Rob Zombie!! Film Foundations Director: An Intro to Devil's Rejects, Halloween, The Munsters, +++!

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hello everyone, and welcome back to Film Foundations, the collaborative
show between weirding Way Media and Someone's Favorite productions. I'm
your co host from the disc Connected, Ryan Verrel, and.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
I'm your other co host, Chris Dashu from the Culture
Cast and weirding Way Media, where we have in fact
covered a lot of these movies we're about to talk about. Folks.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
On this show, we ask an answer four questions about
a given topic that is surrounding either an actor, franchise,
micro genre, or, like today's subject, a director. Today we
are talking about Rob Zombie. Our job is to entice
you to broaden your horizons on film, encourage you to
travel down film tangents and side roads that you may
never have traveled down otherwise. Just be careful not to

(00:55):
park somewhere in the deep woods, as we're going to
discuss in one of his first films, Rob Zombie. Chris,
a lot of people hate Rob Zombie. How do you
feel about Rob Zombie?

Speaker 2 (01:04):
He leads with the Oh, he's leading with the heat.
I don't hate Rob Zombie. Let's just get this out
of the way now. I think to your point, and
this is I think this is probably the first really
challenging episode we've had of this show in terms of
our subject material. Because to your point, to say to someone, well,

(01:26):
let me convince you to watch a Rob Zombie movie,
I would say that in the same breath that's probably
as hard to do if they're not already into it,
as it would be to try and convince someone to
watch an Eli Roth film in terms of just like
how specific they are made by the specific person who's
making them for a specific kind of audience that that

(01:47):
person already knows they've tapped into. And with Rob Zombie
going from music to film, the kind of music that
he makes is so specifically him that the kind of
movie that he makes is in that same vein a
little bit of crossover there that makes it easier. But
I think for me Rob Zombie, this is gonna be
an interesting episode because I don't hate Rob Zombie. I

(02:08):
don't necessarily resonate with everything that he works on. There
are some things that are more tolerable than others. I
think is a nice way of putting it, being diplomatic,
because again, I know that there are plenty of people
John Carpenter included, who think that Rob Zombie, you know,
ruined certain franchises. I don't think he ruined the franchise.

(02:31):
I think David Gordon Green did, if you want my opinion,
So there you go. I mean, like, what's funny is
Rob Zombie took a lot of heat for Halloween one
and two, and I don't think now, given what we
ended up getting in response to that, I don't think
that it was as deserved as it was because I

(02:53):
think Rob Zombie, if anything, he is very much himself
as a filmmaker, and I really respect that. If I
don't like his movies, that's one thing. If they don't
resonate with me, it's another. But I can respect someone
very similar to Robert Rodriguez, who walks to the beat
of his own drum and he's the one banging said drum,
and he's never out of step with his own drum.

(03:14):
He's doing even up into the thing that I think
a lot of people roasted him for, I think even then,
he's making something that is definitely him and something that
he loves. So yeah, I think Rob Zombie's an interesting cat.
And I look I like White Zombie a lot, so
White Zombie and his music are fantastic. I would love

(03:34):
to see Rob Zombie in concert. I haven't had the
opportunity to yet, but I would like to. So that's
the thing, Like I'm amenable to his music. I think
his movies just I don't know. I'm not necessarily looking
to get grimy with every movie I watch. And Rob
Zombie brings that grime, baby, that grime and that dirt,
and that Bill Moseley. I mean, I do love Bill Moseley.

(03:57):
So there is that. And I will say, similar to Tarantino,
Rob Zombie highlights people that don't get enough attention, and
he casts people that would not be leads in movies
otherwise as leads in his movies. And there's one specific
person in particular that I would mention. And that's the
other thing. I guess the question that the other question

(04:18):
I have to answer before before I let you speak
at this point, even though you were the one who
wanted to do this, I feel like we can't have
this conversation without talking about Scherry Moon Zombie.

Speaker 1 (04:32):
So before you say the next sentence, I want to
carry where you're going with her. To contrast something you
said just a minute ago, I think Rob Zombie's more
hated than Eli Roth. So I disagree with theft shit
you said, because I, oh, yes, because everybody knows that
in every Rob Zombie movie you're getting Scherry Moon Zombie,

(04:54):
and everybody has hated her except for in two of
these films. Literally everybody always hates having her in these movies.

Speaker 2 (05:02):
I I actually wasn't gonna say that she's terrible. I
just think that I just think that her, like your
mileage with someone like her, will vary. And that's the thing. Like, look,
I know what you thought I was gonna say, and
to be fair, like nine times out of ten you'd
be right.

Speaker 1 (05:18):
Nope, I'm talking consensus. I'm saying most people eat Rob
Zombie more because they know that they are also having
Sherry Moon Zombie be a part of that.

Speaker 2 (05:29):
Interesting. I mean, look, I think Rob Zombie clearly loves
his wife, right, we both agree there, and like, I'm
sure he thinks that she ropes the moon and she
probably does, just like the way we all think about
our spouses, so Rob Zombie's no different. However, I don't
put my wife on screen in a multimillion dollar movie

(05:53):
that I'm making and Rob Zombie does. Is that right?
Is that wrong? I don't know. That's not my Uh,
that's not my decision to make. Objectively, I will say,
sometimes she's great, sometimes she's not. And I think that
the real kind of problem is dividing the movie fractionally.

(06:13):
If she's in the movie less but good, it's I'm fine.
If she's in the movie and she's not great and
it's her the whole time, yeah, that can kind of
be a problem. But look, that's the same with like anybody,
any character actor, And that's the thing, Like you know,
she's the it's a little bit of a wrestling thing,
Like she's the wife of Rob Zombie, just like Triple

(06:36):
H is married to Stephanie McMahon whose dad owns the company.
Like they're both creative and talented in their own rights.
But yes, it does benefit you to be married to
someone who makes movies that thinks you're again that you
rope the moon. I'm not saying she does or doesn't,
but he thinks she does. And that's all that matters,
because that's why she's in, Like you said, literally everything,

(07:00):
not even hyperbolically. She is literally and everything, and in
a lot of the things she is the focus.

Speaker 1 (07:07):
I mean, I would almost say everything, she's the focus.
There's not much that she plays back fiddle.

Speaker 2 (07:13):
In All Halloween. Halloween, but that's because she's.

Speaker 3 (07:17):
Not Michael Myers but Michael Myers' mom.

Speaker 2 (07:19):
Yeah, but she also like has My point is like, yeah,
she has to because like she's yeah, if she could
have been. Look, there's a universe where he was like,
can I just cast my wife as Laurie Strode. Boy,
we'll talk about something that we really really pissed the
fans off, Like I kind of want to see that. Now,
give me that movie.

Speaker 3 (07:39):
It would be fun.

Speaker 2 (07:40):
I mean it would be fun. It sure would be.
That's the thing. If anything, for me, Rob Zombies movies
are fun. They're just not necessarily my kind of fun.
And that's okay because there are plenty of comedies out
there that aren't my kind of comedy either, And I
can't say that they're objectively bad because I subjectively subjectively
don't laugh at them. So same with Rob Zombie stuff. Look,

(08:02):
he's hacking people to bits, having Bill Mosley saying motherfucker
all the time, and some of those things I resonate
with and some of them I don't. So what about you, Ryan,
Why are we talking about Rob Zombie?

Speaker 3 (08:14):
It's a good question. I don't really know.

Speaker 1 (08:16):
I've been somebody that has seen most of his films.
I've had to check in on a couple over the
last year or so just to get caught up and
make sure that i'd seen them all. And even then,
I still don't know if I've seen the animated Hanson
World of l Superbisto. I can't remember if I've seen that.
I know I had it on physical media at one point. Yes,

(08:37):
that memory has escaped me. It was like a three
dollars Walmart Bin title. For the longest time.

Speaker 2 (08:43):
I think I got it from one of those. I
think I've alluded to it before those DVD trading through
the male things.

Speaker 3 (08:48):
I think yep.

Speaker 2 (08:49):
So it was like two thousand and nine. So yeah,
kind of in the early early days of me boy,
I guess, like the middle days of me buying physical media.
I too, have never seen it. So if anybody's a
fan of that, sorry, that's like the one thing we
can't talk about guys.

Speaker 1 (09:05):
So yeah, i'd seen these from pretty early on. I
saw A House of a Thousand Corpses, which is his
first film, barely early. And the big thing for me
is not only did I know Rob Zombie's music, So
I was already sort of like, oh, this is a novelty,
let's see what happens here. Pretty Much everybody in that
movie were people that I was interested in at least knowing.

(09:26):
I mean, so many people forget that our two main
males that are in the beginning part of the story
are Dwhite Shroot from the office and the guy that
talked to us about the Walking Dead after every episode.
It's so so random that those are our two men
that were following in the beginning part of the story.

