Craig J. Clark
Everyone knows horror auteur Rob Zombie wrote and directed two Halloween films – which performed so well the franchise has since been handed over to screenwriter Danny McBride and director David Gordon Green for yet another retooling – but what the casual movie-watcher may not know is that five of Zombie’s six features are set on or around the holiday. (For the purposes of this discussion, we’re ignoring his R-rated animated feature The Haunted World of El Superbeasto, a good policy in general.) Not all Zombie Halloweens are created equal, though, as a spin through them reveals.
HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES (2003)
The Premise: A carload of victims-in-waiting in search of offbeat roadside attractions hits the jackpot when they stop for gas at Captain Spaulding’s Museum of Monsters and Madmen. There they learn about local legend Dr. Satan and get directions to the tree where the fiend was hanged. On the way, though, the unwary travelers are waylaid by the homicidally maniacal Firefly family. Death and dismemberment ensue, and it turns out the rumors of Dr. Satan’s demise have been exaggerated as well.
Is it set on or around Halloween?
Yes, indeed. The opening caption declares it’s October 30, 1977 – “Halloween Eve,” as Karen Black’s Mother Firefly calls it – and there’s one later on when it changes to October 31, which Zombie helpfully reminds the viewer is Halloween. Thank you, Rob.
Does anybody wear a mask or costume?
You bet your life they do. In addition to Sid Haig’s Captain Spaulding (named, like many of the film’s murderous miscreants, after Marx Brothers characters), who wears a clown costume and makeup while on duty, there are the two masked robbers who make the mistake of attempting to hold up his establishment at the start of the film. The Fireflys variously dress as cheerleaders, cops, and scarecrows, and put their victims in rabbit costumes. Meanwhile, the legendary Dr. Satan is shown in grainy black-and-white footage wearing a hood along with his surgical scrubs, and the hulking Tiny Firefly wears a patchwork mask to cover his facial deformity. There are also a handful of neighborhood kids out trick-or-treating like normal people, but they’re the exception.
Does the cast include refugees from ’70s and ’80s horror and exploitation films?
What Zombie film doesn’t? Besides Black and Haig, the cast includes Bill Moseley (Chop-Top from Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, a major influence on Zombie’s filmmaking aesthetic), Tom Towles (Otis from Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer), Irwin Keyes (a character actor with a long career probably best known for playing Wheezy Joe in the Coen Brothers’ Intolerable Cruelty), and, curiously enough, Michael J. Pollard.
Does it feature clips from classic horror films?
A fair question. Since House was originally made for Universal and even filmed on the backlot (per Zombie’s commentary, they used the Bates house for craft services), the film is rife with clips from The Old Dark House, The Wolf Man, and House of Frankenstein. There’s also a scene that plays out in front of a wall-sized mural of Creature from the Black Lagoon, a motif Zombie would return to one decade later.
Halloweeniness (on a scale of 1 to 10): 10. Right out of the gate, Zombie delivered his Halloweeniest movie ever. It even incorporates a quasi-religious rite recalling the holiday’s pagan origins for good measure.
THE DEVIL’S REJECTS (2005)
The Premise: In this sequel to House of 1000 Corpses, Captain Spaulding, Otis Driftwood, and Baby Firefly are the ones being hunted and tortured when a lawman whose brother was killed by the family in the first film swears revenge, much like Dennis Hopper’s rogue Texas Ranger in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2.
Is it set on or around Halloween?
Nope. The film opens on May 18, 1978, and ends a day or so later.
In that case, why even bring it up?
For completeness’ sake. Besides, you didn’t think Zombie was going to leave the “THE END?” at the end of the first film hanging, did you?
Does anybody wear a mask or costume?
Why, yes. The very first scene is of Tiny wearing a burlap hood while dragging a naked girl through the woods near their corpse-filled house. Also, the rest of the family dons metal masks and armor during their standoff with the cops that results in the death of Rufus and the capture of Mother Firefly. Beyond that, there’s a gruesome scene where Otis removes the face of one of his victims and wears it as a mask, then forces the victim’s wife to wear it. Do I even have to say which film that’s a reference to?
Does the cast include refugees from ’70s and ’80s horror and exploitation films?
