Throwback Thursday: House of 1000 Corpses

The movie that started it all for Rob Zombie's film career. Love him or hate him the man definitely has a look and feel that is all his own and has been one of a few --even with remakes of "Halloween-- that has had an original take on the horror genre.

 Initially shot in 2000 on the Universal Studios back lot (Zombie used the house from the Burt Reynolds' classic "Best Little Whore House in Texas"),  however, what was embraced in the beginning, Stacey Snider the then new head at Universal shelved the  film in fear that it would only garner a NC-17 rating. After several months Zombie was able to wrestle the film back and was then ultimately sold and released by Lions Gate Entertainment.

Zombie draws from the pool and genre he knows best setting "House of a Thousand Corpses" late 1970's during a time when films of this nature where all the rage.

On October 30, 1977, Jerry Goldsmith, Bill Hudley, Mary Knowles, and Denise Willis are on the road in hopes of writing a book on offbeat roadside attractions. When the four meet Captain Spaulding, a vulgar but friendly owner of a gas station and "Museum of Monsters & Madmen", they learn the local legend of Dr. Satan. As they take off in search of the tree from which Dr. Satan was hanged, they pick up a young hitchhiker named Baby, who claims to live only a few miles away. Shortly after, the vehicle's tire bursts in what is later seen to be a trap and Baby takes Bill to her family's house. Moments later, Baby's half-brother, Rufus, picks up the stranded passengers and takes them to the family home.

There they meet Baby's family, Mother Firefly, Otis Driftwood, her adopted brother, Grampa Hugo and Baby's deformed giant half-brother, Tiny. While being treated to dinner, Mother Firefly explains that her ex-husband, Earl, had tried to burn Tiny alive, along with the Firefly house. After dinner the family puts on a Halloween show for their guests. Baby offends Mary by flirting with Bill. After Mary threatens Baby, Mother Firefly makes the couples leave, since their car is repaired. As they leave, though, Otis and Tiny disguise themselves as scarecrows in the driveway, attack the couples and take them prisoner. Otis kills and mutilates Bill's body for art, while Mary is tied up and Denise is bed-bound while dressed up for Halloween. Jerry is scalped because he failed to guess Baby's favorite movie star.

After Denise doesn't come home, her father Don calls the police to report her missing. Two deputies, George Wydell and Steve Naish, find the couples' abandoned car in a field with a torture victim in the trunk. Don, who was once a cop, is called to the scene to help the deputies search. They arrive at the Firefly house and after finding other bodies, are quickly killed by the family. Later that night, the three remaining teenagers are taken out to an abandoned well. They are dressed as rabbits in reference to Otis when he earlier stated that "Scared kids run like rabbits, run little rabbit, run!". Mary attempts to run away, but is stabbed to death by Baby moments later.

Meanwhile, Jerry and Denise are lowered into the well, where a group of feral figures pull Jerry into the water and leave Denise to find her way through an underground lair. As she wanders through the tunnels, she encounters Dr. Satan and a number of mental patients. Dr. Satan has Jerry on his operating table, vivisecting him. Dr. Satan tells his mutated assistant, who turns out to be Earl, Mother Firefly's ex-husband, to capture Denise. Denise outwits him and escapes the chambers by crawling to the surface. She makes her way to the main road where she is picked up by Captain Spaulding and passes out from exhaustion in the front seat. Otis appears in the backseat with a knife. Denise later wakes up to find herself strapped to Dr. Satan's operating table, where she begins to scream in terror

Although compared a lot to "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" except as an acid trip, "House of a Thousand Corpses" became a cult classic despite the critics slamming the film as a "cheesy ultra gory exploitation flick, strangely devoid of thrills, shock and horror."

While failing to impress the critics "House of a Thousand Corpses", however, did become a box office success. Generating 16 million plus in box office returns on a 7 million dollar budget.