(09:46):
But then, you know, Bill Mosley said, Haig, there are
other giant titles of you know, people that have been
in cult films for years, literally decades before this that
are coming out being in like this resurgence piece. Essentially,
he's done that in pretty much all of his films.
He's gotten somebody that used to be a great actor

(10:08):
and they haven't been in much now He's like, hey,
come back and do this weird bit part and you'll
be amazing in it and it'll be incredible. So yeah,
I saw that early, liked it quite a bit, and
then found out they were doing a sequel, went and
saw The Devil's rejects, and it's a very very different movie. Obviously,
it's tonally nowhere near the same as the first. It

(10:28):
got very different, very quickly.

Speaker 3 (10:32):
Liked it quite a bit.

Speaker 1 (10:33):
It was very clear that he got more money after
House of a Thousand Corpses, and it was a very
different stylized movie because of that. Following that, when when
you're gonna come out and make a title like Halloween
after it's already been made, I'm gonna be at least
interested to see it. And I was never anti Halloween
like a lot of people. I don't think it's a

(10:55):
bad remake. I think it's his Halloween.

Speaker 3 (10:57):
I was, like, correct.

Speaker 1 (11:00):
The only thing that I think that I've agreed with
some people on is the whole the whole leading part
where we see like the bulk of the backstory for
Michael Myers.

Speaker 3 (11:09):
It's only a long sight. No, and I will no,
I like.

Speaker 2 (11:15):
Him, no, but like that, you mean you're talking about
like the literal like twenty minutes of his movie, that is.

Speaker 1 (11:21):
His part of the movie, just not just him, but
like him getting bullied by other kids and his mom
and it's everybody. Basically, it's just it's a lot of backstory,
and people are like, we don't need backstory in our plots,
and I don't necessarily agree with that. I understand that
the first one is a big deal for everybody, and
they basically get right to the hacking slash, which cool,

(11:43):
but he went a different way and a lot of
people hate it because of the dialogue in this which
is going to be the one thing that I will
say all day long here, Rob Zombie does have a
problem with dialogue. A lot of it is not great. Well,
I don't think nobody would argue that.

Speaker 2 (11:59):
I mean, Bill Moseley saying motherfucker over and over again
is pretty great, though, motherfucker. I mean Bill Moseley saying motherfucker.
Just have that be your movie, Rob, Just make that
your movie.

Speaker 3 (12:13):
I'd pay to see it somehow.

Speaker 2 (12:14):
Yeah. Right.

Speaker 1 (12:16):
So, yeah, he makes Halloween, then that Haunted World of
l super Besto comes out, and then he makes Halloween two,
which is even more divisive. People don't like it because
it comes out as this weird Oh there's white horses
and Sherry Moon, zombies, an angel and who knows what
the fuck's going on? And I have always loved this movie.
I think this is one of his best movies. Actually,

(12:37):
it's like it's wild. It's like a backwoods art house
movie in the best of ways.

Speaker 3 (12:43):
I love it.

Speaker 1 (12:44):
Following that to The Lords of Salem, I'm sure we'll
talk about that at some point today. Then he did
like this weird crowdfunding thing for thirty one. I just
saw that earlier this year. Interesting. Not my favorite in
all of this, And of course he had to get
back to give some fan service, and he's like, let's
bring the gang back together from the Devil's rejects. And

(13:06):
he props sid hag up for the first forty seconds
of this movie, and he makes three from Hell and
it's again a totally, very different movie from the first
two films. And all that leads to twenty twenty two's
The Monsters, which again gets absolutely roasted by the public
for I'm sure we're going to talk about it at
some point today for basically no reason. I still think

(13:29):
people complaining about this have only seen the shitty trailer
that Netflix released.

Speaker 2 (13:35):
I'll leave my feelings on The Monsters until we start
answering the questions.

Speaker 3 (13:40):
That's what I thought.

Speaker 1 (13:41):
Yeah, there's a lot here, and this filmography is, like
you said, dirty crass, very backwoods, very like exploitation in
some of these, and Rob Zombie comes across at the
end of it literally as an every single one of
his movies is unapologetically a Rob Zombie movie, and not

(14:05):
only just because Sherry Moon Zombie is there, but because
you could be thrown into any of these universes and say,
I know Rob Zombies around here somewhere, where is he
so that we can figure this out? Because they are
all they all have that exact same feeling, and that's
that's a good thing. He's proven to be a very
competent filmmaker. Is he one of the best in the world.

(14:26):
Clearly not, but he is great at what he does,
and I think that he deserves a lot more credit
than the hate that he has gotten.

Speaker 2 (14:36):
I think he might be the best musician turned filmmaker. Yeah,
is there anybody else? Even like there's a lot the
other direction.

Speaker 1 (14:48):
Spider One is trying to do it. He's made at
least one Spider One.

Speaker 3 (14:54):
That I guess.

Speaker 2 (14:54):
I guess. I guess. Technically the guys who directed talk
to me are like a they're like a like a
rap group. I think, Yeah, in like the Philippines, So
I guess that's I mean, that's a talk about a
pretty good showing as a musician.

Speaker 1 (15:08):
Spider One is the guy from Powerman five thousand. He is,
what's funny, the younger brother of Rob Zombie. That's why
that was a joke.

Speaker 2 (15:16):
Oh okay, I was like, I have no eye, but
he's a Powerman five thousand song.

Speaker 1 (15:21):
That's probably he's directed three different movies now. Oh no,
he's directed to and he's working on a third right now.

Speaker 2 (15:27):
I mean, if there's been, I guess the better way
of putting is, is there anybody as high profile as
Robin Like he's like the.

Speaker 1 (15:34):
I mean, well, it would be like we're probably for
getting somebody very obvious just to get ahead of the comments.
We're probably forgetting some random ass like well duh, yeah,
well it.

Speaker 2 (15:47):
Would I mean it would be like, I don't know,
Like that's the thing, like Rob Zombie is the lead
singer of White Zombie but also the lead singer of
his own act, Rob Zombie. So I mean that's what
I'm saying, Like he's pretty high profile to be directing movies.
Which is the thing that's always struck me too, is

(16:07):
like Rob Zombie for everything I've seen about him, seems
like a pretty humble guy too, on top of everything else,
like he is the purveyor of a very specific kind
of music that only really he makes, at least not
in general, but just like at the level that he's
making it, there's nobody else doing what he's doing. At
that level, He's like Marilyn Manson, right, Like, are there

(16:29):
are people that are doing what Marilyn Manson kind of pioneered,
but there's nobody who is Marilyn Manson. And I'm saying,
you know, Marilyn Manson's problematic obviously, but Rob Zombies thankfully
also not problematic at all. By the way, have we
talk about things that are like kind of shocking. Also
been married to Sherry Moon Zombie for quite a while,

(16:50):
which is also shocking in this industry. That's the thing, Like,
people may not like Rob Zombie's movies, but him is
a human being, shocked fuckingly humble and shockingly unproblematic, given
that he's been in two worlds that are full of
people that have problems. The film and music industries aren't
known for having people that are necessarily great, so and again,

(17:13):
the even funnier thing is, look at the stuff that
he makes compared to the person that he is, Like
the things that he makes are grimy and gross, and
then he's just kind of like a dude, which is
again like I kind of appreciate Rob Zombie just seems
very much like a fan of these things, doing these
things because he's a fan, which I personally similarly to

(17:34):
James Gunn and some other directors, like they're making movies
that they want to watch, which I appreciate.

Speaker 1 (17:39):
So I'm glad I went and tried to do a
quick google, and basically some people have directed like one
or two movies, like Frank Sinatra's done one or two.
Jason Schwartzman, he's done some. He's from Phantom Planet. Yeah,
we directed a couple, Bob Dylan directed one.

Speaker 2 (18:00):
They weren't being handed the keys to Halloween though, not
like this, yeah that's yeah, that's yeah. I mean really
And and that's the other thing. When Halloween came out,
like it came out smack dab at a time when
horror remakes were a thing, So it was like the
big it was that certain times, like because we've had
like cycles of remakes and we've gotten subsequent second cycle

(18:24):
of Halloween, but in two thousand and seven when this
came out, it would have been coming out around the
same time as Friday the Thirteenth and Nightmare on Elm
Street and Texas Chan and a couple of years after
Texas Chainsaw Massacre. So Halloween, like, that's a big deal
at the time that Rob Zombie is being given it.
So yeah, Like I think, really we may have even
undersold how big of a deal Rob Zombie being as

(18:46):
successful as he has been, even in spite of the
general consensus I guess is that that alone needs to
be applauded, even if you don't resonate with his movies,
like he needs to be respected as a filmmaker. I
think I.

Speaker 1 (19:00):
Would agree there, bully agree the the the films that
he has put out. They are pretty much all of
the horror variety or horror adjacent, which I understand is
not necessarily everyone's cup of tea. So as this is
a show to get people to try new things, I
will say, if you are just strictly anti horror, this

(19:21):
episode's gonna not be the greatest. But I think this
is somebody that we will probably not be hard pressed
to find a lot of people who have never seen
any of his films that have mostly been turned off
by the reputation of his films. So I think there's
quite a few that could potentially be swayed by the
way that we are going to be able to talk
about here today.

