Also - Trying not to belittle any readers with obvious definitions but it took me a while to find the perfect work for my dislikes for his movies, I will be using this word a lot.
Crass: So crude and unrefined as to be lacking in discrimination and sensibility.
I like two of Rob Zombie’s three movies. But I wish I could respect them more. I saw five minutes of “10,000 Corpses” (16%) but just couldn’t watch anymore. The humor was too crass and sophomoric. I can not really comment past that. After I got laid off several years ago I had a lot of time on my hands. After all my writing chores and housework were done for the day, I set 2 hours aside to watch a movie. This is when I came across The Devils Rejects (53%). I rented it with low expectations knowing it was a loose sequel to a movie I couldn’t even watch. Well I was pleasantly shocked with it. It had me right at the moment the opening gunfight scene starts. He uses freeze frame shots combined with a heavy base cord to hammer up the tension.
“Rejects” seems more thought-out and refined. It had an old sixties, seventies feel to it like Sam Peckinpah. The intentional use of freeze frames and grainy film quality showed me that he had a specific look he was looking for achieve and his attention to detail was apparent. It has a dusty, dry-dirt appearance where everything looks sandblasted. You can tell there was real effort put into it. The Sound track is top notch. Being the heavy rocker that Zombie is, he had an entirely classic rock and western music soundtrack. But he used his hard-rock talents to create some effective instrumental music peppered throughout the movie. As a bass lover, I think that type of music is fantastic. He achieves the same effect in the Halloween remake (27%) to, music wise and cinematography wise. I like the way the movie looks and feels. Its production value looks far superior to the latter entries of the franchise. The detail of the famous mask was great and there is a distinct ominous aura about it.
I am also impressed with some of his scenes he creates and the dialogue given to the characters within these scenes. The standouts being outlined below:
- The movie critic scene in “Rejects”
- The climactic scene with Sheriff Wydell tormenting his captives.
- In Halloween, the short dialogue exchange between Laurie in her mother, trying to get Mr Bones, the Halloween decoration, back together again.
- The short “vacation” talk between Laurie’s parents on the porch
- The entire hospital interaction between Michael and Loomis
He excels in these scenes. These little touches add so much to the film. It gives them credence.
Now the dislikes
Where Rob Zombie loses me is his proclivity to sporadically use crass dialogue and embarrassing character behavior. It mars the overall adult-looking effort that was put into the film. I was legitimately excited to see a Halloween remake directed by Rob Zombie. It didn’t take long before I was disappointed. The entire first 15 minutes of the film that takes place in the Myers house and in the boys lavatory is awful. So much degenerative dialogue is spoken that it feels like it’s overboard and too much, trashy. If just seems so forced.
I get what he was trying to do: to show exterior circumstances that help lead him to his killing ways. But the trashiness was just so blatantly put out there. There are other ways to display a bad home life other than incessantly swearing and making gross sexual comments. How about patiently showing neglect for the kid or the effect of a depressed parent has on a child. I don’t really have an exact answer for Rob, but there are more subtle ways to do it. Actually whenever I watch his Halloween, I start it right before little Mike kills everyone, completely bypassing the first 15 minutes.
I also don’t understand the director’s version of the escape scene. The theatrical version was fine, it worked. The dvd version seems to exists to just push the envelope. But it simply appears mean and adolescent. Now, Zombie is a smart guy. I’ve seen many interviews and heard his commentaries and he knows what he is doing and has a realistic approach to developing his movies. Hell, I’d love to have lunch with the guy. However, I do not understand his seemingly need to sabotage his good parts.
Someone once told me that people use swears when either A) they are trying to emphasize their point or B) They don’t know what else to say. I believe swearing can be cathartic. It can feel good and it has its places, like getting into a car and hitting your head on the rearview mirror, then you punch the mirror accidentally breaking it….uh….I digress. I also believe that if you limit its use, it becomes more powerful. For example, near the end of Catcher in the Rye, when Holden Caulfield sees the word “f*ck” (first time used in novel) written on the school wall, it stands out harshly and you can feel that one word is a comment on society. It was so powerful at the time that people actually wanted to ban the book. However instead, it is now considered a classic.
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