Alien Abduction Official Trailer (2014) Horror, Sci Fi HD

Alien abduction

The terms alien abduction or abduction phenomenon describe "subjectively real memories of being taken secretly against one's will by apparently nonhuman entities and subjected to complex physical and psychological procedures"

In honor of our 42nd Prez, Bill "Bubba" Clinton who recently went on the Jimmy Kimmel Show and said he wouldn't be surprised if some day we were visited by Aliens. However, I'm thinking that he was meaning --or hoping-- that it wouldn't be any of the Hollywood brand of visitations.

With that said, today's pick for up and coming flicks is "Alien Abduction".

Shot in the so-over-done-by-this-point in POV, found footage format, "Alien Abduction" is about a family vacationing out in the backwoods of North Carolina, doing the whole camping thing when strange things begin to happen. Supposedly based on the real-life phenom of the Lights of Brown Mountain that has inspired stories since the early 1900's from everything from Blue Grass songs to the X-Files to now the latest incarnation Alien Abduction.

The Morris family pays little notice to the stories of possible aliens or ghosts that possibly reside up in the mountains and where strange things have been being reported. Pretty much the whole film is shot from a camcorder that is controlled the Morris's autistic son, Riley, who uses the camera as a way to cope with the things that are taking place the same way Maggie Simpson uses her pacifier or that of Linus and his ever present blanket. And need it he will as the family comes across a tunnel filled with abandoned cars and when the dead crows fall from the skies like rain. Not to mention the Alien pursuers as they turn a weekend away into a nightmarish fight for survival.

While Alien Abduction is pretty your standard style Alien movie it does have a few nifty little effects worth the price of a rental.    






Until next time...

13 SINS (Horror - Thriller 2014)

You get a cryptic phone call that tells you about a set of tasks, each task more dangerous than the other. And with each task you complete you find that it has a financial reward attached to it. However, the farther you go and the more the amount grows, so does the danger level. What do you do? What do you do?


Elliot (Mark Webber) is a down-on-his-lick salesman and is deeply in debt. And whop has just been fired from his job. On top of that Elliot is about to marry the love of his life. While sitting at a stop light one night Elliot gets a cryptic phone call telling him that he is now part of a hidden camera game show with a prize that totals 6 million bucks. All he has to do complete 13 tasks by the end of the night. At first Elliot blow off the call, thinking  that one of his friends are messing with him until the caller tells Elliot to kill the fly in the car that is buzzing around, then eat. Calling the caller's bluff Elliot does just that. And when he finds that a thousand dollars has been placed in his account, Elliot allows himself to be drawn into a deadly game where the dangers escalate with each new request. However so does the pay off.





"13 Sins" is the latest in a long line of films that have been dealing with people's resolve on the financial crisis most of the country finds themselves in. (2012's "Would You Rather" "The House on Haunted Hill" remake & "Indecent Proposal" all come to mind) However, with Hollywood, no all of them are good and when something seems to work they like to beat the idea to fucking death. Thankfully this current idea hasn't been done too many times (Although I know that this has been a genre of movies in Asia for quite sometime and should come to no surprise that Hollywood continues to steal ideas from other countries) and from the look of the trailer I'm sort of curious about how it'll be. That and it has Ron Perlman in it.

Until Next Time...

Only Lovers Left Alive (2014)

While we have become to use to Vampire love being set against angsty teenagers that have to deal with the daily tidings of high school and small town life. Where the vamps are able to come out side on cloudy days to pretend to be one the lonely hearts that have to deal with growing pains and teenage love. These same vampires that sparkle instead of burn when hit with the sun. So I am a little hesitant when it comes to vampires and love stories now. But thankfully the growing trend when it comes to the blood suckers of the night is that they are getting back to their roots.

"Only the Lovers Left Alive" is set against the desolation of Detroit and Tangiers. A desolation that only vampires and dark beings can find romantic. Adam, a reclusive musician and vampire, who has influenced countless other musicians through the centuries of his being, sulks inside of dilapidated old house in Detroit. Spending his time recording music on outdated recording equipment. Laminating about the state of affairs that has become the human race.