Speaker 2 (19:42):
Well and again, like there is one movie on here
that I think you could show to kids even so
like again, but again, like it is really like kind
of to what you've alluded to, Like it is the
sole outlier in like again, and maybe the animated movie
is that way, but like I kind of doubt it,

(20:04):
given just what the poster looks like. Yeah, yeah, like
that's the weird thing. Like, I agree with you except
for this one thing. But that's the problem, Like it
is the it is the exception that proves the rule.
But yeah, this is gonna be a tough episode for
if you're not into horror filmmaking or exploitation filmmaking either.

Speaker 1 (20:24):
Well, why don't we start talking about that title? So
I'll ask the question so we can discuss it. Chris,
what do you consider to be the foundational title for
rob Zombie?

Speaker 2 (20:33):
I think, in terms of things that are the foundational title,
it's House of a Thousand Corpses. Obviously. I think that's
the obvious answer. It's not only the obvious answer, it's
the right answer, because the tone of the movie ends
up showing back up in a lighthearted form in The Monsters,
and that like the weird tone of House of a
Thousand Corpses where it's kind of slapsticky at times, it's

(20:56):
not really there in Devil's Rejects and Three from Hell. Honestly,
for me, less said about that movie, the better. I
think that that is a the weakest of the three
of those movies. Why fo Yeah, by not just by far,
but like you said, the sid Haag thing like that
rubbed me the wrong way. And I think it wasn't
just me that it rubbed the wrong way. I think
it was a lot of people, and I understand why

(21:18):
Rob Zombie did it. But look, I'm not the biggest
fan of House of a Thousand Corpses, but in terms
of it being the one that I would put on
over the other movies of that trio, it would be
that one. And in terms of the other movie of
his that I might put on over another to other's
two other ones, House of a Thousand Corpses I think

(21:39):
is scary enough and has enough of the horror sensibilities
that he's going to start injecting into more things. And
like vacillating, I think Rob Zombie's good at vacillating easily
between horror, slapstick, and exploitation. But like again, like he's
making his own kind of mix of things. Again, like
we talked about, it's Rob Zombie movies or Rob Zombie movies.
That's that's what they are, so you know what you're getting.

(22:01):
And I think House of a Thousand corpses for someone
who had never really directed anything before but makes his
own movie that he writes and directs and does the
music for, it's it's a movie that like it. It's
pretty important for a whole host of reasons because he
is still working in the industry today because of how
successful that movie was initially. And again, I think that

(22:22):
Rob Zombie clearly is a very funny person or at
least has a good sense of humor, and when he
gets to something like The Monsters, which you've already mentioned,
is critically reviled for no reason. I know you and
me I kind of alluded to Munsters being my answer here,
but it can't be. There's no way I could, in
good conscience say the Monsters because it is so unlike

(22:43):
everything else, but it isn't. It is, but it isn't.
If you've been watching Rob Zombie stuff this whole time,
you shouldn't be surprised that he loves classic monster stuff,
including the classic monster show of classic monster shows, which
is The Monsters. So look, House of a Thousand Corpses
isn't necessarily my faateavorite Rob Zombie movie, but it's the
one that has to be watched first because you will

(23:05):
understand kind of what you're getting yourself into, and the
varying degrees at which the things you will see lean
into the different areas of the world that Rob Zombie
clearly loves and resonate with him to the point where
he's essentially I wouldn't say aping, because that's more of
a thing I would use for someone like Tarantino, where
he's full on copying. I would say Zombie is clearly

(23:26):
influenced by a certain time and a place in a
certain kind of filmmaking. So yeah, that's my answer. House
of a Thousand Corpses.

Speaker 3 (23:32):
What do you think, Ryan, I can't argue with this.

Speaker 1 (23:38):
I definitely was trying to come up with something else,
but this movie is incredible. To have this be his
first movie from being a musician to go to this
is wild. So I alluded to some of the plot
and some of the cast earlier, but just to go
into some of this again is just crazy. So this

(24:00):
has Sid Haig, Bill Mosley, Sherring, Moon Zombie, Karen Black
is in this. Rain Wilson's in this, Chris Hardwick's in this,
Aaron Daniels is in this, Walton Goggins is in this.

Speaker 2 (24:10):
Dogs.

Speaker 1 (24:11):
I can't wait till we do our Walton Goggins episode.
This is about a group of teens who are on
a big road trip and they are basically just connected
and tortured by a family. And this family is psychotic
and it is really hard to even explain how psychotic
until you see this movie. It is one of those

(24:31):
things where, yes, it is gory, it is visceral, it
is pretty brutal, and so if you are new to horror,
this is going to be fairly off putting. So I
completely get that there is a lot about this that
would make people upset to watch period. However, if you
are interested in it or you hear today's episode, and
you're like, miss, some of this sounds decent.

Speaker 3 (24:53):
Maybe I could check us out.

Speaker 1 (24:54):
I really think that this is the one that could
explain who he is as a filmmaker, and really, have
you go?

Speaker 3 (25:00):
Do I really want to watch Halloween two?

Speaker 1 (25:02):
I should watch House of a Thousand Corpses first, because
there's so much in this that is just really the
best of him as a filmmaker. It is crazy how
much he knocked it out of the park on that
very first try.

Speaker 2 (25:14):
I think it's his best movie, like realistically.

Speaker 3 (25:17):
Like I don't, but I do think, oh yeah.

Speaker 2 (25:22):
I mean I just think like in terms of like
the distillation of Rob Zombie down into like pure Rob Zombie. Maybe,
I guess because that's not our answer. We never answer
the question what's his best movie? Outright? So what do
you think his best movie is? Then?

Speaker 3 (25:39):
I'm so curious talk about we'll talk about that.

Speaker 2 (25:41):
Oh it's an answer, okay, cool? Interesting? Interesting, I'm hmm, okay, Well,
I wonder what your answer is then, because looking at
because like you've already mentioned, looking at his list, there
is really only one thing that's not horror, but it
is kind of again, like as much horror as I
think the main stream is capable accepting, which is Frankenstein laughing.

Speaker 1 (26:04):
Ha ha, you know, like it's still very much horror.
It's just it's like horror adjacent. It's one of those
like odd subgenres of horror.

Speaker 2 (26:12):
Yeah, it's like the Adams Family. Like it's like, is
the Adam's Family scary? Like if you find the Adams
Family scary, wait till you see the monsters, Like woh, yeah,
I know, right, Well that's the thing. But it's like again,
like when you talk about the guy who has made
horror movies that I don't think are scary per se,
They're just fucking gross and off putting. To then go
to something that is like very not off putting, like

(26:34):
the monsters, I think is very impressive because again, like
I think, I think the roadmap was there from House
of a Thousand Corpses to get to the monsters. I
don't think it was as much of a stretch for
him to direct the monsters as everybody else thought, like
and that he was going to make it like just
essentially the show too. That's the thing, Like he didn't

(26:55):
make like Rob Zombies the monsters. It was the monsters.
It wasn't he What's that wasn't a what wasn't there
like a TV show pilot for the Monsters that was
like a real version that had Eddie Izzard and Jerry
O'Connell and Rebecca Remains stay most Yeah, it was, but
it was just like the name, it was like the
address of the house. It was like their advocate Lane

(27:20):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, and it was like a realistic
version of that. It's not even that like the Munsters
movie is just the Monsters. I think it's even like
a technically a prequel to the show. So yeah, it's
weird though because Rob Zombie like for the most part,
like it's like, yeah, he's it's a horror and it's gross,
Like it's just gross, like gross, like they're like kind
of like not gross out movies, but grimy and.

Speaker 3 (27:43):
Like splatter films.

Speaker 2 (27:44):
Yeah yeah yeah. House of Alan Corpses I think is
hit Like that's yeah, that's that's the movie. I think
if you're gonna start with Rob, I don't know if
you could, even in good conscience, say go anywhere else
to start, like it, what is there even an there's
not even another one that you're like this is this?
Is it over? This one? It's like it's House of

(28:05):
a Thousand Corpses. That's it.

Speaker 1 (28:07):
Yeah, this is one that I didn't even like. I
only struggled with because I did. I wanted to not
choose this right because it seems like it seems like
the first movie shouldn't be that because he's not like
making an entire franchise of his films. However, he kind
of just did, like have a voice from the moment
he said action, which is wild. Most people cannot say that,

(28:31):
most directors cannot say that. But he also had he
had the ability to front a lot of money and
have a lot of things behind him because he had
a name and was a huge musician before he did anything.
So he had a lot of resources that other people
never would have the opportunity to have.

Speaker 2 (28:49):
He wasn't on step one, guys, he was on like
step ten. Yeah. Like he financed that fucking movie himself,
like right or no?

Speaker 1 (28:57):
No, No, He had some buy in and one of
the studios actually shelved House of a Thousand Corpses and
he bought back the rights and sold it to Lionsgate
because I think they were scared of it getting an
NC seventeen. That first studio.

Speaker 3 (29:11):
Well, I mean watch, I get why.

