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In that same EW interview, he explained how things came together rather quickly. When the studio shelved the film fearing that it would receive an NC-17 rating,[7] Zombie re-acquired the rights. They were eventually sold to Lions Gate Entertainment, who released the film in April 2003. Despite receiving an unfavorable response from critics, it went on to gross $16 million worldwide. Since its release, the film has achieved a cult following, was developed into a haunted-house attraction by Zombie for Universal Studios, and was followed by two sequels, The Devil's Rejects (2005) and 3 from Hell (2019). From there, the film launches you on a roller coaster ride of guts, gore, and some of the most garish visuals your eyes will ever see.
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As anyone familiar with his music videos can attest to, it's not a surprise that Zombie has etched his name in the annals of horror movie history. What is surprising is that House of 1000 Corpses took such a long and winding road to the theaters, that he initially thought he wouldn't be making sequels, and above all, that it was his first film. The movie simply feels too self-assured, too confident, and frankly, too good to be a first outing. Horror fans might be familiar with the fact that House of 1000 Corpses was inspired by 1970s horror films such as The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. However, they might be surprised to learn that the villains' names were influenced by comedian Groucho Marx.
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In 3 from Hell, Spaulding, Otis, and Baby are revealed to have just barely survived the shootout with the police, and are put on trial and imprisoned shortly after their recovery. A decrepit Spaulding is executed by lethal injection sometime later, leading to Otis and Baby attempting an escape.
From Universal to MGM (but only briefly)
Shortly after, a mysterious figure appears hidden in some overgrowth and shoots out their vehicle's tire with a shotgun. The group thinks it is just a blown out tire and so Baby takes Bill to her family's house to get a tow truck. Moments later, Baby's half-brother, Rufus, picks up the stranded passengers and takes them to the family home. The film debuted alongside Adam Sandler's "Anger Management," which easily took the top spot that weekend with $42.2 million. However, ranking in at number seven on the charts was the realization of Zombie's dream, as his blood-soaked horror film that two major studios kicked to the curb pulled in a respectable $3.4 million.
Mr. Haig was the recipient of numerous awards for his work in horror movies. In August, he was given the Vincent Price Award for excellence in the genre. Punctuated by bizarro cutaways and surreal sequences, House of 1,000 Corpses very nearly never saw the light of day, thanks largely to a procession of studio executives who believed they were punk rock enough to ride, only to clutch for their pearls at the last second.
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NECA Shipping ‘House of 1000 Corpses’ 8″ Clothed Captain Spaulding Action Figure! - Horror Society
NECA Shipping ‘House of 1000 Corpses’ 8″ Clothed Captain Spaulding Action Figure!.
Posted: Wed, 03 Aug 2016 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Although a biopic of Marx that Zombie was supposed to direct has yet to come to fruition, Marx's work will forever live on through Zombie's characters. House of 1000 Corpses' Captain Spaulding takes his name from a character in Animal Crackers, Otis B. Driftwood comes from A Night at the Opera, Rufus T. Firefly is taken from Duck Soup, and Hugo Z. Hackenbush is from A Day at the Races. Chad Bannon and David Reynolds also appear as amateur robbers Killer Karl and Richard Wick. Earl Firefly, referred to in the credits as "The Professor", is portrayed by Jake McKinnon.
Though I’d hesitate to call the film a horror-comedy, it feels self-aware of its own absurdity and leans into the laughs at all the right moments. Spaulding remains calm and even well-humored throughout the entire robbery. Tension mounts as the score pulses, you can sense the energy charging for something sinister. Suddenly, an ax-wielding maniac, donning a large mascot-like head mask bursts into the room. He cuts down one of the criminals as Spaulding disposes of the other with a gunshot to the head. The maniac removes his mask and laughs wickedly as Spaulding hovers over the dying criminal.
Fortunately, a then-young Lionsgate (going by Lions Gate at the time) had done well with gore and horror previously with films like "American Psycho," and risk was not an issue for them. Zombie penned the screenplay himself and things barreled forward at a blistering pace by big movie studio standards. With a cast that included the likes of Chris Hardwick after his MTV days, Rainn Wilson before his fame from "The Office," Sheri Moon Zombie, Sid Haig, and Bill Moseley as the Firefly Family, production began in May 2000. The explosion of the movie’s fanbase really hit actor Robert Allen Mukes, who played Rufus Firefly, for the first time a few years ago, when he signed an autograph for a 12-year-old girl. The parents are showing it to their kids, and the kids are telling their friends,’” he said.