Does it ever! In addition to the returnees (save for Karen Black, who was replaced by Leslie Easterbrook), it adds Ken Foree, Geoffrey Lewis, Mary Woronov, Michael Berryman, P.J. Soles, and Steve Railsback, some in go-for-popcorn-at-the-wrong-moment-and-you’ll-miss-them cameos.
Does it feature clips from classic horror films?
Only if you consider Edward D. Wood, Jr.’s Bride of the Monster a “classic.”
Halloweeniness: 2. Zombie chose grit over spookiness for his second outing.
HALLOWEEN (2007)
The Premise: Because of his toxic home life and the failure of the public education system, budding psychopath Michael Myers snaps one day and kills four people, including his repulsive stepdad and slutty older sister. He spares his baby sister and stripper mother, though, and in spite of the mother’s suicide, breaks out of a mental institution 15 years later and returns home to Haddonfield, Ill., to reconnect with his younger sister. It is not a happy reunion.
Is it set on or around Halloween?
What do you think, genius?
Does anybody wear a mask or costume?
Well, sure. There’s Michael, of course, who’s introduced wearing a clown mask and is berated by his stepdad for keeping it on at the breakfast table. Later, when he goes on his killing spree, Michael borrows the classic William Shatner mask his sister’s boyfriend wanted to wear during sex, which, ick. (Later, when he returns to the family home as an adult, Michael rips out the floorboards in the basement to retrieve the mask and his original knife, which he apparently had time to hide before his mother got home from work.) While he’s locked away, Michael also develops a facility for making his own masks, which come to cover the walls of his cell. Finally, there are a handful of trick-or-treaters because Zombie apparently couldn’t afford too many extras.
Does the cast include refugees from ’70s and ’80s horror and exploitation films?
Ayup. Along with the usual suspects (Haig, Moseley, Towles, Foree), Zombie tosses in Richard Lynch, Sybil Danning, Clint Howard, Udo Kier, Dee Wallace, and Brad Dourif. And this is not to forget the casting of Malcolm McDowell in the meaty role of Dr. Sam Loomis, previously essayed by Donald Pleasence.
Does it feature clips from classic horror films?
Like Carpenter before him, Zombie has 1951’s The Thing from Another World and 1956’s Forbidden Planet playing on TV. He supplements those with clips from 1932’s White Zombie (not coincidentally, the name of the band he fronted in the ’90s) and 1959’s House on Haunted Hill and Plan 9 from Outer Space.
Halloweeniness: Strangely enough, only a 6.
HALLOWEEN II (2009)
The Premise: One or two years after the events of Halloween (depending on whether you watch the theatrical or the director’s cut), Michael Myers makes his way back to Haddonfield, egged on by his mother, who appears as a ghostly vision in white accompanied by a white horse. Meanwhile, Laurie Strode comes to terms with the fact that the masked man she was stalked by one or two years previous was her brother.
Is it set on or around Halloween?
In a surprising and controversial move, Zombie chose to set the sequel to his Halloween around Easter, invoking that holiday’s pagan roots to– of course it’s set on Halloween.
Does anybody wear a mask or costume?
They do, indeed. In addition to the standard sprinkling of trick-or-treaters, there’s a big concert called the Phantom Jam that Laurie and her hip, new friends attend in coordinated Rocky Horror Picture Show costumes. (Instead of the virginal Janet, though, the goth-y Laurie goes as Magenta.) Everyone else at the show is in costume as well, from the house band (Captain Clegg and The Night Creatures, a reference to one of Peter Cushing’s non-Dracula-or-Frankenstein Hammer films) to the emcee, Uncle Seymour Coffins (who’s made up to look like Vincent Price in 1974’s Madhouse), to all the concertgoers. It’s by far the largest gathering of costumed characters in any of Zombie’s films.
Does the cast include refugees from ’70s and ’80s horror and exploitation films?
It does, but to a much lesser extent than its predecessor. Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 alum Caroline Williams plays a doctor in the hospital fake-out opening (a nod to Rick Rosenthal’s original Halloween II) and Margot Kidder takes the role of Laurie’s psychiatrist. Also in the cast, even if he doesn’t fit the profile, is Howard Hesseman as the burnout owner of Uncle Meat’s Java Hole, the funky record/bookstore where Laurie is employed.
Does it feature clips from classic horror films?