Speaker 2 (29:15):
Yeah, they watched the fucking movie for fuck's sake, I
mean they cut. They cut a fair amount out of
the movie too, right, Like yeah, a lot of a
lot of that, Yeah, a lot of that stuff. Yeah.
That's I'll say. Man, that's the other thing about Rob
Zombie's stuff before we go any further, like the fact
that his stuff gets our ratings pretty wild. He's like
the perfect filmmaker for streaming, because like streaming, all bets

(29:37):
are off, like you really can push it and go
there to any it's like on a shutter or something
even like Rob. Can you imagine if Rob Zombie was
coming up now in the time of Shutter Jesus christ Man.

Speaker 1 (29:50):
Like, I'll actually say, I kind of think he's perfect
for theatrical for people that want more brutal movies because
he is the guy that has lived in this industry
for so long that he knows where the line is
and how to push up to the line and then
defend himself because he has lived in this industry for
so long, and so if somebody comes back and says

(30:11):
you need to make all these cuts, he can be like, not,
fuck you, we ain't doing that. And honestly, sometimes you
just need a director to be able to say that.

Speaker 2 (30:19):
Yeah, he's he's got a big pair of brass balls,
Rob Zombie.

Speaker 1 (30:24):
And there are some directors that have come out and said,
we filmed this scene specifically in some random mass movie
a little more like riskaye than we would have just
so when we took it to the MPAA, we would
cut that scene and they would feel like they won yea.
And Rob Zombie doesn't have to do that. He knows
where to draw the line.

Speaker 2 (30:43):
Yeah, I love I love those stories, and those stories
are wild. The MPAA getting baited into shit is funny
because fuck the MPAA. That should be the co subtitle
of this show. Film Foundations also fucked the MPAA. I mean,
censorship by any other name is just sense. I mean,
call it the NPAA, call it the the what's the

(31:04):
what's the ESRB, whatever, the one for music is like,
nobody cares. Fuck you take your moral compass elsewhere, because again,
tell telling people what we can and can't watch is
very destructive to this because yeah, look, I'm not saying
I want to see Rob Zombie eviscerate someone in full detail,
but he's not doing that either, Like it's all of

(31:26):
this is very stylistic. That's the other thing. That's the
thing that I think maybe is unfairly leveled against Rob Zombie.
There are much grosser movies out there, oh yeah, like
especially in terms of just like what they're trying to
get out of it. Like, I mean, you mentioned Eli
I mentioned Eli Roth, and you said people like probably
like Rob Zombie less than Eli Roth. Yeah. Eli Roth

(31:47):
is that guy in terms of like really just being
like fucking gross shit. Here we go hostile like Hostile one,
Hostile two, Hostile three, movies about people being tortured, like
and again that's not me, like having never seen the
movies and speaking out of my that's literally all hostile is.
But that's okay, Like, if that's what you're into, cool,
But for me, Eli Roth is less defensible than Rob
Zombie because at least Rob Zombie it serves the plot

(32:10):
of the movie for the most part. I may not
like that there's a very extended rape scene in The
Devil's Rejects, but I understand why it's there. With Eli Roth,
I'm like, tell me why you're doing this, and he
just kind of chuckles and goes, I don't have to.
It's like, all right, fine, I mean I get it.
Some people vibe with that too. I just don't.

Speaker 3 (32:28):
Yeah, completely agree.

Speaker 1 (32:31):
Well, I'm very very very curious to hear how we're
going to discuss our two films for question number two,
So Chris, let's go with yours first. Could you please
recommend a no, you.

Speaker 2 (32:41):
Go first, buddy, because I want to hear yours this.
I answered the first one first because I'm curious if
we have the same answer here, there's a high possibility
you don't know what you don't know? What are I
know for a fact that Okay, what's your answer?

Speaker 3 (32:54):
Then my answer for our second question?

Speaker 2 (32:57):
Should I say it at the same time as you
in case they are the same, so you don't think
I changed mine.

Speaker 3 (33:02):
Or you can set it in private chat.

Speaker 2 (33:04):
I'll just count us off and we'll see and then
you can just explain your all right three.

Speaker 1 (33:08):
Well, hold on before just in case this is somebody's
first episode ever, our second question is, could you recommend
a lesser known jem within the subject that might not
be like the best first time watch for somebody new
to Rob Zombie. So essentially, like something that's a great movie,
but if you watch it for the first one, it
could turn you off to the rest.

Speaker 3 (33:25):
Of Rob Zombie. So let's uh, let's do it go ahead?

Speaker 2 (33:28):
Yeah, three two one Halloween.

Speaker 3 (33:31):
Lords of Salem.

Speaker 2 (33:32):
Wow, that was not what I was if you had
if you had another choice, would it be Halloween too?
Would Halloween to show up anywhere? Interesting? Wow?

Speaker 1 (33:41):
Laura, I love Halloween too, But I will stand on
this table right now and shout to the heavens. The
Lords of Salem is Rob Zombie's best movie by leaps
and bounds over anything else he's ever done.

Speaker 2 (33:54):
And that's the one starring his wife, like.

Speaker 3 (33:58):
They're all staring like wife.

Speaker 1 (34:02):
But this is the movie that says Fierry Moon Zombie
is a damn fine actor and everybody upset about her
watched this fucking movie.

Speaker 2 (34:10):
Ooh he threw down guys.

Speaker 1 (34:13):
So if you have never seen this movie, this movie
is fantastic. So let's get into it. This movie is
The Devil's Rejects, and of course it is set in Salem, Massachusetts.
It's from twenty twelve, and it's this odd supernatural horror
movie that's got Cherry Moon Zombie right at the center
of it and it starts bringing in some of his

(34:34):
other friends that he hasn't used in some of his
other movies yet, but then he uses a lot of
We got Bruce Davison, Jeff Daniel Phillips, Ken Frey, Patricia Quinn,
d Wallace is in this one. Meg Foster is in
this one. It's great, and it is about Cherry Moon
Zombie playing a DJ at a like a hard rock
radio station, and they get in this package and it's

(34:58):
this weird wooden box and she goes and opens it
and finds out it's from a band called The Lords,
and they listen to the record and things start happening,
and there's a lot of stuff that goes into this
and essentially from the title and from what we're alluding to,
you can understand this is a movie about witches. And
this whole movie is incredible. I think it's his most

(35:21):
straightforward movie. It is his most inviting movie. It is
his most well his best written dialogue in the entirety
of his filmography by a long shot. It's just normal people.
It's not a bunch of people working at a radio
station saying you know, motherfucker every four words.

Speaker 3 (35:39):
Like a lot of his other movies. It is really
well written.

Speaker 1 (35:42):
And what's funny about all that I'm heaping all this
praise about it, You'll notice it is the lesser known
gem that could turn people off to him, because if
you watch this one first, it's unlike anything else he's
ever made. This movie is very not Rob Zombie. However,
it is an amazing movie, and if you watch it

(36:02):
after you've watched some of his other movies, you will
appreciate this so much more. The acting in this is
genuinely incredible from everybody. The plot line is interesting from
beginning to end. The way that the the camera work
in this just sort of glides through Salem like you are.

(36:23):
You're fascinated and always drawn to see what's next.

Speaker 3 (36:27):
I appreciate this.

Speaker 1 (36:28):
Movie way more than society itself has given credit for.
And I feel like people are absolutely sleeping on the
Lords of Salem.

Speaker 2 (36:38):
Wow, that is the impassioned defense of a movie I
did not expect you to defend.

Speaker 3 (36:44):
You're welcome now.

Speaker 2 (36:45):
I'm shocked, cobbsmacked. I saw it when it came out.
I don't remember it. I mean, this is like what
twelve years ago now, so I need to you watch it.
I don't remember disliking it the way I man, thirty

(37:05):
one is just thirty one and Three from Hell are
very hard movies. I mean, they're not being talked about
for reasons. But Three from Hell is hard to suggest,
which is why it's not mine. Like I kind of
said over Ryan's answer. Under Ryan's answer, however we want
to interpret it, Halloween two is the one for me
that I think is like, I can't in good content

(37:27):
suggest it for a whole host of reasons, namely, it's
the sequel to another movie. But dear god, it's a
strange film. Dear God, it's such a like For as
much as Halloween ends as like the least Halloween movie
of that bunch of Halloween movies, Halloween two isn't even
a Halloween movie, and the way that you're expecting it

(37:49):
to be essentially as a sequel to the It's a
good sequel to the movie that Rob Zombie made, but
it's not a Halloween two the way Halloween two is
Halloween two, which is fine. That's probably one of the
best things about it is that it is a sequel
to the first movie, not just some nonsense. Oh well,
Michael shows up again and starts harassing new people. Nope,

(38:12):
this is this and this is the story of Laurie
Strode and the aftermath of the first movie. So again,
like it's a very weird movie. But you have Tyler
Mayne playing Michael Myers yep, which is like inspired fucking
casting because he's actually gigantic, which works, and he's physically imposing,

(38:36):
and it's more about how much of a piece of
shit doctor Loomis is and how crazy Laurie Strode is
and how Michael is just I wouldn't say misunderstood because
he still just murders people. I mean, you know, killing, uh,
killing people is one thing, but the god, the the

