House of 1000 Corpses

Directed by Rob Zombie, House of 1000 Corpses follows four friends (Chris Hardwick’s Jerry, Rainn Wilson’s Bill, Erin Daniels’ Denise, and Jennifer Jostyn’s Mary) as they run afoul of a murderous clan of psychotic hillbillies. It’s familiar subject matter that is, at the outset, employed to relatively promising effect by Zombie, as the filmmaker, working from his own screenplay, establishes a stylish, compelling atmosphere that’s heightened by the affable efforts of his various cast members – with, in particular, Sid Haig’s almost mesmerizing turn as the brash Captain Spaulding certainly ranking high on the movie’s list of agreeable elements. It’s disappointing to note, then, that House of 1000 Corpses progresses into an increasingly intolerable midsection that contains few, if any, appealing, compelling attributes, as Zombie has infused this portion of the proceedings with an unpleasant and hopelessly repetitive feel that’s exacerbated by Alex Poppas and Tom Richmond’s ugly, grainy cinematography. And although the film admittedly does boast a very small handful of engaging sequences, including (and especially) an extended slow-motion interlude, House of 1000 Corpses builds towards an absolutely interminable (and completely unsatisfying) final stretch that ensures it ends on just about as anticlimactic and lackluster a note as one could envision – which does, in the final analysis, cement the picture’s place as a wholly ineffective piece of work that’s unlikely to appeal to the hardiest horror fan.

1/2* out of ****