FILM
-----------------------------------------Rob Zombie interview
-----------------------------------------
Sam Loy
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With another movie set for release in a few weeks, Rob Zombie braves the time delay and chats with Sam Loy about sequels, violence and having to do it yourself.
In early 2004, Rob Zombie's House of 1000 Corpses was unleashed unto an audience already complacent and numb from the seemingly endless assembly line of colour-by-numbers horror films. Unnerving and refreshing in equal measures, Zombie's debut feature recalled the horror movies he had grown up with, before these modern days of happy endings and brand name faces in the cast.
Two years later, Hollywood still spews forth the same bile, whilst Zombie continues to play things his way as The Devil's Rejects proves beyond doubt. A sequel of sorts, …Rejects follows three members of the Firefly family as they elude capture by the Sheriff - hell-bent on avenging his brother's murder - and hit the road in search of freedom. But fans searching for House of 1000 Corpses Part II will be disappointed; this is a very different movie.
"I don't like going into see the second movie and it's exactly the same as the first," he tells me, his staid voice indicating that it's had a long day on the press junket. "I wanted to take these characters to a new place and really develop them more and make a completely different movie. And I really wasn't concerned with pandering to what the fans wanted, because you never know what the fans want. If you make the same movie, everyone complains. If you make a different movie, everyone complains."
Most people will probably remember Zombie as the spearhead of industrial-goth-rock band, White Zombie, a band whose albums he produced, tours he organised, and music videos he directed. Obviously, not a fan of rest, Zombie is the writer, director, co-producer and editor of The Devil's Rejects, roles he fills with aplomb.
"I always say is if I don't do it, who's gonna do it? I mean, you only do these things because that's how they get done. The same thing with a band. Most musicians they know how to play their instrument and that's all they know. They don't know how to put a tour together, how to put an album together, how to hold a band together. So, you take on these responsibilities because you have to."
Not for the faint of heart, both of Zombie's films contain the kind of violence and gore that make girls shriek and undertakers blush. And while the likes of Wes Craven and John Carpenter jitter our bones by following nubile teens being stalked by masked monsters, The Devil's Rejects gives us a ring-side seat from which to observe the murderers themselves - their lack of motive, their absence of morality, but predominantly (and most unsettlingly) how they bond as a family, just as any family would.
"I just really love these characters. And it's funny you spend a lot of time with characters and the actors acting as those characters, and they do in a strange way become real people. I know it's definitely my sense of humour that the characters have, my sort of take on things, and my idea of what I think looks cool. I mean they're all a reflection of me."
In early 2004, Rob Zombie's House of 1000 Corpses was unleashed unto an audience already complacent and numb from the seemingly endless assembly line of colour-by-numbers horror films. Unnerving and refreshing in equal measures, Zombie's debut feature recalled the horror movies he had grown up with, before these modern days of happy endings and brand name faces in the cast.
Two years later, Hollywood still spews forth the same bile, whilst Zombie continues to play things his way as The Devil's Rejects proves beyond doubt. A sequel of sorts, …Rejects follows three members of the Firefly family as they elude capture by the Sheriff - hell-bent on avenging his brother's murder - and hit the road in search of freedom. But fans searching for House of 1000 Corpses Part II will be disappointed; this is a very different movie.
"I don't like going into see the second movie and it's exactly the same as the first," he tells me, his staid voice indicating that it's had a long day on the press junket. "I wanted to take these characters to a new place and really develop them more and make a completely different movie. And I really wasn't concerned with pandering to what the fans wanted, because you never know what the fans want. If you make the same movie, everyone complains. If you make a different movie, everyone complains."
Most people will probably remember Zombie as the spearhead of industrial-goth-rock band, White Zombie, a band whose albums he produced, tours he organised, and music videos he directed. Obviously, not a fan of rest, Zombie is the writer, director, co-producer and editor of The Devil's Rejects, roles he fills with aplomb.
"I always say is if I don't do it, who's gonna do it? I mean, you only do these things because that's how they get done. The same thing with a band. Most musicians they know how to play their instrument and that's all they know. They don't know how to put a tour together, how to put an album together, how to hold a band together. So, you take on these responsibilities because you have to."
Not for the faint of heart, both of Zombie's films contain the kind of violence and gore that make girls shriek and undertakers blush. And while the likes of Wes Craven and John Carpenter jitter our bones by following nubile teens being stalked by masked monsters, The Devil's Rejects gives us a ring-side seat from which to observe the murderers themselves - their lack of motive, their absence of morality, but predominantly (and most unsettlingly) how they bond as a family, just as any family would.
"I just really love these characters. And it's funny you spend a lot of time with characters and the actors acting as those characters, and they do in a strange way become real people. I know it's definitely my sense of humour that the characters have, my sort of take on things, and my idea of what I think looks cool. I mean they're all a reflection of me."