(39:00):
scene in the hospital with Octavia Spencer is it's like
a lot a lot, And again like that's the thing,
like people are always like, oh my god, I love
how brutal Terrifier is, Like have you seen Halloween two?
Because Halloween two is a pretty brutal fucking movie. But
that's what I like about it is that it is
just kind of so fucking weird, Like it's it's weird,

(39:24):
it's not really a Halloween movie. It's really more about
Lorie Strode and how crazy she is, and like you
kind of hinted at already. Sherry Moon Zombie plays a
rather large part two because she is the mother of
Michael Myers but also the mother of Lourie Strode. Right,
I think they revealed that at the end of the

(39:45):
last movie though, Right, I think so. Yeah, But Halloween
two weird movie. Can't really suggest it being the first
thing you see because you have to have seen the
first movie to really understand this movie. But if you
watch this movie after saying the first movie, you may
not understand it anyways, because it is kind of a
weird movie with some weird imagery and some stuff that

(40:07):
is very Rob Zombie, which is good. That's what you're
there for. If you're watching rob Zombie stuff, you want
Rob Zombie to be rob Zombie, and Halloween two is
as rob Zombie as it gets in terms of just
doing whatever the fuck he wants with something that Again,
rarely are people handed the keys to the kingdom and
they just go, I'm gonna do whatever I want. I mean,

(40:29):
Ryan Johnson did it with Star Wars. We saw how
that turned out. Rob Zombie did with Halloween two and
was also reviled the same way. I mean, Halloween two
is not a well received movie. It's not one that
people are going out of their way to defend either.
But I think what's funny is like there's no sequel
to it. The sequels canceled because Rob Zombie didn't want

(40:52):
to do it, because it doesn't need it. Like the
second movie ends the story. The story's over, like what
are we doing here, guys? And that's the other thing
I appreciate Halloween two. It actually ends a Michael Myers
story satisfyingly in a way that feels like it understands
what story it was telling and how it factors into

(41:12):
the overall narrative of Michael Myers. I cannot say the
same for the most recent movies, and I know that
we different opinion on that, but I actually think Rob
Zombies Halloween one and two have aged better since David
Gordon Green Stuff has come out, because Rob Zombie Stuff
is a unique vision from him as a director, which

(41:32):
we don't get to see with stuff like this very often.

Speaker 1 (41:37):
I agree with a lot of that, I don't think.
I don't even think comparing them to the David Gordon
green thing is fair because the Rob Zombie Stuff is
a remake and the other ones are technically sequels.

Speaker 3 (41:48):
I mean to the original movie.

Speaker 2 (41:49):
That first Halloween is a remake though.

Speaker 3 (41:53):
Not I mean not really, I mean.

Speaker 2 (41:55):
It is, but I mean, yes, it isn't, but it is,
but it is. It's less of a remake than Forced
Awakens is of a New Hope. But it is still
called Halloween for a reason because it is doing the
first It's riffing on the first movie, wouldn't we say?

Speaker 3 (42:10):
I mean in a way, I yes, but like I.

Speaker 2 (42:13):
Mean, you're right, Rob Zombies is a remake.

Speaker 3 (42:16):
It literally remakes.

Speaker 2 (42:17):
The fucking story. You're right, like that is a completely
true statement. I will agree with you there.

Speaker 1 (42:23):
I also don't revile the David Gordon Green trilogy like
you do.

Speaker 2 (42:26):
But anyways, the third movie's funny as hell, I don't.
I the third movie's funny. Everything else is just kind
of doing what everybody else has done or evil folloween Halloween.

Speaker 3 (42:36):
Interest isn't a Halloween movie.

Speaker 2 (42:38):
No, It's hilarious, is what it is.

Speaker 1 (42:40):
Anyways, So Rob Zombies Halloween two. I said it earlier
and I will say it again. I I honestly think
it will be in years beloved as an art house
slasher classic. This movie has elements that we have begged
for in other films, and people have turned away from
it simply because it is Rob Zombie, and it is

(43:02):
really well made, really well acted. It's interesting, it's brutal,
It's Rob Zombie through and through. One name that you
did not say that. I absolutely have to give love
to Scout.

Speaker 3 (43:14):
Taylor.

Speaker 1 (43:14):
Compton is amazing in this movie. It made her a
fucking star and she's still huge in the horror scene
because of it.

Speaker 3 (43:21):
This movie is really well made.

Speaker 1 (43:24):
It would be odd to recommend it as somebody's first
film into his.

Speaker 3 (43:28):
Entire uber. I agree, and yeah, this is a good pick.

Speaker 1 (43:32):
I think that this is this is certainly up there
in the top tier of Rob Zombie films with a
few others, because honestly, I'm I don't really think he
has any mid tier films in like the grand scheme
of his entire filmography. I feel like he's got a
lot of great films and then there's a chasm in between,

(43:53):
and then there's two films at the bottom of that
that are just vastly inferior to everything else. And I
can't defend thirty one because it's so different kind of
from the way that he made a lot of the
other things because it was crowdfunded, and it's like, if
he had actual studio backing, I can imagine this one
would have felt a lot better.

Speaker 2 (44:13):
It feels crowdfunded, which is the problem. The super Troopers too,
didn't feel crowdfunded. Another crowdfunded movie, mind you, that came
out like a year or two later, and like, it
doesn't feel crowdfunded at all, which I think for me
was like one of the most surprising things about that movie.
But when I watched thirty one, I was like, oh, yeah,
this feels like a movie that somebody else paid for,

(44:35):
like people that like Rob Zombie, which is fine, but like, man,
that doesn't feel great to not make a great movie
with your fans money, you know.

Speaker 3 (44:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (44:46):
So other than that, I would say Three from Hell
is vastly inferior to everything else as well. And that's
not saying again that I didn't enjoy both of those.
I still had a good time watching thirty one. I
still had a good time watching Three from Hell. I
just I have no desire to go back and watch
either one of those potentially.

Speaker 3 (45:02):
Ever.

Speaker 1 (45:03):
I'm glad I saw them once, but I have no
desire to watch them again. Before we go onto this
whole pop culture impact question, I think we probably should
talk about Devil's Rejects for a minute, because I think
that The Devil's Rejects is his most popular film, and
I think some people are gonna be a little weirded
out that we're like glossing over it a little bit.
And it's not to say it's not a good movie.

(45:24):
It is a damn fine movie. The hard part is
that it is potentially like the most uh the most
like grindhouse type film in his entire filmography, and the
way that he is comfortable putting you an awkward like,
not not just awkward situations, but like you are you,

(45:46):
as a viewer are uncomfortable with some of the things
happening on screen, which is the point. I'm not taking
that away from it. The Devil's Rejects is incredibly well made,
but I understand that a lot of people who are
new to Rob Zombie would probably not be very very
happy if they watched Devil's Rejects as the first or
even second film in his filmography. It's not one of
those things that feels really great at the end of

(46:09):
the day. But I would also say Devil's Rejects potentially
is the most rewatchability for any of these if you
get through it one time and then go back and
just realize how much is put into that movie. There
is so much from a filmmaker perspective to genuinely appreciate
on a level that is like, yeah, Zombie knows what

(46:30):
he's doing here.

Speaker 2 (46:32):
Yeah, No, I mean, look, I think it's yeah, I mean,
I think it's the one. You're right, Like, it's the
for whatever reason people like, I mean, not for whatever reason,
but like, it is weird to me that this is
the one people resonate with because it is the one
that has the most off putting stuff, I mean the
most the most off putting scene of anything Zombie has done,

(46:54):
and it may be one of the most off putting
things put to film, frankly, but yeah, like it's the
one that seems to be the one that has a
cult following, just like Thousand Corpses does. But I think
even more so, I don't know, I think it's I
think it's because it's really hard to root against Sid
Haig and Bill Moseley and Sherry Moon Zombie because they

(47:15):
are good as those roles. That's the problem.

Speaker 3 (47:17):
You're at the top of their game in this all
three of them.

Speaker 2 (47:19):
You put Bill Moseley as a lead, Like, look, who
else is casting Sid Haag and Bill Mosey as leads
in the Moviees, that's all I'm saying. And you know,
Three from Hell exists because The Devil's Rejects exists, So
maybe we can blame a little bit of Three from
Hell on The Devil's Rejects success. But The Devil's Rejects
is a great movie. It's just not a movie that
I care to rewatch frequently for a whole host of reasons.

(47:42):
But I can one hundred percent acknowledge how important it
is and how so many people are probably going to
be kind of, like you said, scratching their heads at
what we're suggesting and what we're kind of talking about.
But yeah, I mean I think it's I think it's
the reality though, Like Devil's Rejects is the movie.

Speaker 1 (48:00):
For sure, it's again, it's pretty great. It's just not
it doesn't feel great as you know watching it.

Speaker 2 (48:10):
It's like Texas Chainsaw Massacre, right, Like it's that level
of just like by the end of it, I feel
icky and I need to take a shower.

