Rob Zombie
Rob Zombie turns 53 today and is one of my favorite artists working in film and music. He was in the band White Zombie (4 albums 1987-1995, my favorite is Astro Creep: 2000, the bands last album and the first CD I bought), continues making solo albums (6 between 1998-2016 with additional remix albums), and has written and directed a growing number of films. His first, the horror House of 1000 Corpses was as gruesome as you may expect from someone who makes the kind of music he does, (metal/rock with themes of death and the supernatural) and his next film improved in every way. The Devil’s Rejects (2005) continued the morbid story of a strange family on the run from the law, he cast his wife, (as he usually does, Sheri Moon Zombie), and delivered a crime horror film with laughs and tension. Blending seemingly mindless violence with a soundtrack that includes Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Freebird, The Devil’s Rejects showed his growth as a filmmaker and his love of all things 70’s. Zombie, who does the artwork for his musical acts, is from Haverhill, Massachusetts, and his brother is Spider One, the lead singer of Powerman 5000. He next made 2 Halloween films (as in Michael Myers horror movies), the second of which is one of my favorite slasher flicks in the last 10 years. If you don’t mind 18A rated animated films (everything awful is in it), The Haunted World of El Superbeasto (2009) is as over the top and fun as you can get. Most recently he made The Lords of Salem (2012 horror involving the history of witches in Salem), The Zombie Horror Picture Show (2014, his first concert film), and 31 (2016 horror about a group of kidnapped carnival workers trying to survive against a gang of sadistic clowns). Not afraid to try new things, Zombie will next be directing Trapped (tv comedy movie about a wealthy family held captive by a bizarre cult), Raised Eyebrows (biographical drama about the life of comedian Groucho Marx), and Broad Street Bullies (sport movie about the tough 1970’s NHL team, the Philadelphia Flyers). If you want to see a short sample of his work, check out his Woolite Commercial from 2011.
Rob Zombie