Discovering good movies, one bad movie at a time

If all you know about heavy metal icon Rob Zombie is his directorial filmography, you would still have absolutely no doubt that here is a man who adores horror cinema. His first seven theatrical features all have the unmistakable energy of somebody who has seen all the movies and knows them inside and out, and […]

Of all the characters who could get the “let’s check in on our old friends from years ago and see what they’re up to” sequel treatment, I would not have supposed that people who we last see dying in a stand-off with the cops would be good candidates. But underappreciated horror auteur Rob Zombie doesn’t […]

House of 1000 Corpses is an energetic, lively movie, but it is also a substantially dysfunctional one, better-suited for demonstrating writer-director Rob Zombie’s all-encompassing love for the horror genre than for working as an audio-visual narrative object. It’s the kind of first feature that a filmmaker needs to get out of their system so they […]

It is entirely possible that no first-time film director of the 21st Century to date was so transparently ecstatic to be making a movie as Rob Zombie was with 2003’s House of 1000 Corpses. It is the work of an unmitigated enthusiast. Much of that enthusiasm is for the entire corpus of horror cinema; it’s […]

It is not, I gather, the fashion to be very enthusiastic about The Lords of Salem. Of course, it’s not really the fashion to be enthusiastic about horror movies in general, but even in the forgiving, self-selecting world of horror lovers, Rob Zombie’s fifth film has been greeted with more than its share of hostile […]

[Author’s note, October 2021: I have softened considerably towards this film over the years and upon re-watching it, to the point that I’d now consider it my second-favorite film of the broadly-defined franchise. This review will have to stand until such time as I’m able to replace it; suffice it to say that I agree […]

I hold it to be axiomatic that an interesting movie is more valuable than a good movie. Best of all to have both, of course; but given the unimpeachable craftsmanship of a sleepy drag like Babel or a gonzo mess made by an inspired psycho whose ideas spill over the film’s edges like red wine […]