Speaker 1 (48:18):
Yeah, and that's that's the saddest thing for me. Honestly,
I know that this isn't necessarily about unrealized projects or
ideas or whatever. I understand lobbing hate against a director
because you're pissed off that he've remade Halloween. I just
imagine a world where Rob Zombie's first movie that he

(48:38):
burst onto the scene with is a remake of Texas
Chainsaw mascer in two thousand and three starring Jessica Biel,
and he doesn't make Houses of a Thousand Corpses and
instead he remakes that and it's amazing, and people are
immediately in love with him as a filmmaker because it
that story would align with his taste and his style
so much better.

Speaker 2 (49:00):
And then Halloween. Yeah yeah, yeah, I mean, look, that
is like the fucking sad thing here to your point
is that Rob Zombie never got to do a Texas
Chainsaw movie. Like what fucking universe are we living in
where he had to create his own Texas Chainsaw massacre
movie essentially, And oh, by the way, Three from Hell

(49:20):
comes out only what a year or two before the
Texas Chainsaw movie with Fetti Alvarez on Netflix, So yeah,
like there was even still a chance for him to
do it. Yeah, that feels like the fucking shame here,
because Halloween is not a Rob Zombie thing, at least
on the face of it. It's not pliant to his

(49:43):
ways in terms, and like even look, we really haven't
mentioned it. I think it kind of bears mentioning since
we've talked about Halloween. John Carpenter not a big fan
of Rob Zombie, which is unfair to Rob Zombie because
John Carpenter told him to go make his own movie
and then he didn't like it. Well, John, what did

(50:03):
you think the guy was gonna do when you told
him to go make his own movie?

Speaker 3 (50:07):
John still cash the fucking.

Speaker 2 (50:09):
Checks exactly exactly. And look, I love John Carpenter just
as much as you do. I don't want to say
anything bad about John Carpenter, but don't tell someone who
makes their own thing to go make their own thing
and then when they make it, get upset Kathleen Kennedy
at the guys who were making Solo and then they
fired him because it was too funny? What the fuck
do you think Lord and Miller were gonna do? Make
up a serious movie about how boring Han Solo is

(50:32):
like like Ron Howard did, like I don't. That's what
I don't get here. When when you tell someone to
do something and you know the way that they do it,
and then you get upset that they did it that way,
whose fucking fault is that it's your fault and you
have no one to blame but yourself. And to your point,
if John Carpenter didn't like it, and guess I shouldn't
have such fucking carashot chuck eyes, but he did anyways,

(50:54):
and it made him a lot of money because those
movies were very successful. At least that first one was
because on top of everything else, that movie came at
a time and a place where there were not necessarily
a lot of Halloween movies being made. It it had been
what like at least five years, so Halloween was like
when when that was announced, that was a big deal,
Like people were ready for Rob Zombie to make Halloween,

(51:15):
and then they watched the movie and thought it wasn't
going to be a Rob Zombie movie. I guess is
really what happened. So yeah, I'm curious how we answer
the next question because I feel like I don't know,
I know what my answer is. But I'm curious where
you come down on Rob Zombie's kind of addition to

(51:36):
pop culture and how he affected pop culture other than
just being himself effectively.

Speaker 1 (51:42):
Before we get into that. Unless your answer for question
three involves it, I think we should probably talk about
the Monsters a bit because we've glossed over it a tad.

Speaker 3 (51:53):
Anything you want to say.

Speaker 2 (51:54):
Yea, I would mean it does involve it a little bit.
So I mean, if we want to talk about it, now,
let's do it. I think the Monsters is the is
the thing that you could point anybody at and say,
go watch that, and then they would be like, who
made this? Rob Zombie did? No, he didn't. Like The
only way you would know is if it's a share
is is if you know Sherry Moon Zombie is his wife, really,
because she's actually fantastic in that movie. And like, I'm

(52:18):
not saying that because it's surprising. I'm saying that because
you wouldn't think that she'd be able to play that
role because everything that she's done is not I wouldn't
say charming, but there is not necessarily the kind of
charisma up until the point you've seen her doing everything
else that Lily Munster needs, and somehow she nails it.

(52:40):
Jeff Daniel Phillips as Herman Munster is insane that it works,
like he's great. I don't know. I actually find The
Monsters is my favorite thing that Rob Zombie has done.
Uh but again, like it's the most unrobed Zombie thing
he's done. So yeah, and man, I was part of

(53:02):
the roasting of that movie initially, but then I was like, Eh,
the trailers for things rarely count for much of anything
other than advertising. I do think that it would have
been better if it was in black and white, only
because I think that would have really leaned into the
true deform of what we expect with the Monsters. But
I enjoy it. I'm an apologist for the Monsters, so

(53:24):
you know, fuck me doubly, I guess.

Speaker 3 (53:29):
So the Monsters.

Speaker 1 (53:30):
I watched this for the first time this very week,
and I'm shocked this movie. I don't understand how this
is hated by anybody right it has seen it. I
don't Again, I don't think anybody that hates this has
seen it. I will say a few things here. The

(53:53):
very first trailer that was released for this was fucking garbage. Wow,
it looked like they recorded the audio from a cell
phone ten feet away from any of the actors and
did not do any of the color grading on the
film at all. And then it came out and it
looks so much better. But again, why release that trailer
that was so terrible? But the next thing, the biggest

(54:16):
thing with this is the color is shocking in this film.
It is a bright, bombastic film that you can easily
get lost in the overwhelming smorgas board of bright colors.
That being said, I almost feel like Rob Zombie made
this movie with the intention of it being seen in

(54:36):
black and white. Like, obviously, I know that it works
with all the colors, and he did lots to make
it brightly lit and all the fancy colors, but I
feel like it's one of those movies where if you
put a proper color graded black and white on this,
this movie is going to look amazing still. And I
am shocked because there was not a single bad performance

(54:58):
in this movie. Everybody that is in all of the
Rob Zombie movies that he has here that I mean,
Richard Brake playing multiple roles, like everybody in this is
just serving. They are incredible. The jokes Land. These set
pieces are overwhelmingly fantastic.

Speaker 2 (55:20):
So much production design, Like the production design of the
movie alone is pitch perfect, and like again, like the
sets are insane, Like they're real, practical sets that were built.
And yeah, like I actually have a real bone to
pick with anybody who didn't like the movie and hasn't
seen it, because if you've, like even if you watch

(55:40):
it and it's like, hey, it's not my bag, like okay,
but don't roast something you don't have any fucking clue about,
just because Yeah, a trailer looked like literal dog shit,
Like one of the worst pieces of promotional material I've
ever fucking seen, frankly, especially coming from Universal Studios. You know,
Universal studios, purveyors of big budget films who know how

(56:04):
to advertise things. It's fucking bizarre.

Speaker 1 (56:08):
Yeah, this movie is really good. I really hope people
check it out because it is. It is something that
deserves a second look, and I deserves a first look.

Speaker 2 (56:22):
It hasn't even been seen twice.

Speaker 1 (56:25):
I am so shocked that I enjoyed this thing so much,
which is nice to see after considering, you know, thirty
one and three from Hell were the last cliff notes
on his filmography until The Monsters. So I'm glad I
gave time to this. This thing is it's worth it.
This movie is great.

Speaker 2 (56:43):
I told you, I told you it was good man.
I was like, you need to check it out before
we do this. You owe it to yourself as a
Rob Zombie fan, because like it is nothing like everything
he's made, but like it is, it's just like the
very much toned down, toothless version of Rob Zombie. But
that's okay because if you had, if you had Richard

(57:04):
Brake doing things in The Munsters that he does in
Three from Hell, you'd have a lot of questions to ask. Also,
and I hate to say this, but The Monsters might
be the only thing I've seen Richard Brake in that
I don't find him to just be immensely off putting
as an actor. I get that, yeah, And I think,
like I am not the only one. Let's just put
it that way. I think he knows what his thing

(57:26):
is and he knows how to lean into it, and
good for him, because there is a need for it
in Hollywood and he fills that need rather well.

Speaker 3 (57:34):
I agree.

Speaker 1 (57:36):
I think he's been in some stuff that I haven't
hated him in like Black Dahlia and Hannibal Rising Barbarian
technically Batman begins.

Speaker 3 (57:46):
Detention. Detention was really great.

Speaker 2 (57:48):
Barbarian is man. You and I would definitely disagree on
an episode about Barbarian. That is that? Yeah, who directed that?
That's like a first time movie, So we don't have
an episode of him if any time.

Speaker 1 (58:01):
Zach Krieger, Yeah, that's right from the Whitest Kids, you know,
that's right.

Speaker 2 (58:06):
That's boy, that's an okay. Trying to do the Jordan
Peele thing.

Speaker 1 (58:11):
Eh, well, and he's got another one coming out. He
just got like a first look deal signed something for
a huge sum of money.

Speaker 2 (58:17):
Like trying to do the Jordan Peele thing.

Speaker 1 (58:20):
Literally, well, and I don't think Jordan Peele was necessarily
the first. There's a lot of comedians that have been
getting into Horror of the last however long.

Speaker 2 (58:29):
Yeah, but hm, I think Jordan Peele. Uh oh, that
might that's a controversial opinion for another show. Goes back
to David Gordon Green, who we clearly disagree.

