"House of 1000 Corpses" (2003)

House of a 1000 Corpses is almost a challenge of bad taste. There's nothing especially entertaining about it. Even its perverse sense of humor wears its welcome rather early on; the film's black humor is never entirely reconciled with its violent excesses. The plot becomes increasingly convoluted and the story eventually becomes less scary than numbing. And yet I found myself fascinated by the film even as I was sickened by it. Director Rob Zombie has an uncanny ability to create images that are striking even as they're deeply disturbing.

But perhaps no one has stated Rob Zombie's film visions more succinctly than critic Keith Phipps, "Let’s float a notion: Rob Zombie is the greatest horror-movie director never to make a great movie. Zombie has a gift for horrifically beautiful compositions and a feel for atmosphere and character, letting quirks and background details suggest history and depth. He speaks the language of classic horror films, but his taste for the extreme puts him at home in an era in which Saw sequels have become institutions."

And yet Zombie's work is more startling, unsettling and interesting than any Saw sequel or knockoff. Phipps is right. The atmosphere in 1000 Corpses is beautiful in a get-under-your-skin gruesome and fuck-with-your-mind sort of way. The characters -- a disgusting, sadistic backwoods family murdering off personality-less teens -- are well-realized even as they're insane and intolerable.

Still 1000 Corpses is not really all that good. Even as I can recognize its merits -- where many still would dismiss it as pure, undignified torture porn -- I still don't think it's a good movie; interesting and unique but ultimately a little hollow.

Grade: 2/4 ★★