 | Category: | Movies | | Genre: | Horror |
This is the followup to the abysmal "House of 1,000 Corpses" directed by Rob Zombie. Many of the characters appeared in the first film and reappear here to be given a more sympathetic treatment, although it takes a sociopathic streak to sympathize with these people too much. And that right there is the movie's biggest flaw.
More than anything I can think of since "Natural Born Killers", this movie glorifies murder. None of these people's backstories are filled out to the point where we feel that we can understand their motivations; they just enjoy killing people. It's like a sport to them.
Opposing them this time around is the brother of a sheriff (a minor character) who was killed in the first film. The new cop is a crazier, meaner version of the old one, and may be just as nuts as the people he's hunting. He makes many religion-laced speeches about killing people. It's possible that Rob Zombie is trying to make a moral equivalence argument here about Satanism and murder being no worse than the ideals of God and Law, or maybe he's just thumbing his nose at everybody. Hard to say. He's not the most coherent writer, of songs or of movies.
Like his music though, this is a testosterone-fueled, ass-kicking, sick, twisted ride. There are disturbing images (not just gore but stuff involving a horny clown with unnecessarily nasty teeth), gratuitous sex and nudity, scenes of torture, and a whole lot of pointless violence. Rob Zombie's wife Sheri Moon Zombie is in this again, showing off her ass even more blatantly than the first movie. (Which is saying something.)
The soundtrack is excellent, except the use of that freaking awful "Rock On" song from the 80s that makes me want to hurt somebody. Not with an axe or anything. OK, maybe a little axe.
I would recommend this movie to hardcore horror fans (who may recognize a few movie references) or to Rob Zombie fanatics, and to nobody else. Not even as a rental. And do not, for the love of God, let any children watch it.
 | Correction: that "Rock On" song was actually recorded in 1973, which is impressive. He was ahead of his time. Most music wouldn't start to suck this bad until 1982 or so. You can watch him do it here, I couldn't stand more than 10 seconds of it myself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_mzadEFuP4 |
 | This movie was such a let down. I had such high hopes following House of Corpses. The whole Freebird scene was the only thing I enjoyed. |
| I actually liked it better than the first one. The cinematography was better. Parts of the first movie felt like a cheap Sci-Fi Channel thing because of how they were shot.
Still, the plot was dumb, the characters were one-dimensional, the acting was pretty bad in places, and the dialogue was idiotic. Sheri's ass was the best thing in the first movie, and I'd say that's true again for the second one.
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| But I thought you would like the cheerleaders in the first one better? |
| Actually no, I don't remember the cheerleaders doing anything for me at all. Could be because the only nudity involved them being tortured... different parts of my brain are involved. (Probably a good thing.)
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| Best line from the movie though:
Captain Spalding, waking up from a dream involving having sex with a woman and being shot in the head afterwards and being asked "did you have a bad dream?":
"Eh... half and half."
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| The Captain is my favorite in both movies. Kind of reminds me of Vulgar the clown. |
| He's certainly the most original character. He kind of annoys me though.
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| The annoying thing is what makes him brilliant. Like an old cartoon character. |
| I don't know. He's kind of like Uncle Fester with a meth habit, or something. He does make me laugh sometimes because he is SUCH an asshole, totally over the top. I think another thing that annoys me about these movies is that they (the characters) are all SO freaking stupid, but yet they get away with all this stuff. Until they don't, of course.
The question I find myself asking though is: does Ron Zombie realize they are stupid, or is he just as dumb? If he does know, is he making fun of himself, or his fans, or movie characters, or what?
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| Oh I think he is making fun of and having fun with the genre.
And I like Uncle Fester. |
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