Get your very own Rob Zombie may seem to be an enigma, but really more than anything he is simply a man doing what he wants, his career is his passion. He loves music, film, the 70′s, horror, Halloween and women; this is clear to see through his lyrics and film eras/style. Although he did grow up in his adolescence and young teens in the 1970′s, this was also a great time for horror/cult films, for example; The Texas Chainsaw Massacre which is in my opinion and many horror fans, the holy grail of all horror films and is obviously one of Zombie’s favorites as well.
Rob Zombie’s Music
I probably first became a fan of Zombie’s music when they were White Zombie. I must have been 10, it was about 13 years ago (1997 and I’m 23 now). My dad had gotten a new camera and mounted it on the dash of his truck looking out the windshield and drove around while playing “More Human than Human” – (great little video my the way, I’ll have to get it up on YouTube).
I’m not going to get into in-depth info/biography about their beginnings, real names, the instruments they use or any of that technical goodness. I have a lot of musician friends who can tell you the history of genres and how bands broke up and so on, which is great, but that’s not what music is to me, it’s the feeling it gives me and nothing more. Having my child mind warped 
by horror films since I can remember, White/Rob Zombie’s music has always spoken to me, creepy good and atmospheric and just all around gives you that good Halloween feeling that not everyone understands.
I just got Zombie’s new album; Hellbilly Deluxe 2 (Special Edition / listening to as I write this) and am enjoying it thoroughly, it’s what inspired me to write this article by the way and some harsh reviews about his filmmaking I was reading which I’ll discuss in the second part of this article. Anyways, this new album is very refreshing and original, combining film and music. What I mean is that it’s very well done with high quality thinking that went into it very similar to a film soundtrack and also incorporates some orchestrated parts. It’s very thematic and to horror film fans and Zombie fans alike offers the best bridge/hybrid of the two I’ve heard, it just sounds good and feels good.
Bottom Line: White/Rob Zombie has always made for great soundtrack music and has been used in countless films / TV shows. It’s great thematic music and it only seems obvious now that Zombie got into films…
Rob Zombie’s Filmmaking
Started with House of 1000 Corpses which suffered the same fate as Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation. Both had this great teaser trailer that got me so excited to see them and both of them said “Coming to a Theater Near You” which neither of them ever did as they went into post-production/rights/company giving them the hook or some other kind of hell. House of 1000 Corpses was originally being released by Universal who dropped it and the film was then picked up by MGM who also dropped it and ultimately the film and it’s sequel was saved by Lions Gate Films (now just LIONSGATE).
House of 1000 Corpses Teaser Trailer (Authentic Original)
Zombie went on to make; The Devil’s Rejects, Halloween, Halloween II and The Haunted World of El Superbeasto and is reported to be attached to two possible upcoming projects; Tyrannosaurus Rex and The Blob.
There have been some pretty harsh reviews about his film work, but I think he’s a very unique and inspired filmmaker and has a lot of growing room and potential to make some great original films. I’ve liked all of his work, even Halloween II which would be my least favorite of his work. I likes some aspects of it and there was some great parts, and I could see where he was coming from and his vision most of time, but I think Rob Zombie has too many thoughts going on, I think he’s spent years thinking about filmmaking and has too much creativity pent up in his mind and tried to spew too much out into one film. I can’t be sure, but in retrospect he might look back at that film and want to make it better and fix the ending.
I know as a Web & Graphic Designer as my experience grows, so does my perspective, quality of work and standards. I’ve looked back at work and thought it was awful what I then thought was perfect, so with every profession there is always more to learn and always the ability to better yourself. I wouldn’t exactly compare Zombie to Kubrick but I could see him having the growth of a Director like Quentin Tarantino. I would love to see them collaborate on film(s) together beyond the spoof/mock trailer; Werewolf Women of the S.S. Zombie did for Tarantino’s/Robert Rodriguez film; Grindhouse.
Bottom Line: I think Zombie is a good filmmaker that has the potential to become a great filmmaker, even if we do from time to time see some of his learning curves take place on the big screen. In all fairness, most Directors don’t start out this big or famous in films, and aren’t to such a high level of scrutiny.
Bottom Bottom Line: I think Rob Zombie is a very talented entrepreneur and we’ll see some great work to come. I’d personally like to seem him write a horror video game script , we’ll see.
Halloween II UPDATE (spoiler alert):
The theatrical version of the film wasn’t quite Rob’s vision, think Halloween 6: Producer’s Cut, but in reverse where Akkad now has edited the film.
I’ve just seen the Director’s Cut (closer to Rob Zombie’s original vision) and I must say I like it much better, especially the ended, where the theatrical ending definitely felt forced, changed up or rushed, something just didn’t seem right about it. The shared “visions” or “delusions” were played up more between Michael and his Sister, all and all it definitely seemed to come full circle a little bit better. The big part and again HUGE SPOILER ALERT… Michael speaks at the very end yelling “Die!” to Dr. Loomis.
Which in part I can understand why Malek Akkad, son of Moustapha Akkad (Rest in Peace), (basically the Godparents of the Halloween franchise all these years) might want to remove Michael speaking after years of the consistent allure that he does not speak, like if Rob’s version of Michael ran I’m pretty sure they would not allow it. I only assume that it was Akkad’s decision as with many films, the Executive Producer actually has final say.