whatisitskip56

I have a certain respect for Rob Zombie. His love of the classic cult grind-house horror of yesteryear is very endearing and I believe him to have a certain integrity rare amongst film personalities. Unfortunately House of 1000 Corpses, while certainly expressing Zombie's love for old school shock horror, is simply too convoluted, elaborate and often boring to send a single shiver up the spine.

It is obvious that painstaking care was taken in the aesthetics of the film but unfortunately it has failed. For the most part the film looks as if the lighting and makeup designers had just come from a job on The Bold and the Beautiful with gaudy colours and super smooth skin on characters who have supposedly been on the road for days detracting greatly from any attempts at a gritty atmosphere. Even in the supposed house of 1000 corpses the production design resembles a piece of theatre more than a disturbing pit of hell and mayhem. I understand the burlesque inspiration here but even with that considered the sets shouldn't look so staged. The special effects makeup also looked more like paper mache than deformed skin, apart from Dr. Satan, who does look very effective but is unfortunately severely underused.

The acting for the most part is excruciating. Sid Haig is fun as always and completely steals the show but apart from him there is not a single character here who the audience will feel strongly for or against simply because they are all 1 dimensional stock standards played in the fashion of a high school drama class. One very disappointing aspect of the performances is that the older members of the sicko family are obviously played by college age kids and the poor makeup and acting is unable to hide this. The dialogue is obviously aiming to be quotable, and is therefore so ludicrously overwritten that it does little but add to the amateur theatricality of the film.

By the time we get to the juicy horror stuff the film takes the action in a completely convoluted direction until the audience no longer cares what this sick family is hiding or what kind of back story there may be. Simplicity is the key stroke to the art of the horror film but obviously Rob Zombie wanted to do away with that trend in House of 1000 Corpses. The same can be said of the cinematography. Negative colourization and crash cuts to grainy newsreel style footage of what is happening in another room are amateur tricks at best and more at home in an MTV music clip. To add insult to injury these tricks are overused to the point of exhaustion.

I watched this film with a friend who I consider a kindred spirit in horror fandom and we both are well watched and researched on the genre. I'm sad to say that half way through House of 1000 Corpses our silence could no longer be held and my friend finally had to open the floodgates with "Ugh, this is so bad!" Yes, it is. Kudos to your vision Mr. Zombie, but your execution is in dire need of tuning.

Saw sets off with a very interesting premise and from there grows to a very intense thriller that will keep you glued to the screen. The gritty aesthetic of the film sets in in the first shot and keeps up throughout the entire film, placing you in a world that is uncomfortable and unsettling. The well written plot moves along at a good pace, keeping you interested and the inevitable twist works well.

The film is not without its flaws, however. My biggest gripe with this movie is that the camera work is simply too fancy in several places, particularly the flashbacks (of which there are many in the first act of the film.) Tricks like fast motion and circular camera tracking belong in MTV music videos and not in psychological thrillers. The acting is also not fantastic. Neither of the two main characters are all that likable and at the start of the film the actors playing them seemed to be unsure of which direction to take them. However, by the end of the film when the real intense stuff kicks in the performances are cranked up and improve a great deal.

Saw is definitely worth seeing. It is an often grisly, always unsettling and carefully made thriller that packs some punch and is, most importantly, very entertaining.

This show really is dreadful. The writing is banal, the performances are forced (the actors seem somewhat embarrassed) and the humour is so incredible infantile that you'll wonder how it got the green-light in the first place. There's been a lot of awful comedy on Australian television lately, with Peter Helliar and Corinne Grant running amok and lowering all our IQs with their ridiculous banter. This dreck steals the show however. It does not get much worse than The Wedge. What is most grating about this tosh is that they expect to hold on to our attention by showing the exact same gags over and over and over. The fact that this has a prime time spot on channel 10 while Chris Lilley's ingeniously created We Can Be Heroes went by practically unnoticed by the general public is a sad tragedy. Please do not watch this show, if the ratings drop enough maybe channel 10 will put it out of its misery and look for something decent to put on. There is honestly nothing about this program to praise.