Rob Zombie's HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES starts promisingly, with a night time car journey through the desolate rural town of Rugsville for Jerry, Denise, Mary and Bill (Chris Hardwick, Erin Daniels, Jennifer Jostyn, and Rainn Wilson, respectively).

It"s October 30th and the crew stop at a gas station, run by Captain Spaulding (Sid Haig) who ekes extra cash from passing motorists by serving them fried chicken and conducting tours via a "Murder Ride" in an adjoining "Museum of Monsters and Madmen" ("You like blood, violence, freaks of nature?"). The ride recounts the history of the region"s serial killers, who include Albert Fish, Ed Gein, and local psycho Dr. Satan who was hanged for maiming and killing hundreds of mental patients in an attempt to create a race of super-humans.

No sooner have they left Spaulding"s museum the foursome pick up a sexy hitchhiker called Baby (played by Zombie"s partner Sheri Moon), who asks for a lift to her nearby home in order to avoid getting drowned in the torrential rainstorm that has broken out. As they near Baby"s house, an unseen gunman blasts their car tyres, but the do-gooders simply mistake the gunshot as a blow out. Baby insists that they take refuge with her family in the house whilst her brother fixes the vehicle. Unfortunately her family, consisting of Mother Firefly (Karen Black), Otis (Bill Moseley), Grampa Hugo (the late Dennis Fimple), and Tiny (Mathew McGrory), turn out to be psychopathic serial killers, whose methods of murder are as twisted as anything served up in Spaulding"s museum. Will our heroes escape or overcome their tormentors?

The film's gory highlights are somewhat diluted by the director"s insistence at flaunting every camera-trick he can think of, gleaned from a series of workman-like music videos filmed for the likes of "Dragula" and "Superbeast", that include split-screen, jump cuts, the splicing in of both positive and negative camcorder footage, (much of it shot in the director"s own basement), scratching, double exposure, montage, slow motion and sped up footage.

Editing of the finished product is pretty haphazard; flashback sequences are thrust into proceedings at every turn, which have the effect of dispelling any build up of tension that the film may have achieved. The fear factor is also absent, primarily due to some dumb character interaction scripted by Zombie, and unchecked performances by the likes of Jennifer Jostyn, and Rainn Wilson resulting in the victims failing to engage audience sympathy.

Despite all this, HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES isn"t a total disaster. The film contains some of the best set design that I"ve ever seen in a horror movie, and the sequences concerning Spaulding"s Murder Ride, and a black and white introductory segment involving fictional television horror host by the name of Doctor Wolfenstein (played by the film"s set designer, Gregg Gibbs), serve as a nostalgic trip back to the early 70s when carnival style horror houses, ghost trains, spook shows, and late night television genuinely thrilled audiences instead of just reeling in the bucks with scant regard for their relative entertainment factor. The cinematography by Tom Richmond and Alex Poppas is also to be congratulated, especially since many of the outdoor location shots involve darkened rain-filled skies, filming of which are notoriously difficult.

So, is the film worth seeing? Well, provided you don"t go expecting too much in the way of shocks, HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES is the perfect Halloween accompaniment: pumpkins aplenty, continuous lightning storms, assorted spooky visuals, and Amanda Friedland"s fabulous costume designs, ensure the film, like Spaulding"s Murder Ride, is a fear-packed journey.