While Rob Zombie is a staple of the horror world and known for his dark and memorable stories, the first movie that he ever directed was House of 1000 Corpses. The film was released in 2003 and began the Firefly trilogy about the family including Sherri Moon Zombie's famous character Baby. The title definitely stands out and can't be ignored.
House of 1000 Corpses has become a fan-favorite for many and kick-started Rob Zombie's film career. Since then, he has written and directed the 2005 sequel The Devil's Rejects and the third film in the trilogy, 3 From Hell, which came out in 2019. Zombie's other movies include 2009's The Haunted World of El Superbeasto, 2012's The Lords of Salem, and 2007's Werewolf Women of the SS. The 2022 movie The Munsters is definitely Zombie's most mainstream, commercial piece of work. And House of 1000 Corpses is much darker. What happens during the movie and how does it end?
What Is House Of 1000 Corpses About?
Like the sequel The Devil's Rejects, House Of 1000 Corpses pulls no punches and tells a disturbing story of characters who don't regret their crimes for one second. Rob Zombie movies are all memorable for different reasons, and since House of 1000 Corpses was the first film that he directed, it stands out even more.
House of 1000 Corpses opens with Captain Spaulding (Sid Haig) murdering Richard Wick and Killer Karl when they try to steal form his horror museum and gas station called The Museum of Monsters & Madmen. Captain Spaulding comes across Baby (Sheri Moon Zombie) and her relatives: Grandpa Hugo (Dennis Fimple), Mother Firefly (Karen Black), Baby's brother Tiny (Matthew McGory) and Baby's adopted brother Otis Driftwood (Bill Moseley). These cruel characters show up throughout Rob Zombie's Firefly trilogy.
When ranking Rob Zombie's different movies, the ones that focus on Baby and her family are always considered the most compelling. This is because these characters have truly never been seen before. They can't be described easily and unlike some other horror movie killers, they truly have no remorse for what they have done.
In 2023, House of 1000 Corpses had its 20th anniversary. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Rob Zombie shared that after he filmed the movie, he was told that Universal wasn't going to release it after all. While he knew that he didn't want to compromise his creative vision, it was of course tough to wait to see what would happen next. Thankfully, Lionsgate ended up releasing it. Zombie explained that horror fans found House of 1000 Corpses when it was released on DVD. And in the two decades since, more and more people keep finding it and loving it.
When asked about a sequel to The Munsters, Zombie told Entertainment Weekly, "I like making sequels. You have so little time with the first movie to develop these characters." While there are some poor horror movie sequels, The Devil's Rejects continues the dark and intense story of House of 1000 Corpses. Horror fans love Rob Zombie's
Firefly trilogy because each film dives more into the characters, which is what sequels should do.
How Does House Of 1000 Corpses End?
How does a writer/director end a horror movie like House of 1000 Corpses? There has to be a surprise plot twist that is memorable. And that's exactly what Rob Zombie achieved here. When compared to other horror movie endings, the ending of House of 1000 Corpses seems particularly shocking. But this is what fans of Rob Zombie expect, and the ending is one that audiences will keep thinking about.
Denise Willis (Erin Daniels) is almost killed by Mother Firefly's ex-husband Earl (Jake McKinnon) who pretended to work for Dr. Satan (Walter Phelan) as his assistant. Denise gets away and a tunnel breaks on Earl. But this isn't the end, of course. In contrast to horror movies with satisfying endings, the Firefly trilogy always leaves fans wanting more, which is a good thing since sometimes sequels can be boring. While technically it would have made sense if House of 1000 Corpses was a standalone film, the ending does leave room for the sequel The Devil's Rejects. And the two films work so well together.
While Denise trusts Captain Spaulding and he drives away from the horror museum/gas station with her in his car, she wakes up on a creepy operating table with Earl and Dr. Satan staring at her. She realizes that they're going to kill her and yells. Audiences see "The end?" and then the end credits roll. Rob Zombie's Halloween remakes are polarizing, and the same thing can be said of all of his horror movies. House of 1000 Corpses introduces strong characters like Captain Spaulding and proves that the Firefly trilogy is one of the most captivating and intense in the horror genre.