House Of 1000 Corpses review

Why you can trust GamesRadar+ Our experts review games, movies and tech over countless hours, so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about our reviews policy.

You've heard this one before: kids run out of gas in Hicksville, Nowhere, find themselves holed up with a household of inbred wackos, get trussed up and hacked to pieces.

What's more interesting is the story behind metal rocker Rob Zombie's directorial debut, House Of 1000 Corpses. Made for Universal after the bearded hellrat designed a horror display for their amusement parks, the studio then ditched it for being "too dark and disturbing". Zombie flogged it to MGM, who then developed a case of cold tootsies themselves. Finally, Lions Gate bought and released the movie in a sanitised 88-minute cut, slashed from a blood-soaked 105, to terrible US reviews and good box office.

Well, let's get one thing straight - - Corpses is a mishmash of other, better movies (mainly Texas Chain Saw Massacre and it's sequel, endlessly referenced), clumsily stitched together and made up in carnival colours. It's brash, it's messy, it's even incoherent - - not helped by Metro Tartan's decision to release the shorter cut - - and it'll only appeal to hardcore genre fans with a love of trash culture. Not to mention an ear for Zombie's maddeningly catchy but grinding, repetitive music.

If that's you, then this is everything you'd expect and want from a Rob Zombie flick, a junk artefact peopled by colourful sickos like the clown-faced Captain Spaulding (cult actor Sid Haig) and rotting nympho Mother Firefly (Karen Black). Those well-adjusted souls with more sensitive palates, however, had best stay clear. Mr Zombie wouldn't have it any other way.

The Total Film team are made up of the finest minds in all of film journalism. They are: Editor Jane Crowther, Deputy Editor Matt Maytum, Reviews Ed Matthew Leyland, News Editor Jordan Farley, and Online Editor Emily Murray. Expect exclusive news, reviews, features, and more from the team behind the smarter movie magazine. 

Latest in Action Movies
Fantastic Four: 1234 #2 cover excerpt
Sue Storm and Namor are officially both in Avengers: Doomsday, and fans are wondering if Reed Richards has something to worry about
Chris Evans as Steve Rogers with the rest of the gang during the superhero movie, The Avengers.
The OG Fox X-Men are back, with Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, and more joining the cast of Avengers: Doomsday alongside a whole new Avengers team to take on Robert Downey Jr's Doctor Doom
Robert Downey Jr. sitting in a chair at the end of a long line of chairs
Everything announced during Marvel's Avengers: Doomsday cast reveal live stream
The cast of Suicide Squad (2016)
David Ayer admits James Gunn has good reason not to release his cut of Suicide Squad, but he remains hopeful it'll happen
The Fantastic Four: First Steps cast assemble
Fantastic Four star says the Marvel movie "will go down in history" for rejuvenating the MCU, "in the same way the Guardians of the Galaxy and Black Panther hit"
Ben Affleck in Air
Ben Affleck isn't in The Odyssey, but he plans to visit the set anyway to watch Christopher Nolan work: "He's one of the greatest filmmaking architects to ever live"
Latest in Reviews
Image of the Corsair Virtuoso Max wireless headset sitting on top of a gaming PC case taken by writer Rosalie Newcombe.
Corsair Virtuoso Max Wireless review - a PC headset tour de force
Zombicide box featuring stylized art of survivors fighting zombies
Zombicide 2nd Edition review: "Like a zombie flick brought to tabletop"
Razer Handheld Dock with Steam Deck sitting on cradle, pink and yellow RGB lighting on, and Alienware monitor in background with Tomb Raider Trilogy gameplay on screen.
Razer Handheld Dock review: “Your Steam Deck will ride shiny and Chroma"
Photographs of the Agricola board game in play
Agricola review: "Accurate representation of the highly competitive and often unstable world of agriculture"
Photos taken by writer Rosalie Newcombe of the Shure MV7i microphone, within a pink and white themed room.
Shure MV7i review - convenience and excellence rolled into one superb sounding package
Key art for Atomfall showing a character in the English countryside looking at a nuclear plant some distance away
Atomfall review: "This isn't British Fallout – it's something much better than that"