Comments on: Rob Zombie: Horror Hack or Hero?

By: Misfit

Misfit — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 20:36:18 +0000

I am a big fan of self indulgence myself, and have a hard time criticizing someone of that ilk. I agree to some degree with other posters, and yet I simply enjoyed the campy nature of the flix. So, I preferred DR to 1000 – but enjoyed both for what they are worth (sometimes a bag of popcorn with Tabasco.

By: Rian

Rian — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 08:40:19 +0000

I’m honestly surprised that the numbers are so close. I, for one, haven’t liked anything he’s done. I’ll most likely be seeing the new Halloween sometime on DVD.

By: scoville

scoville — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 19:00:09 +0000

Zombie has proven to me that he’s just as much a hack as Uwe Boll.

By: Henrik

Henrik — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 12:44:39 +0000

Yeah, I guess it all depends on wether or not you feel like the style overtakes the substance of the movie. Then it might feel like self-indulgence I guess. However, it can work at times. In theory there is no difference between setting Free Bird to a fight scene and setting The Blue Danube to flying spaceships. Both could be called self-indulgent decisions, and both pieces of music could be critisized as being too long for what’s being done story-wise with the scenes. So the problem, to me at least, doesn’t lie with self-indulgence and presenting your film in an almost arrogant way to the audience, as much as it lies with the actual content that’s being used to do so. In other words you can be as self-indulgent as you want as long as you’re talented.

By: Sean

Sean — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 05:36:39 +0000

Henrik and Primal bring up a good point. I guess this is kind of getting into the whole debate of filmmakers as “auteurs” and artists versus being mere facilitators to putting a story on screen. Obviously there are certain directors who have a very strong personal style, and this is something I generally applaud. The problem comes when a director gets so wrapped up in trying to be cool and edgy that they forget to actually tell the story, or lose sight of the fact that no one cares about the characters. It’s all a very subjective thing and there’s a fine line there. For me, Rob Zombie crosses that line.

However, I do give him props for the fact that he actually has a sort of trademark style now (even if a lot of it is emulating his own favourite movies, but hey, Tarantino does the same thing). So that’s why in the post above I said that I can see where people are coming from when they say he is an original and unique voice in horror. But I guess I agree that to say a director didn’t make a good movie simply because he’s being self-indulgent isn’t necessarily a valid criticism.

By: Jay C.

Jay C. — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 05:34:55 +0000

Actually Henrik, it was about good and bad, at least in my comment. It was bad and undeserved self indulgence.

By: Goon

Goon — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 03:17:32 +0000

I mean, I can appreciate if someone does something for himself, but just because they do that doesnt mean its wrong to dislike it. If it is indeed self indulgent, why is it wrong to not agree with his taste and say so?

By: Henrik

Henrik — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 01:53:48 +0000

No, because the argument isn’t wether it’s good or bad, just that it is wrong because it’s self-indulgent. Which means any time a director places his own taste above the particular audience members he is making a mistake, and I don’t agree with that.

By: Goon

Goon — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 00:18:45 +0000

“god forbid a director does something to please himself rather than the audience”

wouldnt this justify every problem in every movie ever?

By: Primal

Primal — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 22:04:05 +0000

I’ve only seen House of 1000 corpses and disliked it, but I’m still interest in seeing Zombie’s Halloween because I am a fan of horror films.

It’s interesting in calling Rob Zombie self-indulgent. I never thought of ever using that term with directors because I thought directors who show a certain vision or personality usually seperate themselves from the rest. Of course, I think this is a positive thing. Maybe I am getting the term wrong.

I too, havent seen The Devil’s Rejects, but I’ll definitely check it out to see it from your guys’ perspective. Now that I thought of it, there are many directors who are self-indulgent.

By: Henrik

Henrik — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 20:53:11 +0000

I have not.

By: Jay C.

Jay C. — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 20:49:34 +0000

Have you seen the movie Henrik?