Evil Dead meets That 70's Show?

I saw this last night and went in without expectations or notions because the buzz on this is that writer/director/musician/all around weird guy Rob Zombie was given free regin on this project. It should be noted that with Lions Gate productions, this is not uncomon. Every now and then a vibrant or truly original film gets mass market treatment this way. Other such gambles like Artisan's "Blair Witch Project" turned out to be very profitable. The flipside is films like "Adaptation" which was not as well reccived.(but should have been!) The point is the studio has no clue how well this film can do, all they can do is broker it to the major theater chains, market the hell out of it, and hope for the best.

Did this gamble work? Only the numbers can tell. This is not your run of the mill horror flick, not even close. What it felt like to me was something more abstract. It seemed like a colorful mix of the various mainstays to which horror films cling. Thats sounds like something from the liner notes on the back of the dvd yet, in this case, it's true. I was able to note several styles paraded throughout the film. Everything from 80's big bad monster horror(jason, freddy), to 90's "gastly" backstory horror(Blair witch, Darkness falls) all wrapped around the setting, feel, and dialogue of in my opinion, horror's crappiest decade, the 70's. Make no mistake this is an "art Film" technically it is truly a fun ride through horror history, but not enough substance in my opinion to peak the recreational filmgoers intrest. let's go through the numbers:

Plot: 3 -sorry, but even Darkness Falls had more substance.
Dialogue: 6 -true to the genre's form with a touch of Tarintino (slightly!)
Setting: 5? -both wardrobe and dialogue had mistakes but kudos on finding all those 70's cars!
Action: 7 -more accurately "implied action" in true 70's style.
Shock Value: 3 -sometimes on purpose (blatantly in one case!), sadly often not.

Overall: 5 -Please I beg of you......pay matinee price or sneak in!

Keep in mind it is a 10 scale. Sadly I had to rate this on watchability as well as technical merit. This film is an animal all its own. If this was Rob Zombie's film school exam final, he would have reccived an A+ for his meticulous attention to detail and his revalry of horror history. Although there were some editing flaws, I can't descern if they were intended or not, it's that kind of party!

Bottom Line: probably won't scare you; if you like horror or art flicks it's worth a (cheap) look.

Till next time...fistfull of boomstick!