Halloween Picks: The Rob Zombie Halloween Films

Now I know that I have been debating whether or not I wanted to do this final entry for my series on the Halloween Collection Box set since when the remake first came out is when I was starting in movie reviewing and because of this and my association and friendship with many in the Horror community I was sent to an early screening of the film in 2007 and my review was posted.

I admit that I am a loyalist to the original and Eric’s roommate at the time was with us and she openly mentioned my state of mind at the time.

Needless to say I was pretty upset at the time. Now I admit that the film has slightly grown me.

I have become friends with many in the cast and I have shot many interviews with them.

Now as for the complete collection of the Halloween franchise this is where I have to complain. There are in fact two different cuts of both of the Rob Zombie Halloween films with the director’s cut as well as the theatrical cut of both films and in the box set there are just the directors cuts of the films.

Personally I prefer the theatrical cut of the 2007 film and the director’s cut of the 2009 sequel.  

Halloween 2007 has become typical Rob Zombie Fare with the use of Horror actors in small roles as well as a classic rock soundtrack.

I agree with many about the low class aspect of the opening of the film and I have to agree as my personal preference with the film isn't knowing Michael’s origin. I felt that the movie made Michael Myers into the primary victim and protagonist and all other characters as the antagonist in particularly Dr Loomis.

Now I feel that Rob Zombie has some sort of obsession with Charles Manson as he makes references to him in all of his films and he stated in interviews that he based the character on Vincent Bugliosi who was the prosecutor of the Manson family at the time of the murders and had written many books based on the trial with movie deals before the book was even published and after cashing in on the trial became a media personality.

Dr. Loomis takes this direction in the films in the first film he is viewed as after leaving as Michael’s doctor he writes a book about the murders however he does pursue his former patient like his 1978 counterpart. In Halloween II Loomis is portrayed as a narcissistic ego maniac who cashes in once again on the murders of the previous film and denies that Myers is still alive.

Laurie Strode is shown differently in these films as well as she isn't the mousy virgin as in the original film where in this film she is shown rubbing Bagels over herself in front of her mother and dry humping her best friend before realizing that the children that she is babysitting are watching.  Laurie is also depicted as a more modern teenager going as far to act annoyed at the children and wearing more rock and roll fashions.

In the sequel that takes place soon after the previous film Laurie is depicted as far more of a wreck suffering from PTSD and seeing a shrink. Her behavior is also far more self-destructive as her relationship with Annie has deteriorated and become more antagonistic with her one time BFF.

These films also mark the return of Danielle Harris to the franchise after her departure from the series in Halloween 6’s pre-production. Originally Zombie didn’t want to cast Harris due to the fact that she was in Halloween 4 and 5 but fans wanted her to be in the film and unlike her 1978 counterpart she did survive to be in the second film.

Danielle Harris also goes through a major change in between both films as in the first film she is more focused on sex with her boyfriend than any impending Danger where Laurie is more the responsible one  and in the sequel she has reversed roles with Scout and is now the maternal character.

The remakes also focus much needed attention on Sheriff Brackett who is barely explored in the previous eras of the franchise as he departs early in part 2. Brackett is played in these films by Chucky himself Brad Douriff and has a far more disliking of Dr. Loomis.

Tyler Mane is a friend of mine as he and I have hung out at a couple of conventions as well as his wife and I actually liked his performance as Michael Myers. Tyler is a former professional wrestler and is best known for the role of Sabretooth in the 2000 X-Men Movie and he briefly took on the role of Rufus in The Devil’s Rejects and has also become a quite accomplished filmmaker in his own right.

He did bring a new dimension to the famous killer and in the second film did much without the mask which is a first for the franchise.

As I mentioned earlier there are two cuts of both films. The Director’s cut of the 2007 film features the main difference is the scene where Michael escapes and in theatrical cut Michael is scheduled to be transferred and the guards that are transferring him include many Devil’s Rejects Alumni Bill Moseley and Leslie Easterbrook who are dispatched after Michael breaks free of his chains.

The Director’s cut features a scene that I took issue with in place of this scene where Lou Temple and Courtney Gains are the guards and choose to sexually assault a new inmate in front of Michael who then attacks and kills the guards. The issue that I had with this scene is again Michael becomes a protagonist in the film.