Adam reunites with an old love from better days: Eve, who has spent the last several years living in Tangiers. However, their debauched idyll will soon be disrupted when Eve's wild and uncontrollable sister invades their lives as well as adoring music fans of Adams.

Can they survive all that awaits them as the modern world seemingly collapses around them?        

IN FEAR -- Full Trailer

Sometimes it just doesn't pay to take a road trip. And this is exactly the case with the UK horror flick (released by Anchor Bay) "In Fear".

Shot in real time we follow the night that Tom and Lucy are trapped on country roads being stalked by an unknown person hell-bent on turning their worst fears into reality.

Having only been dating a couple of weeks Tom and Lucy decide to head out to an Irish Music Festival topped off with a night at a rustic country hotel. However, once Tom starts following the signs to his destination he realizes that they are just leading him around in circles. As it begins to get dark they stop and try to get their bearings. While they are out of the car Tom and Lucy begin to see things: Human figures darting in and out of the darkness, trees falling near the car. Something is out there and they are no to sure just who or what it is. And if they will survive the night.

Directed by: Jeremy Lovering
Staring: Iain De Caestecker (Tom), Alice Englert (Lucy)

Stuart Gordon's Castle Freak - You're Throwback Thursday Horror Film

Master of Horror, Stuart Gordon loves his HP Lovecraft and that's what we surely get with "Castle Freaks"!

Based on the short story "The Outsider" this horror fest went straight to DVD back in '95.

John Reilly inherits a 12th Century castle that once belonged to a famed Duchess. John does what anyone would that just inherited a castle: Let's go spend some time there as we try to sell it ! So, as the song says: He scooped the family and moved to Beverly. Except this Beverly was Italy. However, John and family have no idea that there is a horrible monster (of course there is) being kept under lock and key in the basement. Not only is it a horrible beast but it is the Duchess' own son who she imprisoned there as revenge against her husband who left her.

Soon, the disfigured beast has escaped by means of breaking off his own thumb to get out of the manacles which bind him. The only reference to the H.P. Lovecraft story occurs when the monster beholds his hideous reflection in a mirror. He has emerged hungry for blood, leading to a series of unexplained deaths and disappearances including that of a prostitute John has picked up and brought to the castle after being rejected by his wife. The prostitute is sexually mutilated and killed by the monster

As John becomes the prime focus for the murder by the cops he must figure out what it is that is stalking the interior of his castle before it takes out it's aggression next upon his family. As John investigates he learns what other terrible secrets that not only lie inside the castle but in himself as well. Ending in a climatic roof-top battle. 




Until Next Time...

Dark House (Trailer)

Tobin Bell is back and creepy as ever in Victor Salva's (Jeepers Creepers) latest horror flick "Dark House" (aka Haunted). Which will be rolling out later this month (March 14th in Limited Release). Fans of Salva's, I'm sure, we be glad to see him back in action and sticking with the genre that he knows best.

DARK HOUSE follows Nick Di Santo (Luke Kleintank), a man with a special gift that allows him to see how people die by touching them. However, the only deaths he sees are the ones where the person dies in a violent manner. After a visit to his mother in a metal asylum, Nick learns that his father may still be alive. She soon dies not long after, and leaves an old mansion to Nick in her will, prompting him to enlist a few friends and sets out to find it. Unfortunately Nick is told that the town the house is supposedly in has long been dead and buried apparently by a flood that swept through the area years before. Not to be deterred, Nick looks for the house him self and comes across the place out in the middle of nowhere. At the discovery of it, Nick realizes that it is the same place that he has been obsessed with his entire life.

Upon exploring his find, Nick stumbles upon someone who is living there. And the more he explores the more questions that Nick finds about the house and its strange resident and more about himself and the darkness that surrounds them all.




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Until Next Time...