theantigaz

So here we have Rob Zombie's debut outing as a movie director. For those who don't know (and I can't imagine there's many of you reading this who don't), Rob Zombie started his carrier in the entertainment industry running errands on the set of Pee Wee's Big Adventure, before forming the seminal heavy metal band White Zombie. White Zombie gained notoriety in the late eighties and early to mid-nineties for their energetic horror/sci-fi/fantasy metal music, before Zombie split the band up and released a series of much acclaimed solo albums in the same vein.

If memory serves, at some point in the late-nineties Rob Zombie was involved with Universal Studio's Halloween party/event in which he designed a 'house' type set for attendees to walk through etc. as part of the celebrations (my memory fails on the specific details). This eventually led to the development of the movie in question. Conceived and directed by Zombie, the movie was shot in 2000, but due to various legal wrangles and studio issues, was not released generally until 2003.

So what of the movie? There is a short prologue before the credits introducing the eccentric Captain Spaulding, a foul mouth and ill-tempered clown who runs a gas station-cum-curios museum-cum-friend chicken shack. After the credits it begins as so many horror movies before it have, a group of teenagers/twenty somethings driving through a rural area (in this case Texas) when they have to stop for gas. The gas station they come across just happens to be the aforementioned Captain Spaulding who roughhouses our protagonists before giving them a tour of his 'museum' and directions to the sight of a local legendary/mythical lynching. On the way there (through predictably horrible weather conditions) they pick up an eccentric but beautiful young female hitchhiker, get a tyre blown out and are invited back to said hitchhiker's house while their car is repaired. You can guess where the story goes from here, needless to say the house is as the title implies not a homely Bed & Breakfast welcoming visitors and the Firefly family who dwell there subject their house guests to a series of ever more alarming, bizarre and grotesque situations.

The film is and widely comes across as homage to the early slasher and exploitation films of the seventies. The film contains stylistic references to just about every 'cutting-edge' horror technique of the seventies, shaky-cam, point-of-view-camera, negative exposure etc. and initially this mish-mash of cinematic styles works. The general plot line is also inter-cut with surrealistic snippets of film and home movies of the Firefly family. This style of cinema fits the movie quite well but becomes tiresome as the movie progresses, you almost feel that Zombie was trying to cram too many styles and ideas into an 88 minute movie; he almost seems desperate to pay tribute to all of his favourite movies. And he succeeds, what we have here is an exploitation pastiche, a combination of Texas Chainsaw Massacre; the Hills Have Eyes and stories of the Manson Family. However, this is all combined together with the more modern horror movement some call 'gorenography'. Rather than attempt to shock and frighten us like in the days of old, Zombie builds the uncomfortable tension by explicitly exposing us to extended scenes of emotional and physical torture, physical mutilation and gory injuries and death. This is what prevents the film from coming across as a spoof or a comic book account of serial killing and reinforces its status as pure exploitation.

Don't get me wrong though, I liked this film. It's not a masterpiece by any means and it falls down in a lot of areas, but on the other hand there's a lot to like. Sid Haig's wonderfully over-the-top Captain Spaulding steals every scene he is in, there are some hilarious characters and moments of dialogue such as the prologue with Spaulding when the Firefly's go to buy some booze for their Halloween party. The characterisation of the protagonists, although is quite obvious to any horror fan, is quite well done. The Firefly family are fantastically flamboyant caricatures of the worst of the worst horror movie villains and played with conviction, avoiding the temptation to 'camp' them up. While the movie isn't as shocking or chilling as I may have liked, the slow exposition of gruesome events in an otherwise fast-paced film does well to build tension and repulse the viewer. The ending is suitably over-the-top and does look like something out of a graphic novel, but somehow fits together with the rest of the film. Despite the villains being played convincingly and the general grim rather than camp tone of the film (which could have easily been the other way round in some director's hands), it is so over the top in some places and surreal in others that it's difficult to know whether or not to take this film seriously.

