House of 1000 Corpses (R)
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Caution: spoilers.

This was written and directed by Rob Zombie, which isn't surprising, because it's a lot like his music. It came out in 2003, but I didn't see it until 2026. Before I watched it, I assumed I would put my review under "slasher films", and even after I watched it I was leaning in that direction. But Wikipedia didn't call it a slasher, it called the movie a "black comedy horror film". There's just no way I was going to put my review under "comedy horror", because I didn't really find it funny. For the most part, I didn't feel like it was even trying to be funny, though it is very weird and subversive. But among the categories Wikipedia lists for the movie, one is "exploitation film", which is a genre I would classify as B-movies. So that's where I decided to put my review (with a secondary link under "Halloween movies", because that's when it's set, though it really could have been set at any time of year). If I were going to put my review in my horror films section, I'd call it a slasher, even though it doesn't really follow the formula of most slashers. Anyway, it's hard to say how much I actually liked the film. I don't want to necessarily call it "original" or "unique", but it is certainly uncommon, and I appreciated that about it. The filming style sometimes jarringly shifts into... I don't even know how to describe it. I'd say it's like a bad acid trip, but I've never done acid, so I wouldn't know. Anyway, it's weird, and it's part of what makes the film so unusual. But even when scenes look and sound relatively normal, the whole thing is still rather mad.

Well, it starts out on October 30, 1977. There's a guy called Captain Spaulding, who is made up like a clown, and who runs a gas station/horror museum. A couple of inept robbers come in and utterly fail in their effort to rob the place. Later, four teenagers (who don't look at all like teenagers, to me), Bill Hudley, Jerry Goldsmith, Mary Knowles, and Denise Willis, are driving cross-country and about to run out of gas, so they stop at Captain Spaulding's. They're writing a book about weird roadside attractions, and this place certainly qualifies. From Spaulding, they learn of a local legend called Doctor Satan, who had performed lots of crazy experimental operations on mental patients, before being caught and hanged from a tree, but his body later disappeared. Bill and Jerry want to check out the tree, so Spaulding draws them a map. While they're out looking for it, they pick up a hitchhiker named Baby Firefly. Soon thereafter, someone shoots out their tire (though they don't seem to realize gunfire was involved, I think they just thought it was a blowout). Bill goes with Baby to walk to her house, as she says her brother has a tow truck. Soon, her brother Rufus shows up at the car and tows it to the Fireflys' house.

The teenagers meet Baby's family: Mother Firefly, Otis Driftwood (who reminded me of Riff-Raff, from The Rocky Horror Picture Show), Tiny, and and Grandpa Hugo. They all seem pretty weird, but not necessarily dangerous. They invite the teenagers to stay for dinner, after which they put on a show. Eventually, the car is fixed and the teenagers start to leave, but they're soon stopped by the family, captured and tortured, and killed one by one. Meanwhile, Denise's father, Don, calls the police when she doesn't come home, and on Halloween, Don and a couple of police officers go looking for them. But they also end up being killed. Anyway... Bill is the first one of the teenagers to be killed, and throughout the movie the other three are tormented by the family, who have obviously been doing this kind of thing for a very long time. I don't want to spoil any details of what the teenagers go through, or how it all ends. But the whole movie is demented. I guess I would say it's an entertaining sort of madness, more so than a lot of other slasher films. At least the Firefly family were interesting characters, more so than their victims. Still, I couldn't manage to like the film as much as I might have wanted to. I do understand why it's become a cult film, but it's not exactly my cup of tea. I did kind of like it, and I'm glad I've finally seen it, and I want to watch the sequels. I don't really know what else to tell you.

Followed by "The Devil's Rejects"