulding's Museum of Monsters and Madmen, a gas station that also serves as a side show, detailing the histories of past serial killers. The youths are particularly interested in Dr. Satan, a mad scientist who began performing bizarre and horrible surgeries in hopes of creating a breed of super-humans.

Spaulding gives the kids directions to the Deadwood Tree, the site of Dr. Satan's execution. While driving, they give hitchhiker Baby Firefly a ride until their tire is shot by an unidentified man (later revealed to be Baby's brother, Rufus). Baby and Bill take a short walk to her house and meet the rest of the Firefly family: the Mother; brothers Otis, Tiny, and Rufus; and grandfather Hugo. The rest of the kids arrive at the house and are treated to a series of bizarre Halloween rituals.

When Baby attempts to flirt with Bill during a show Baby puts on, Mary is disgusted and fights with Baby, prompting them to leave the house; however, they are attacked by Tiny and Otis and taken back to the Firefly home. Meanwhile, Denise's father Don is worried when she never arrives at his house and calls the police. Lt. George Wydell and Deputy Steve Nash question Captain Spaulding, who gives them directions to the hanging site. Meanwhile, Otis kills Bill, taxidermies his corpse, and sews his torso to a large fish tail to create a "mermaid;" Jerry is scalped; Denise is violently beaten; and Mary is thrown into a prison cell in the basement where she is descended upon by group of unidentified maniacal individuals. As Don and Nash go and check out the Firefly's garage, Wydell arrives at the Firefly house and questions Mother Firefly before all three of them are killed.

Mary, Jerry and Denise are then humiliated in a number of different ways, including Denise being forced to kiss her father's skinned remains. They are then taken to the family graveyard, where Jerry and Denise are tied up, tossed into a coffin and lowered into the well below; Mary tries to escape but she is stabbed to death by Baby, while Jerry and Denise are attacked by the disfigured victims living in the well. Denise escapes and finds an underground tomb, lined with corpses and ultimately leading to the torture chamber of Dr. Satan, where Jerry is being subjected to a horrible, grisly experiment.

Dr. Satan's disfigured assistant Earl chases Denise throughout the lair with an ax but is knocked unconscious when the tomb collapses. Denise escapes to the surface and is rescued by Captain Spaulding, only to find that Otis is waiting in the backseat of the car. Denise then reawakens in Dr. Satan's lair, with her own experiment about to begin.

Alternate version

A completely alternate version of the end sequence was filmed, but has yet to be released in any commercial format. Zombie briefly alludes to this version on the director's commentary track of the DVD, and stills from it were used in press releases upon the film's release. The movies are virtually identical up until the costume party sequence; here, Grandpa Hugo is revealed as Dr. Satan. The film then continues on as it does in the theatrical version, up until the point that Denise is buried alive. In this version, the catacombs beneath the cemetery lack any laboratory equipment, and are simply filled with the aimlessly wandering, brain damaged victims of Grandpa Hugo's experiments. They drag Jerry away to a chamber and eat him before a horrified Denise.

Cast

Actor	Role
Sid Haig	Captain Spaulding
Bill Moseley	Otis B. Driftwood
Sheri Moon Zombie	Baby Firefly
Karen Black	Mother Firefly
Erin Daniels	Denise Willis
Chris Hardwick	Jerry Goldsmith
Jennifer Jostyn	Mary Knowles
Rainn Wilson	Bill Hudley
Walton Goggins	Deputy Steve Naish
Tom Towles	Lieutenant George Wydell
Matthew McGrory	Tiny Firefly
Robert Allen Mukes	Rufus "R.J." Firefly, Jr.
Dennis Fimple	Grandpa Hugo
Walter Phelan	Dr. Satan
Michael J. Pollard	Stucky

Reception

The film was completed in 2000 but was unable to find a distributor after Universal Pictures rejected the initial cut, believing the film would receive an NC-17 rating (which was ultimately the result). As the film was edited to secure an R rating, it spent several years trying to find a distributor before Lions Gate Films, which was beginning to specialize in releasing horror films, accepted the film.

The film opened on April 11, 2003 without being pre-screened for critics. Those who reviewed it after it opened mostly slammed the film with terrible notices. 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." 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. James Brundage of popular website Filmcritic 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."

The film opened in 595 theaters, technically qualifying for limited release, and grossed $3.4 million. The film saw some expansion in later weeks and ultimately grossed $16.8 million worldwide, which was successful based on its $7 million production budget. It was followed in 2005 sequel, The Devil's Rejects.

Trivia

• 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.
• Director Rob Zombie composed the film score with Scott Humphrey. It is isolated on the DVD as a separate audio track.
• Karen Black portrayed Mother Firefly in this film, but not the sequel. When Black demanded a higher salary to reprise the role, which Zombie could not afford, Leslie Easterbrook was approached and later cast as her replacement.
• Was originally 105 minutes long, but was edited to 88 minutes in order to receive an R-Rating.
• Mezco Toys released a limited edition set of two Living Dead Dolls as a tribute to this movie

See also

• House of 1000 Corpses Soundtrack
• The Devil's Rejects
• "House of 1000 Corpses" (Song)

External links

• Official site
• House of 1000 Corpses at IMDb

• The Devil's Rejects OFFICIAL MySpace page
• Rob Zombie's Official MySpace