Overall, this film is hardly ground breaking but is a decent entry into the murky genre of horror. Given the inconsistent nature of the horror movie genre which can lump together such films considered masterpieces (The Shining, Psycho, Rosemary's Baby etc.) with some incredible (but often entertaining) garbage (Plan 9 from Outer Space, Return of the Living Dead II, Seed of Chucky), House of 1000 Corpses fairs well. I get the impression that Rob Zombie has the makings of being a capable director who an obvious passion for what he does. On House 1000 Corpses he was honing his skills, which he further improved with The Devil's Rejects and Halloween. I look forward to seeing more from Mr Zombie in the future.

Cast: Bad Acting: Bad Plot: Un-developed and bad Direction: Mediocre in places, otherwise bad Score: Bad Costumes: Bad Sets: Really Bad

This is a bad bad film, I hate to say it but I enjoyed recent remake fodder House of Wax and Amityville Horror better than this. the plot was very, very slow, characters had no development. For some reason Ambasador Thorne lives in a castle which appears larger than Buckingham Palace in the middle of a country estate with acres of green land, which the title card kindly informs us is 'London'. This patronizing moment sums up most of the film. When the character's die, you feel no compassion for them because they are so 2D and lifeless. In some horror films this doesn't matter because you at least get a good gore fest or a good villain, but not in this. No action, nomomentum, no decent preformaces. Rubbish.

In short this is a terrible film. Hollywood, please stop wasting money on pointless remakes and plough some dough into an original idea.

I went to see this film out of curiosity more than anything. I knew very little about it other than the usual media tagging of it being that 'gay cowboy film'. I wanted to know what all the fuss was about, was it truly a great film, or was it just getting media attention due to a mass-media perceived controversial subject matter? I was pleasantly surprised.

From a cinematic point of view, Ang Lee has done a fantastic job of capturing the beauty and the desperation of parts of rural America. Showing the magnificent natural scenery to great effect and convincingly transporting his audience to the little farming communities and cowboy towns of Wyoming and it surrounding regions. The music is moving and fits perfectly with what you are seeing on the screen. An understated score perfectly adds to the atmosphere and feeling that the story generates. The costumes and sets create a convincing backdrop to the period of the story.

Heath Ledger absolutely excels in his role as Ennis, a man of very few words with a lot on his mind. I came away from the film with the idea that Ennis was a man who had extreme difficulty communicating his feelings with others. This is most likely why when he experiences what he does with Jack on Brokeback that summer, he fails to cope with his own feelings, let alone those of the ones around him. Ang Lee has made this film cleverly, he never thrusts an opinion upon his audience about the characters or the decisions they make, he concentrates on analysing their reactions to the events which unfold and the way they deal with them. It is fairly obvious that homosexual relationships met with far more suspicion and disgust in the 1960s than they are in more modern times, especially in more rural areas.

This film could have easily been about two men who fell in love in a time when it was not accepted. Brokeback Mountain however, goes much deeper than this. It does not just show Ennis and Jack and victims of the time they lived in, but shows the decisions they made and the impacts it had on their lives. Jack throughout the film comes across as more accepting of his nature, where as Ennis appears to struggle more with it. But as I said before, this film is not just about 'gay cowboys', it is more of a film about relationships. The relationships between two worker who become lovers, the relations ships they both form after their season together, the relationships they would face with society and their relationships with themselves in a less understanding era.

Heath Ledger is in outstanding form throughout this film. Playing almost a tortured soul character with many difficult decisions to make about his life and himself. Jake Gyllanhall is also very good, but HEath just steals the show. Playing a man who says very few words, but he manages to convey a volume of emotion through his expression, body language and tone during the limited times he speaks out.

Of course most people will think of Brokeback Mountain as that 'gay cowboy' film, but my advice to them is go and see it. In all honesty, this film is about relationships between people, it could have feasibly been made with two sets of families involving a 'straight' affair. The homosexuality of the main characters add more depth to this film, rather than detract from the story and the themes of communication, commitment and human nature.

Most people will go and see this film and enjoy it, some more blinkered people will see it and be offended by it, worse still some damn ignorant people will refuse to see it and spout abuse and disgust purely because they are not open minded enough to enjoy a film on its own merits. I recommend you go see Brokeback Mountain, it is an intelligent, poignant, sometimes moving and sometimes sad portrayal of two people trying to find happiness with others and within themselves.