Making your first movie is possibly the toughest task out there, especially in a genre as wide and all-encompassing as horror. Some fall flat in their debuts, others catch lightning in a bottle and go on to have storied careers.
Rob Zombie, fittingly with his stage name, made an emphatic cinematic debut in 2003 with the incredibly irreverent and lovingly strange horror film House of 1000 Corpses. The certified genre auteur didn’t strike gold with critics for it, but it’s the fans who have given it a new lease on life.
Nearly twenty years on, 1000 Corpses has got fans talking as one of Zombie’s best ever films and as one of the most criminally underrated films of its era.
Surprisingly stacked in its cast, 1000 Corpses sees the talents of Sheri Moon Zombie (of course), Rainn Wilson, Sid Haig, Walton Goggins, and Chris Hardwick. Yes, the Rainn Wilson who became best known for his role in The Office, was in a Rob Zombie movie.
Zombie’s debut film sees a group of teenagers become subject to immense torture from a psychotic family who take clear inspiration from Rocky Horror Picture Show, as well as the film’s own very obvious nods towards genre classics The Hills Have Eyes and Texas Chain Saw Massacre.
1000 Corpses spawned two sequels of mostly deteriorating quality, although there’s still plenty of fan debate over which is the best of the unlikely trilogy. The Devil’s Rejects released two years after, followed by the middling success of 2019’s 3 from Hell. The all-star casts of the trilogy are something to be noted, with Haig’s final role coming in the 2019 film.
Zombie, however, has also been called out by commenters as having gotten progressively worse with each new movie. Most definitely not everyone’s cup of tea, his Halloween films are still one of the most divisive subjects within horror circles, with many decrying them as pointless remakes.
House of 1000 Corpses is available to stream on AMC Plus.