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Otis, Baby, and Spaulding escape in Charlie's 1972 Cadillac Eldorado and leave behind Tiny, who walks back into the burning house. As Otis drives down the road with Baby and Spaulding asleep in the back seat, he notices a police barricade ahead of them. Realizing that they will not make it out alive, he wakes Baby and Spaulding and hands them each a gun. They speed toward the barricade, guns blazing as the police return fire, fading to black. Sure, this movie isn't everyone's cup of tea (to say the least of it), and most of Zombie's films are made for a very specific audience.
I responded the way I did because I couldn’t fully comprehend what the fuck I had just watched. I’ve always told people that HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES is the film equivalent of vomit; it’s gross, violent, acidic, multi-colored, and leaves a bad taste in your mouth. I mean this as a compliment, of course, as films rarely elicit such a guttural reaction. This speaks volumes about how ahead of his time Zombie was, especially given that the film still feels as gnarly and disgusting today as it did during its release. Beyond instilling the film with fiendish visuals, Zombie also injected it with his own brand of humor and camp. A large part of why the movie works at all is because it never makes the mistake of taking itself too seriously.
As the opening credits rolled, my heart raced—I knew immediately I was watching something completely different. The opening sequence, which remains one of my all-time favorites in any horror film, sets the mood for what’s to come. A roadside tourist trap, owned and operated by a clown named Captain Spaulding (Sid Haig, The Devil’s Rejects), is being robbed by a couple of local thugs.
He often uses this establishment as means of directing more victims toward the Firefly house. Captain Spaulding is sometimes referred to by his alias "Cutter", which is a nickname he is said to have earned after knifing a man to death. On October 30, 1977, amateur criminals Killer Karl and Richard Wick attempt an armed robbery at a gas station/horror museum, but are killed by the owner, Captain Spaulding, and his assistant, Ravelli.
In time, director Rob Zombie bought the rights, and went on his own harrowing adventure to find another distributor. MGM eventually picked up the film and scheduled it for release in October 2002, but it was dropped after Zombie reportedly joked about Universal having "no morals" for not distributing the film, and then, "Well, MGM picked it up. I guess they have no morals." The Devil's Rejects was released on July 22, 2005, to minor commercial success, and mixed reviews, although it was generally considered an improvement over its predecessor. At the time of release and in the years since, the film has garnered a cult following. It was the final film to feature Matthew McGrory before his death the same year, although he did have a posthumous cameo in 2017's The Evil Within, which had been filmed in 2002, and the film's DVD release was dedicated to his "loving memory."
But damned if he hasn't proven there's absolutely an audience for this brand of hardcore horror over the years, even if he had to overcome some pretty impressive hurdles to demonstrate that initially. It's an impressive story of perseverance paying off, no matter what one thinks of the movie in question. There were whispers that Zombie was going to just put the movie out himself because, at that point, what other options did he have? Universal was content to just chalk it up as a loss, while MGM wouldn't even publicly acknowledge that they made a deal.
The movie as we know it centers on two young couples taking a tour along the back roads of America in search of a local legend known as Dr. Satan. Unfortunately, when they become stranded with no options, they cross paths with a family of psychos — the Firefly Family — and murder ensues. More people are catching on (including Universal, which used House of 1,000 Corpses as the basis for part of its annual Halloween Horror Nights in 2010, 2011, and 2019). Cherry also runs a server on the social messaging platform Discord that has accumulated more than 150 members, who gather to discuss and post about Zombie’s movies and other horror flicks like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
It finally hit theaters in 2003, though, much to the distaste of critics—and the delight of a small slice of the moviegoing public. Although House of 1000 Corpses is a cult classic that made Zombie a household name in the horror genre, the director himself actually doesn't like the film very much. In a 2014 interview, Zombie said, "The first film [I directed], which people seem to love, is just a calamitous mess. Well, when it came out it seemed like everyone hated it. Now everyone acts like it's beloved in some way. All I see is flaw, upon flaw, upon flaw." The movie's violence and sadism led to it not being able to shake an NC-17 rating, caused Universal to shelve it.
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