Rob Zombie: King of Homage

To experience one of Rob Zombie's films is to witness full-bore the effect an immersion of cheesy horror flicks and pop culture can have on a developing human brain.

These influences, although in plain view, may not be noticed except by one who has carefully studied these factors - that is to say is as obsessive as Zombie is. Many would consider Quentin Tarantino to be the "king of homage," but Tarantino tends to bombard the viewer with incessant references to films and bits of pop culture. Through his methods, Tarantino has even demonstrated with his earliest films "Reservoir Dogs" and "Pulp Fiction," that all he can really do is piece together parts of other movies and make them his own. Some would call this "thievery."

Zombie, on the other hand, does a fair share of including old movies and pop culture references, but he alters them enough to make it his own. This demonstrates that he is not only admirable of the past, but has learned from it and is willing to take it to the next level. That is why he was chosen to direct the new remake of the John Carpenter classic, "Halloween."

His mastery begins with his allusions to pop culture and exploitation/grindhouse media of the past are those in names used in Zombie's films and in his musical career. The name White Zombie, of his first heavy metal/hard rock band, is taken from the name "White Zombie." In the film, Bela Lugosi stars as a vampire-like villain. Aside from his starring role in "Dracula," "White Zombie" is Lugosi's second most-recognized role.

While illustrations reminiscent of Ratt Fink and E.C. Comics are found in the White Zombie albums "El Sexorcisto" and "Astro Creep," the greatest influence of early horror films and E.C. Comics (Tales From The Crypt, Vault of Horror) are most evident in his first post-White Zombie album, "Hellbilly Deluxe."

With "Hellbilly Deluxe," Zombie goes all out. The video for "Living Dead Girl" is an homage in cinematic style to the German expressionist film, "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari."

Zombie's flair for homage and allusion to B-movies a pop culture only intensified when Zombie brought his talents to the big screen. While "House of 1,000 Corpses" and "The Devil's Rejects" are chilling works of modern horror in their own right, they borrow heavily from horror and thriller films of the past. The concepts of a group of teenagers out to have fun and suddenly have car trouble or stop off at a country diner in the middle of the night only to make a chilling encounter are not new themes. The most evident films which come to mind when analyzing the two movies are the first two "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" films.

Instead of barbecue as in "TCM 2", Captain Spaulding (Sid Haig's clown character) is famous for his fried chicken. Indeed, the underground scene at the house when we see Dr. Satan draws from the underground scenes in "TCM2." Dr. Satan is similar to that of the grotesque grandfather figure who's too weak to lift a hammer, but still able to function decades after he should've died.

The "fishboy" figure in "House of 1,000 Corpses" could be an homage to "The Creature From The Black Lagoon," one of Universal Studios' most famous, although less profitable, franchises - one of the first and last to use 3D technology. It may also be a tribute to the early special effects stop-motion wizardry of director Ray Harryhausen who created "Clash of The Titans."

Also, the concept of family committing a crime together, as opposed to a lone figure such as Michael Myers, draws heavily on not just TCM, but also films such as "Last House on The Left" and "The Hills Have Eyes." Both are early horror films by the legendary Wes Craven.

The hotel sequence in "Devil's Rejects" is similar to that in "Last House" when the two female leads end up kidnapped in an apartment with a homicidal trio. In the same hotel sequence in "Devil's Rejects," the face flesh mask worn by Billy Moseley's character, Otis, can also be seen used as a concept in "Silence of The Lamb's" worn by Anthony Hopkins' character Hannibal Lecter. Interestingly enough, Moseley was a member of the homicidal family in "TCM2." Michael Berryman, who plays Clevon in "Devil's Rejects," also played a member of the homicidal family in "The Hills Have Eyes." The voluptuous woman Captain Spaulding had a sexually explicit dream of is none other than '80s porn starlet Ginger Lynn - an outside allusion to pop culture phenomena.

In "Devil's Rejects," the concept of homage is played with by Zombie in the writing between Sheriff Wydell and the town's film critic. The critic points out the aliases used by the family. Moseley's character is Otis Driftwood, a character played by Groucho Marx in "A Night at The Opera." Captain Spaulding was used by Marx in "Animal Crackers." Also, the names Wolf J. Flywheel appears in "The Big Store" and Rufus Firefly is used in "Duck Soup."

Another key point of comparison is Sheriff Wydell's vengeance in "Devil's Reject." Although unsuccessful, his rampage is comparable to that of Dennis Hopper's in "TCM2," in which Hopper played a Texas ranger.

With all his obsession with the family element of horror, Zombie is nearing completion of the remake of the John Carpenter horror classic "Halloween," a film where a single mass murderer is the subject. Zombie recently produced a fake grindhouse movie trailer for the Robert Rodriquez/Quentin Tarantino film, "Grindhouse." The trailer, titled "Werewolf Women of the S.S." is an obvious tribute to the Nazi sex flicks of the '70s, the most famous of which was "Ilsa, Shewolf of the S.S." Another Nazi sex flick of note is "Kutthroat Kommandos," featuring voluptuous '70s soft-core mainstay Uschi Digard.

The character Fu Manchu is used in the trailer as a leading figure, which is a bizarre inclusion, but no less bizarre than the Nazi sex flick sub-genre. Fu Manchu is a literary figure for sure, but actor Christopher Lee also portrayed the Chinese overlord in a series of British-made horror films, also popular in the cult film underground. In the trailer, aside from Sheri Moon Zombie (Eva Krupp), are Sybil Danning (Gretchen Krupp) and Udo Kier as Franz Hess. Moseley again appears as Dr. Heinrich Von Stresser. Danning is a sexploitation/B-movie horror starlet from the '70s who has managed to hang on up until modern day, and has been cast in the new "Halloween."

Where Zombie's career will go after "Halloween" is anyone's guess. What's practically a given, though, is it's sure to be chockfull of references to past films and pop culture - America's soft underbelly.