This would have been the perfect movie for me to see when I was 14, when it first came out. Unfortunately, I first saw it when I was 16, and thought it was pretty awful. Two years can make so much of a difference.
This film was necessary, I suppose, for Rob Zombie to transition from music video director to film director. But the 16mm cutaways are almost just too goddamned much at first. Somewhere around the halfway mark, though, I always find myself enamored by Mr. Zombie's approach. He throws everything he can at the wall, and it's surprising how much of it actually sticks. The last fifteen minutes especially go off the rails, with mud zombies and a beaked mad surgeon and a giant man with an axe for no goddamned reason.
But some great touches, like that endless crane execution shot and the surprisingly disturbing bunny chase really do make this a special film, even if it's not a particularly good one.