Both Films have an increased emphasis on Michael's mother which naturally is played by Rob Zombie's Wife Sherri Moon Zombie, Shown as a stripper in the first film Deborah Myers is still shown to be the loving mother to her son despite the murders but unable to cope with the evil that her son she commits suicide. 

She is featured again in the sequel as a ghost with a more sinister side as she talks to Michael giving him instructions and orders to make them a "Family" again. Michael is able to talk to her in the image of himself as a child. 

The Sequel definitely features a different cut than the theatrical with a different ending where Laurie fully embraces her family heritage and has to be taken down by the cops.

Given the fact that Zombie is a Musician I am not surprised by the use of music in these flicks. I admit that I have often wondered what the significance of the song Love Hurts which is featured significantly in both films is.

The use of the Soundtrack in the Remake is my favorite for the film.

I still recommend checking out the films and they do bring their own contributions to the franchise and I look forward to more entries in the future.

Halloween Picks: House of 1,000 Corpses

Well my friends it is that time of year again. That’s Right it is Halloween time. Haunt time and it is horror time.

Yes I know that it seems to be Halloween year round with me but that is what Halloween more special for me. As a result the movies that I watch this time of year have a far more special meaning to me.

There are people that consider movies that they watch around the winter holidays to be required viewing.

On a personal note I am reminded of an incident that happened at my home a couple of years ago at my Halloween party that was held at my house.

I had a guest that had too much to drink and this person was also a “Horror Hater” and then proceeded to give me a hard time about the fact that I watch the same movies allot. Now what I was bothered about that incident is that not too long after that she said very loud that starting Thanksgiving Weekend her and her family watched It’s a Wonderful Life every day until Christmas, and I felt the need to ask her what was the difference between that and me watching what I watch and her reply was that her movies are “Acceptable”.

The truth is that Halloween is the 2^nd most popular holiday season of the year following closely behind Christmas and I feel that the recommended movies are “Acceptable”.

Another thing that made me go about with this series of Blogs is the fact that I was watching a different show that had a top 10 list of Halloween movies that were recommended. Well it wasn’t too bas as some of the recommendations were movie like John Carpenter’s Halloween and Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas.

I plan on doing a long article on Halloween as well as it’s sequels and remakes.

Now I have to admit that Nightmare Before Christmas will not be on this list because I consider it on my list of Christmas films and if this series of Blogs is successful then I will be happy to treat all of you to my Christmas picks.

 

However the problem that I had was that these were the only real Horror Flicks on the list the rest were movies with Halloween scenes.

Scenes like the Karate Kid where the Cobra Kai attack the main character.

I have decided insted of getting mad I am just going to make my own Halloween Picks.

Now let us move on to the first in recommendations.

Now I know what a lot of you are going to say.

Why is this your first pick and the truth is because while I am doing this for all of you I ask that you please bear in mind that I am blogging about them after I finish viewing them. I was just watching these flicks. Now let us get on with the reviews.

Rob Zombie’s House of 1,000 Corpses.

 

First off this flick is very special to me. As the videographer of Texas Frightmare Weekend  and my work as a talent manager I have met more than half of the people involved in this movie.

I have both met and interviewed both Sid Haig and Bill Moseley on many occasions. I have also met Irwin Keyes and interviewed Karen Black for the 2009 DVD.

The story of the production of this film is very interesting.

First off House of 1,000 Corpses was made in the year 2000 by Universal Studios.

Many people in the Horror Genre followed the production of this film because the director was the famous Rock musician Rob Zombie who despite directing many of his own music videos over the years had yet to direct a feature film. However Zombie had quite a following and years of experience in the industry with his music videos and Universal hired him to write and direct the film.

 

Universal is highly respected in the horror field. Universal is famous for not only Jaws and Psycho’s franchises but all of the Classic monsters from Dracula to the Creature form the Black Lagoon, and in the late 1990s they had the rights to Chucky and the Childs Play and Zombie was supposed to take Universal Horror into the new Millennium.

The film was shot on the Universal backlot in the same house that was used to film the Best Little Whore House in Texas aka The Chicken Ranch as I was told when I toured the Studio in 2008. I was actually the one that told the tour guide that House of 1,000 Corpses was filmed there. Zombie even said in the DVD commentary that the tour busted many sound takes. 

 

At the time that House of 1,000 Corpses was in production Universal even had a Haunted Attraction during their Halloween Horror Nights event during the Halloween season of that year.

