In Defense of Rob Zombie

 

    Rocker turned film director Rob Zombie has faced his fair share of criticism over his time spent making films. His debut feature, House of 1,000 Corpses, took from many of the exploitation films Zombie grew up loving and he was able to shape those inspirations into his own gore-packed original tale of a murderously messed up family cult. While the film received more negative reviews and just barely made back it’s money at the box office, it’s since then solidified itself as a modern cult classic in the genre and was just the beginning of Zombie’s directorial career.

    To date, Zombie has written and directed seven films, six all being horror films and one being a horror-comedy animated film. As mentioned before, his films have the common trend of dividing critics and fans heavily. The Rotten Tomatoes scores surrounding his films range anywhere from the lowest being a 19% and highest being a 57%. But the one thing that I’ve always respected about Zombie as a director is simply this, he doesn’t care. Critics and box office returns have always been the least of his worries. Instead, Zombie has formed his own fan base across the world and aims to only to please his fans and see his visions come to life. To put into perspective, his most recent film, 2016’s 31, was his first away from any major studio and instead was completely fanbacked. The point being, when Zombie has a vision, he doesn’t care what anyone else thinks about it, he just wants to bring his creature to life. Away from a loyal fan base, Zombie also features a loyal list of actors who are known specifically for working with the director. This is another aspect where Zombie stands out from traditional writers and directors because he brings upon veteran actors who are known for working in this genre. Looking at again at his film, 31, Zombie chose to cast a gang of either relatively unknown actors and actresses as well as a mix of famed veterans such as Malcolm McDowell, Meg Foster and Judy Geeson. Even actor Sid Haig stated that Zombie helped revive his career by casting him in House of 1,000 Corpses and his following films as well. Instead of casting good-looking yet forgettable actors and actresses with zero personality that one will find in many modern horror films, Zombie aims at these people that Hollywood doesn’t really give attention to these days.

    While a large portion of Zombie’s filmography has been dedicated to original ideas from his unique and twisted mind, two frequently debated films of his that have left horror fans divided are his 2007 reimagining of Halloween and its 2009 sequel. Notice that I said “reimagining” while may would also use the term “remake”. With the film, Zombie was even told by the film’s original director to do one thing and that is to make the film his own. And that’s exactly what he did. Zombie added his own unique “grunge” type style to the film, creating a film that’s half prequel and half of what we found in the original. He gave us reasoning behind the insanity of Michael Myers, something we never saw in the original and it’s subsequent sequels. And again, he added his own style to the film, creating a new brutality that he’s known for and creating fear once again towards the character of Michael Myers. With the sequel, however, are where things get a bit different. With this, Zombie was able to take the character in his own direction with no previous  material to go off of. His sequel saw him add his own brutality into full effect with Michael Myers and take the franchise and it’s characters in a new direction. We got a look into Myers’ psyche a bit, we saw the mental toll that the experiences had on Laurie Strode and her friends, and we met a Dr. Loomis that found success off of blood money following the events of the first the film. Again, while the direction Zombie took in this film divided fans, this writer respects him for taking these characters in an entirely new direction and giving us a very stripped down look at these characters we’ve known since the 1970’s and 1980’s.

    Now this post isn’t supposed to make you love Zombie’s movies. Clearly everyone has their opinion and not everyone is on board for his unique style of exploitation and the brutality his, you can’t help but respect the man. He takes inspiration from the many films he grew up with and creates the old-school type of horror that new generations don’t get to see. He’s created many modern day cult classic films and characters that have helped to reignite the careers of many veteran actors and actresses. And personally, I’m only excited to see where his next film takes us.