Speaker 1 (58:43):
Anyways, Uh yeah, I thought we should talk about the monsters.
But let's get to let's get to question three. Then
Question three is what is the biggest impact that Rob
Zombie has had on pop culture as a whole.

Speaker 2 (58:56):
I think for me that this is maybe a fairly
my op answers. So maybe you, as I think seemingly
a little bit of a bigger Rob Zombie fan than me,
can maybe amend my answer. But I think for me,
the answer I have is introducing the wider horror audience
and world too fantastic character actors like Sid Haig and

(59:19):
Bill Moseley and a whole host of other people that
really we're just working in you know, bit parts character
actor parts in plenty of films since I mean, Sid
Hagg has been working since Jesus the fucking seventies, So
I think, yeah. So I think for me that's probably
the biggest impact is that he's really highlighted a whole
lot of people who deserve to be highlighted for things

(59:40):
that they've done and how good they are as actors.
And similar to Tarantino and Scorsese and all these other
directors who have their like, you know, kind of roaming
troop of people that they can get on the phone
and be like, hey, Daniel Roebuck, you want to be
in the Munsters? Sure? Why not. And look, I think
that that's a good I think that having kind of

(01:00:01):
a cast of people who are very talented that you
can rely on as a good thing. And I think
that Rob Zombie. I think, look, if anything, what Rob
Zombie has done for pop culture is show that you
can be You can be a filmmaker, you can be
a musician, and you can do both of those things
rather well, and you can be known for both separately.

(01:00:21):
Because Rob Zombie is known as a filmmaker and as
a musician, not necessarily as like an and or it's
or not an or, it's an and. Really he's a
filmmaker and a musician. And I think that that's a
big thing because again, like so many people are told, oh,
you're a wrestler, you could never be an actor, Dave Batista,
John Cena, not really much else. I guess the rock,

(01:00:45):
I guess, but again we're talking about like dramatic acting again,
like people's I mean, the rock is always the rock.
We're not going to do a rock episode? Okay, well, now,
no whole Cogan correct. The less set of age and
the better. But I think that that's important that you
can be multi talented as well. But I think for me,

(01:01:07):
it's just yeah, the answer is kind of maybe an
obvious one, maybe the easy one, but definitely introducing the
world to really fantastic character actors and really, I mean
carving out his wife a special little spot in Hollywood
all for herself that she gets to make some really
interesting stuff too, which again getting to be Lily Munster
and Michael Myers's mom and a serial killing like Crazy

(01:01:31):
Woman and then Lords of Salem. Like yeah, like yeah,
I think that's for me, it's kind of like a
holistic answer. But I'm so curious to hear your thoughts
on mister Rob Zombie's impact.

Speaker 1 (01:01:41):
I mean, really, I don't even feel the need to
go into depth on this answer all that much. But
I think when you are the director of a remake
of a slasher classic and it gets a fuck float
of attention, that is probably going to be one of
the biggest things that you're gonna be able to impact
because people are going to see it. People are going
to you either love it or hate it or both.

(01:02:02):
People are going to write about it, people are going
to talk about it, and in ten years people will
probably still look at Rob Zombie is the guy that
directed the Halloween remake.

Speaker 2 (01:02:10):
Sadly, it's not a bad thing though, I mean it's
not a bad thing.

Speaker 1 (01:02:15):
Well, it depends on their feelings about it, because a
lot of people hate it, and you know, hate him
because they hate that, which makes no sense.

Speaker 2 (01:02:24):
To cop a phrase from our dear friend, mutual friend
Andras who hosts his own podcast, Well, the world's just wrong, man.
I think the world is wrong about Rob Zombie. I
think that if you don't like like you just alluded to,
if you don't like Rob Zombie, you subjectively don't like
Rob Zombie. That's fine, But he objectively makes movies that

(01:02:45):
he wants to watch, not saying they're good or that's
not even saying good or bad. I'm not making that distinction.
Rob Zombie makes the movies he wants to make, which
in this industry is a fucking achievement unto itself, especially
working we alluded to. He works in the studio system.
For fuck's sake, who is making movies that they want
to make in the studio system anymore. It's a short

(01:03:07):
list of people, but Rob Zombie is one of them,
and that is crazy. But it's also something that should
be applauded. More than it isn't Rob Zombie's never going
to win an Academy Award, not saying that that's a shame,
but he should win one for achievement if he's never nominated,
because again, doing what he has done is impressive to
say the least, but I think it's something worth lauding

(01:03:31):
to say more than most people say about Rob Zombie.
To your point, yeah, well well done.

Speaker 1 (01:03:39):
Yeah, He's done a lot of great things that are
just simply never going to be recognized most likely.

Speaker 2 (01:03:45):
Right.

Speaker 1 (01:03:47):
So that all leads to our fourth question. I think
we've covered most of his films pretty in depth at
this point. I love that we were able to talk
about him for this though. What do you think is
a cinematic bridge to Rob Zombie that other people, if
they are a fan of them, they will like Rob
Zombie films? And I feel like there's a couple obvious

(01:04:08):
answers here, So I feel like you might try to
subvert that and go a different direction.

Speaker 2 (01:04:13):
I don't I this time around. I just wanted to
be a little bit on the nose, because again, I
think Rob Zombie himself is so bold as a filmmaker
that not necessarily I don't have to be like, well,
if like go on a tangent, because like he is
his own tangent is what it feels like. If you
are into seventies grindhouse films, if you're into grindhouse cinema,

(01:04:38):
and somehow you have never seen a Rob Zombie movie,
first off, email us because I want to know how
that's possible, frankly. But secondly, House of Thousand Corpses, Devil's Rejects,
I mean, Halloween is a grindhouse Halloween movie. Like if anything,
and we really haven't mentioned this, but Rob Zombie is
making modern day grindhouse movies, right, yep. That's a fucking

(01:05:01):
weird thing in and of itself, because grindhouse movies, you know,
part of it's the lack of a budget. Part of
it is the lack of big actors. Part of it
is exploitative cinema that features things that people aren't seeing
everywhere else. Those three things I mentioned. Two of those
three things don't jive very well together, which is big

(01:05:23):
budget and pushing the envelope as a filmmaker. Those two
things don't go together. And then you actually have like
well known actors in your stuff too. Rob Zombie is
doing something that nobody else is doing, which is making
modern day grindhouse movies. So my only comparison here realistically
in terms of the people I think are already seeing
these things and are amenable to them. Are people that

(01:05:45):
are into seventies grindhouse movies, or if you're into seventies
horror films like a Texas chainsaw massacre, like a tourist trap,
like movies that are kind of weird and subversive and exploitative,
you're gonna I mean again, I can't be that subversive
with my pick, because Rob Zombie's subversive enough as it is,
Like he's not the first, second, third, fourth, or fifth

(01:06:08):
person I would suggest to most people to watch. But
if you're a certain kind of person, See, here's the thing.
You and I are friends. We've known each other for
almost a year now. I don't have to tell you
to watch a Rob Zombie movie because I know you've
seen him. That's maybe the problem here is, like, in
good conscience, suggesting someone sees a Rob Zombie movie is hard.
So the people who are going to be amenable to

(01:06:29):
it are already kind of in the world where I'd
be surprised if they hadn't seen one already.

Speaker 1 (01:06:34):
Yeah, And that's my response to people like that is
usually like, you know, if somebody hates Rob Zombie, which
is like, that's the funny thing here too. It's never
like Rob Zombie's not for me. It's more of like, oh,
I watched an X movie and oh I hated it.

Speaker 3 (01:06:49):
It was awful.

Speaker 1 (01:06:50):
And usually to stuff like that, I say, well, if
you tried this one, Like a lot of the time
I will say Lords of Salem because it's not one
that people think to recommend or think to watch because
all the marketing was sharing Moon Zombie and most people
are turned away by that. But it is her magnum opus.
She is amazing in that movie. So yeah, that is

(01:07:11):
that is a tough thing to respond to. And the
world is just fickle about Rob Zombie no matter what.

Speaker 2 (01:07:17):
Yeah, but again, I don't think you'd have it any
other way because I think he wants the people that
resonate with his movies to watch his movies, and I
think that they.

Speaker 3 (01:07:23):
Do already, yes, mostly right.

Speaker 2 (01:07:26):
Right, Like that's again like he doesn't have mainstream appeal,
but I don't think he needs to. He doesn't want to.
That's fine. Like, not everybody needs to make a movie
that's decided upon by eight different committees to make sure
nobody's offended. Like Rob Zombie, like you already alluded to,
doesn't give a singular fuck. So there you go, like

(01:07:47):
and there are like you've also alluded to, there need
to be directors who say, fuck you, I'm making my movie. Yeah,
So what's your answer then, I'm so curious.

