Zombie's 'Corpses' a homage to excesses

First and foremost, before Rob Zombie's newest foray into the grisly netherworld can be critiqued, it is of utmost importance to understand where "House of 1000 Corpses" is coming from. If you understood the creepily encryptic title to this review, which contains no less than five references to '70s slasher/cult/B-films, then "House of 1000 Corpses" was made for you. If the names Jack Hill, Tobe Hooper or early Wes Craven send a tremble down your spine and gives you happy pants, then this is a valentine from Satan Himself. If you gleamed not one reference to any film from the title, if said names send little less than an urge to avert the eyes to the next article, then "House of 1000 Corpses" may still be for you.\nWritten and directed by musical madman and B-film über-geek Rob Zombie, "1000 Corpses" is an homage to the excess B-slasher films of the '70s, most notably to Hooper's leather-bound nightmare masterpiece, "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre." It is exhibitionism in its purest form, without worry of plot or character development, but simply the art of spectacle. On this level, Zombie's film is satisfyingly successful, if not disturbingly so. In Zombie's hands, it's nothing new, but that's just what makes it frightening. All our old friends have been dug up from the grave and the maggots and sludge sloughed off to reveal the conventional skeletons we know best: stupid teenagers running out of gas in the middle of nowhere, an incestuous, cannibalistic family and cheerleaders in bondage.\nBut Zombie, surprisingly enough, seems to actually be saying more. In a scene seemingly all-too revealing, Zombie hovers above the deranged Otis (Bill Mosley) holding a deputy at gun-point. The music fades out and he waits until we are squirming in our seats, nervous laughter spewing out. Finally, someone from the darkness behind me shouts, "Shoot him already!" Otis does and Rob Zombie has made his point perfectly.\nWe want our cake and we want to eat it too, even if said cake consists of human organs. So Zombie is going to rub our face in it. It's a world where sex is violence and our thirsting desire for Sin is insatiable. It is the world of Jon Benet Ramsey plastered across tabloids with screaming lurid details. It is the movie Ted Bundy slotted at 7 p.m. on a network station so the whole family can enjoy. It is a world where a bombing campaign aimed at destruction and death is named "Shock and Awe." Rob Zombie takes his scalpel and splits the dark underbelly of Americana wide open. Our innards out, we love to look, feigning disgust for fear of boredom. And Zombie is banking on it.