Saturday, March 26, 2022

Honourable Mention: House of 1000 Corpses


When it comes to horror film directors, Rob Zombie is a divisive figure with some hating his output but it also being very popular. For the record I really do like his films (or most of them, I was underwhelmed by 31) and as I write this I’m looking forward to seeing what he does with his Munsters reboot (recognising that those words may not age well).

I particularly like the trilogy of films he made, starting with his first movie House of 1000 Corpses, its sequel the Devil’s Rejects and, whilst weakest still good, 3 From Hell. It was on a recent rewatch of House that I suddenly realised there was an excuse for an honourable mention here.

exhibit

This is towards the start of the film in the murder ride that is attached to the roadside attraction (and gas station) run by Captain Spalding (Sid Haig, Brotherhood of Blood). The ride passes tableaus of serial killers – all real world killers (noting that Lizzie Borden, who in the sequence gets a namecheck only, was acquitted of murder) – until reaching that of fictional Doctor Satan (Walter Phelan, From Dusk till Dawn). One of the exhibits (and one we see in a tad of detail) portrays Albert Fish, known as the Brooklyn Vampire – we previously met Fish in the dramatized biopic the Gray Man.

sepia flash footage

We get a mannequin exhibition, an x-ray and Spaulding’s patter regarding fish (as well as some visual representations of Fish, in quick cut sepia – the actor is not credited). Spaulding tells the riders “…the infamous Albert Fish… Masochist, sadist, child killer and most importantly cannibal. Fish, born 1870, and enjoyed spankings with nail-studded paddles and stuffing needles deep into his groin…” That’s it, a fleeting visitation – no more than a mention with some shot footage – of a serial killer sometimes dubbed by the press as a vampire. However, it did give me the opportunity to crowbar Zombie’s series into the blog, which are among my go to non-vampire horror films (especially the Devil’s Rejects).

The imdb page is here.

On DVD @ Amazon US

On DVD @ Amazon UK

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