Speaker 1 (01:07:57):
My answer is you're gonna probably laugh for hard about
this is a middle finger to one of my favorite filmmakers.
And I'm going to say, if you have never seen
a Rob Zombie movie, but you love John Carpenter, you
will probably love Rob Zombie movies. And I'm gonna say
this for many reasons. One, they are both two people
that some of my favorite movies from them. They both

(01:08:19):
wrote and directed those movies. That's not something that's all
that common in the studio system. It's usually not that
way actually, And when you're looking at what they've done,
they especially for most of their movies, were looked down
upon because they're in the whoor genre. They were looked
down upon by their peers, they were rejected by the studio,
and multiple times they are people that have made movies

(01:08:42):
that people have called sick and gross, even though John
Carpenter's stuff is like tame as shit nowadays other than
the thing obviously.

Speaker 2 (01:08:50):
Peratively, even especially to Rob Zombie, it's tame right.

Speaker 1 (01:08:55):
And you know the fact that they both made a
Halloween movie, the fact that are multiple Halloween movi, the
fact that they are so involved in music and they
are both musicians and also directing films is a big
part of this for me. It's true, and I love
both of their filmographies for different reasons. But I truly

(01:09:17):
think that if you can look past a few things,
there's a lot of stuff that John Carpenter fans could
find to appreciate in the rest of Rob Zombie's filmography.

Speaker 2 (01:09:25):
Do they hate Doe John Carpenter fans not like Rob
Zombie because John Carpenter doesn't like Rob Zombie? Is that
a fake?

Speaker 3 (01:09:30):
No?

Speaker 1 (01:09:31):
I don't think that's why. But I think a lot
of people that like John Carpenter do not like Rob
Zombie because most people don't like Rob Zombie. Like that's
just as plain as it goes. I feel like this
is going to be one of our least listened to
episodes because people are just so turned off by pih posh.

Speaker 2 (01:09:47):
I mean, look, like we said coppying from our friend
Don Dross Jones, the world can be wrong about Rob Zombie,
and that's fine because look, I'm not even the biggest
defender of Rob Zombie, but I'm willing to defend an
artist who makes the fuck and things that they want
to fucking make, because you know what, if that doesn't exist,
then we don't exist. And that's a fucking problem for everybody.

(01:10:08):
If people can't make the things that they want to make,
it everything has to be an MCU movie decided upon
by thirty different people. Because look, we got here again,
like we always get here, because Rob Zombie was also
in a fucking MCU movie. He was in Guardians of
Galaxy too, because he's friends with James Gunn. Duh, because
he was also in Slyther and Super Duh as voice

(01:10:30):
cameos because he's friends with James Gunn. That's the thing.
That's the thing. If people like that get to stop
making movies, then who else gets to stop making movies?
It's all I'm saying. Folks, you want to hate Rob Zombie,
you're just hating people that are creative.

Speaker 3 (01:10:46):
I can't believe we just got to the MCU throughout Zombie.

Speaker 2 (01:10:49):
I mean, it wasn't that hard. Like I said, I
get it, he's never seen in the MCU, He's just
heard in the MCU anyway. Can you imagine, though, by
the way, if Rob Zombie is in an MCU movie,
how wild that is, given the things that he's made
and given how mainstream could you you know what? Last question,

(01:11:12):
random sidebar question here, but it's one that we've never
talked about. Could Rob Zombie make an MCU movie?

Speaker 3 (01:11:19):
I mean, I think Sam Raimi has proven that he can, right.

Speaker 2 (01:11:23):
Isn't that fucking crazy? That alone is crazy. I genuinely
believe there's a universe where and it may happen in
this one where Rob Zombie is given a Marvel movie
only because they are trying now to do genre filmmaking.
And who better to do genre filmmaking than someone who's

(01:11:43):
worked in the genre filmmaking system since the first movie
he made. I'm not kidding, Like, if the MCU is
so hard up for things, if they're so struggling to
find their way, and they've kind of shown that genre
filmmaking stuff like where Wolf at Night can be popular
and successful and they're leaning on it more, then there
is a chance that there are more directors like a

(01:12:05):
Rob Zombie brought into the fold to shake things up.
Because look, it ain't that far of a stretch because
he's already been in one of the movies and he's
friends with James Gunn. So maybe maybe it's more likely
that he makes a DC movie, like a DC.

Speaker 3 (01:12:18):
Really, I was waiting to say that.

Speaker 1 (01:12:20):
I think that's the most important thing that we can
point out here is likely this could be Like could
you imagine him making a swamp Thing movie.

Speaker 2 (01:12:28):
Or like a Just or like a Justice League Dark movie, Like, yeah, yeah,
anything like that. Any of the horror stuff in DC
bro would be fucking nuts. And swamp Thing alone, but
like there's so much like Marvel, not so much Marvel Zombie, sure,
but DC has so much of a horror tradition and
so many of the characters that like, Yeah, I actually

(01:12:49):
think that would be fucking amazing. I honest to god, Like,
give give Rob Zombie something in the DC universe, one
of those elsewhere movies. Give him the fucking vampire or
Batman movie. Good God, I'd watch that in a heartbeat. Yeah,
I mean, look, for me, well, maybe Rob Zombie's movies
aren't something that I want to like watch every day.

(01:13:10):
He's always making interesting choices as a filmmaker, and for me,
in a world of uninteresting choices being made, the guy
making interesting choices is the one that I'm going to
gravitate towards me personally.

Speaker 1 (01:13:21):
Well, I hope after this at least that you go
back and watch The Lords of Salem and go, oh wow, yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:13:26):
I miss doing too.

Speaker 2 (01:13:28):
I'm on your suggestion alone, mind you, it is.

Speaker 3 (01:13:32):
It is that worthy.

Speaker 2 (01:13:34):
Monsters on my suggestion, so I.

Speaker 3 (01:13:36):
Have to and ador it.

Speaker 2 (01:13:38):
Yeah, I told you. It's like it's charming. It's so
stupidly charming for a Rob Zombie movie, Like, yeah, give it.
I mean I want a sequel. Did you By the
end of it, You're like, I'd watch more of this, right,
you were like, I'd watch another one of these, I'd
watch a TV show. By the end of it, I
was like, just let Rob Zombie produce the goddamn monster's
TV show. Just do it, cowards. They already have the sets.

Speaker 3 (01:14:03):
All right, we did it. We got through Zombie. Uh,
this is this is fun. This is a good episode.

Speaker 2 (01:14:09):
Great episode. I love this episode. Put this episode, Like
you said, it might be a low listen episode, but
this is one where I think what we're trying to
achieve here with this show is being shown in spades,
which is we are willing to go out of our
way to make sure that we're covering all the bases,
including people, like you said, reviled by the consensus of

(01:14:31):
the crowd.

Speaker 1 (01:14:33):
As Bill Moseley would say, fuck you motherfucking gatekeepers exactly.

Speaker 2 (01:14:38):
We need to get him on here. Come on, Bill,
come on down, just tell everybody to fuck off for
like five minutes.

Speaker 3 (01:14:46):
How much do you charge to tell people to fuck off?

Speaker 2 (01:14:48):
By the way, cameos I think are like one hundred bucks.

Speaker 3 (01:14:51):
They're another cheaper than that. Oh really time.

Speaker 2 (01:14:55):
An okay, okay, good may Hey. You know what if
that's a thing, I guess we could get Bill Moseley
to our fans fuckers, if we that's something you guys want.

Speaker 1 (01:15:03):
If we researched it and it was cheap enough, you'll
find it at the end of this episode. Yeah, all right, Chris,
where can the people find you?

Speaker 2 (01:15:12):
You can find me over at weirdingwaymedia dot com, where
I have talked actually about a fair amount of the
rob zombie movies. I think mostly everything at this point
other than Lords of Salomon thirty one I think have
been covered, and I guess the Monsters we didn't cover it,
but I've talked about it several times. I know, I
see your eyes and we should do it. Yeah, weirding

(01:15:33):
Way Media as you can go to find the Culture
Cast and everything else I work on, But a whole
lot of things I don't like, the award winning eighties
TV Ladies, the Projection Booth, which is the best movie
podcast on the Internet as far as I'm concerned. And yeah,
wh'll host other things, including the audio version of this
show if you want to put us in your ear holes,
not your eye holes. What about you, Ryan? Where can
people find you? And the things that you work on?

Speaker 1 (01:15:55):
I try to switch these up every so often, so
I will shout out Patreon dot com slash disc can
over there you can get access to one of the
most accepting film groups in the world. You can get
access to our discord. It is an incredibly wholesome place
to join with a bunch of people talking about physical
media and movies constantly. We also, through the Patreon we

(01:16:16):
have access to things like the digital release of the
physical Media Advocate when that comes out. Every time, we've
got access to some of my visual essays and commentaries
that I do for some of these releases I send
out Hadn't Written Notes four times a year, Limited Edition
Merch I do writing projects for people once a year.
Depending on the tier that you come in at, there's
lots of different options, but we'd love to have you
in there. Check it out Patreon dot com, slash Disconnected,

(01:16:38):
and as always on the show, we hope that you
leave with this inspired feeling of going to check out
something new that maybe you hadn't checked out before, and
as you want to come back to our next episode,
all I can say is please don't park in front
of a dark house and be surprised if they try
to kidnap you.

Speaker 3 (01:16:56):
Until next day.

Speaker 4 (01:16:58):
Final One, Final Fly

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