Well things didn’t exactly go as planned.

Now I am sure that some will dispute this fact but I refer to all of the events like this as Columbine Fallout.

You see there was a rash of school shootings in the late 1990s where it seemed like every week there would be a kid that walks into a school with enough firepower to start their own personal war and in 1999 there was Columbine.

I’m not going to go into too much detail because it is a minor fact in this story but the bottom line is the fact that when this shooting happened the entertainment industry was the first in the crosshairs of the parents support groups that felt that blaming violence in cinema and Video Games had more to do with the killings than things like Bullying.

Needless to say this affected many films and television shows including Scream 3. Many other films like Idle Hands had their release date halted. The season Finale episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer was postponed a month in the aftermath of the Columbine shooting.

In late 2000 Zombie finished the production of Corpses and then he presented an early cut of the film. It was then that he was informed by Universal Studio Executives that the film will not be released due to the content.

However I don’t want Universal to look like the bad guys here. The truth is that House of 1,000 Corpses was far too ahead of itself. The was a “little of the old Ultra-violence”. A precursor to the “Torture Porn” Universal decided that it was a direction that they didn’t to go so after a couple Zombie got some money together and purchased the film rights himself and then shopped it to distributers.

Then at the time an up and coming distribution company at the time picked up the film and released it in 2003. Than distribution company was Lionsgate.

 

Lionsgate is now one of the leading both distribution and production companies in the business.

Now let’s get on to the flick.

House of 1,000 Corpses is a definite throw back to all things. You can also see the influence of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre and other Grindhouse, Drive-in, and Late Night Horror Shows.

 

In the first 5 minutes of the film the viewer is shown Dr. Wolfenstein a horror host and his Creature Feature Show and then we are introduced to Captain Spaulding and his Museum of Monsters and Madmen. The flick then shifts to real time and Captain Spaulding is shown dispatching two would be robbers and the credits roll.

 

After the opening credits we are introduced to two young couples including a pre Office Rainn Wilson and a barely recognizable Chris Hardwick. After going on the “Murder Ride” and learning about the local legend Dr. Satan, Macabre enthusiast Jerry (Hardwick) begs Spaulding to draw him a map to where the killer was lynched by a vigilante mob and in the drive there they pick up a female hitchhiker.

 

 Eventually the viewer realizes that the group is driving to a trap where they end up captive in a ranch house with the Firefly Family including Sheri Moon Zombie as Baby, Karen Black as the matriarch and former madam Mamma Firefly, the muscle-bound Rufus, the late Matthew McGrory as the gigantic but kindhearted mute Tiny, the loudmouth and vulgar Grandpa is played by longtime character actor Dennis Fimple in one of his final screen roles before his death in 2002.

 

Finally we are introduced to Otis played by genre veteran Bill Moseley. Many will consider Otis to be the main villain of the film, The character is a pure sociopath that not only is the killer of most if the victims he is the one that really runs the family. Otis also takes great pleasure in the torment of his victims and makes artwork out of their corpses.

 

The film then focus on the investigation of the disappearance of the group by one of the girl’s father as well as two police officers including Deputy Sheriff George Wydell, played by another genre veteran Tom Towles.

All of this leads to the climax and the film then goes into the underground under the house where we are finally introduced to Dr Satan (Walter Phelan).

Now House of 1,000 Corpses is one of those flicks that the audience is divided on. There are some people who really hate it and there are people that think it is one of the greatest movies ever made and I fall closer to the latter.

What many people aren’t divided is the sequel to the film the Devil’s Rejects.

There are a couple of releases of the film that are all highly recommended.

On the DVD of House of 1,000 Corpses the DVD is entertaining as it is hosted by Captain Spaulding, Otis, and Baby.

My personal favorite is the main menu where Spaulding yells at the audience for not promptly picking an option and gets angrier and angrier.

 You need to pay attention to Moseley on the Scene Selection Option to get the Tiny Fucked a Stump Joke.

 

10 Dead Bodies

6 Breasts

5 Beasts

4 Heads Blown off

1 Fishboy

1 Brutal Stabbing

1 Human Halloween Costume

1 Head Sawing

Head drilling

Cheerleaders Fu

Tiny Fu

Agatha Crispies Fu

I really liked Dr Wolfenstein

 

4 Stars Check it out