The main one is George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, which is on TV when Laurie wakes up from her nightmare, but there are also flashes of Lon Chaney from The Phantom of the Opera and Paul Wegener from The Golem projected onto a wall outside the Phantom Jam.
Halloweeniness: Thanks to the Jam, I’m prepared to go as high as 8 for this one.
THE LORDS OF SALEM (2012)
The Premise: Some of the Salem witches were real. Three centuries after seven were burned at the stake, they get their revenge on the descendants of the Salem residents who executed them. Also, Sheri Moon Zombie is a radio DJ named Heidi who has Satan’s love child.
Is it set on or around Halloween?
This one’s a little tricky because Zombie doesn’t get any more specific than demarcating the days of week, but the leaves on the ground signify autumn. If he’d wanted viewers to know the film climaxes on All Hallow’s Eve, no doubt he would have explicitly said so.
Does anybody wear a mask or costume?
As this is a film about witchcraft, there isn’t much call for costuming. There is a scene where lead witch Meg Foster has an iron mask clamped down on her face, but that’s hardly her own choice. Meanwhile, Heidi has a number of visions featuring people in disturbing masks, a reflection of her increasingly warped mental state.
Does the cast include refugees from ’70s and ’80s horror and exploitation films?
In addition to Foster and returnees like Ken Foree, Michael Berryman, Sid Haig, and Dee Wallace, Zombie brings in Andrew Prine, Judy Geeson, Patricia Quinn, and Barbara Crampton. He also wound up cutting an entire sequence involving a film-within-the-film called Frankenstein and the Witchhunter that would have added Clint Howard, Camille Keaton (of I Spit on Your Grave infamy), Udo Kier, and Richard Lynch to the roll-call. Also on the cutting room floor: Brady Bunch survivor Christopher Knight, whose character, Keith “Lobster Joe” Williams, was apparently not essential to the plot.
Does it feature clips from classic horror films?
Other than a scene where The Phantom of the Opera appears to be on TV, Zombie gets away from horror this time out in favor of clips from the ’50s crime drama Kansas City Confidential and swashbuckler Captain Kidd. And echoing the Creature from the Black Lagoon mural in House of 1000 Corpses, this one has blowups from Georges Méliès’s A Trip to the Moon on the walls of Heidi’s bedroom and the title character from the adventure serial King of the Rocket Men in her bathroom.
Halloweeniness: 4. Outré as some of the imagery Zombie conjures up is, it doesn’t scream “Halloween,” but with the sound off it would make for freaky wallpaper at a costume party.
31 (2016)
The Premise: An RV full of carnies is waylaid by a bunch of clowns and delivered to a trio of wealthy fops so they can fight for their lives against a different bunch of clowns in the sadistic Game of 31. On the commentary, Zombie says he considered having the carnies be made up like clowns as well, but it’s a good thing he changed his mind because that would have been far too many clowns.
Is it set on or around Halloween?
Not only does the title signify the 31st of October, but Zombie includes a caption specifying that it’s 1976, meaning 31 takes place one year before House of 1000 Corpses and that he has effectively lapped himself.
Does anybody wear a mask or costume?
Early on, one of the carnies breaks out a gorilla mask, but he doesn’t have it on for long. Beyond that, there are the burglar masks and prison garb of the “goon squad” that captures the carnies and the elaborate costumes of the foppish lord and ladies who wager on the Game. Then, of course, there are murderous clowns set upon them, but they don’t make much of an effort to dress up.
Does the cast include refugees from ’70s and ’80s horror and exploitation films?
Returning from previous outings are Malcolm McDowell, Judy Geeson, and Meg Foster. The two additions to the fold are Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs (continuing Zombie’s sideline in employing sitcom actors) and Tracey Walter in the slot previously taken by Michael J. Pollard.
Does it feature clips from classic horror films?
There’s a grand total of one scene where a character is watching F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu. With his skimpy $1.5 million budget, Zombie probably couldn’t have licensed anything else even if he wanted to.
Halloweeniness: 1. Save for the sparse decorations at Walter’s gas station, this is the least Halloweeny film Zombie has ever made. Not recommended for playing at Halloween parties – or any other occasion.
Craig J. Clark died in Bloomington, Ind., 10 years ago, on a night just like tonight.
