The White-Trash King
*** Disclaimer: The following in no way means to disparage the people of lower class income or who live in certain kinds of homes. It is specifically about the character of some people and speaks to the common and likely even stereotypical view of such groups of individuals. ***
Let’s talk about Rob Zombie again. Specifically I want to talk about how sometimes I jokingly refer to him as the White-Trash King. I mean no disrespect in this, in fact quite the opposite. If you want down and dirty, trailer trash--with or without the trailer--lowbrow, low rent, it must be both trying and fun to be around these people, kind of characters then Zombie is your man. I mean wow. I am in awe and more than a little jealous. I feel way too clean cut and, take your pick, suburban or rural to get the kind of grasp on these kinds of characters like Zombie does. You can have your opinion as to why he has this grasp, but that's none of my business, and I'm here about other things. Now, let me give you a little background and viewing history.
I've had an influx of Rob Zombie watching over the last couple of months. I had liked "House of 1000 Corpses" from the moment the end credits rolled despite some of its obvious flaws. It took me quite a while to get around to "The Devil's Rejects" and I was floored. It was amazing. What a huge leap forward in directing--and the other aspects of the filmmaking process were also up to that standard. Then we have Zombie's "Halloween" remake. I like it. I've only seen the director's cut--go unrated discs. It really puts me in mind of the original's director cut in that it seems to carry on quite a while. The thing is that it is interesting if you are in the mood. Since I recently saw Rejects I also finally got my hands on "Halloween II"--again director's cut and unrated. Let's start with the bad news--I'll be brief, the review will be elsewhere. It has it's problems--again that will be elsewhere (sorry).
Back to the characters. These trashy characters aren't just everything I described in the first paragraph. Those people aren't all that bad. There is a subset among them though, that you might say are equal in roughness, more kindly unpolishedness perhaps, morally as they are in the more obvious attributes. This more rotten core will stab you as soon as look at you, smack their kids and spouses around (yes, by no means limited to the trash demographic), and attack the authorities when they come to take away their right to be beaten. As with any group, the two kinds mix freely making it harder to spot the villains, and adding complexity to dealing with them for both the author and any characters from the outside. Now, with this look at these types of characters in hand, we can take a look at how they affect the horror in any given story or movie.
Mood: daring.
Music: Deep Unknown by Stratovarius and These Colours Don't Run by Iron Maiden.
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Labels: character, director's cut, DVD, Halloween (2007), Halloween II (2009), House of 1000 Corpses, morals, movies, remake, Rob Zombie, The Devil's Rejects, unrated, white trash, writer-director
posted by Robert G. Male @ 7:14 PM
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name amongst the throng of people who petitioned to get this movie released. Some people love it, some people are indifferent, and of course there are the hardcore detractors. I for one thought it was great for what it intended. It wasn't a heavy effects movie, it certainly wasn't a gory movie, or one chockfull of spectres jumping out from every corner. It kept my attention all of the way through, which is a good testament for a movie with so few characters or sets. If you don't know what it is about here it is without spoilers--I hit a spoiler myself sadly, just a few weeks before getting to see it the first time. A couple decides that a ghost is haunting them and the man gets a video camera to catch the haunting on tape.
by Type O Negative. 
favourite of many, the original Hellraiser. I remember when I first rented it, though I do not know how long ago that was after it was released on VHS at the video store. Used to be quite some time between film release and video release, plus the rental stores always had a certain amount of time before movies would be sold to individuals. I was quite uncertain about seeing the film. A lot of talk circulated around that (blasphemously) considered Pinhead to be better than Freddy Krueger. Shocking I know, and hardly anything more than a personal preference--go Freddy! Hellraiser certainly did not fail to live up to the rest of the hype surrounding it. It was very edge of the seat stuff, a great testament to Clive Barker as director.
one of their books. Least of all are those films such smash hits. Pinhead of course is an incredibly iconic horror figure and stands easily alongside Freddy, Jason Voorhees, and Michael Myers. Pinhead also has some of the coolest antagonist lines in any movies. There are numerous lines of his in this movie that are eminently quotable. At the same time, they are not your typical one-liners, instead opting for the serious and not deadpan, but straight lines. Doug Bradley's voice and demeanour as Pinhead make the film almost as much as the scripts adherence to Barker's "The Hellbound Heart". Not that it follows everything for indeed Pinhead is much cooler than the novella's lead cenobite. 
by Ozzy Osbourne off of No More Tears.
