Rob Zombie proved that he was an interesting director of remakes with his two Halloween films. He didn’t just remake them, he also updated them so that the films were in sync with his vision of unhinged rednecks and graphic violence. Like Quentin Tarantino, Zombie pays homage to the films that influenced him, something seen in his own movies, videos, and music. Zombie’s aesthetic is similar to splatterpunk horror legend Edward Lee, an author whose book White Trash Gothic perfectly sums up in its title the vision of both Lee and Zombie alike. In fact, Zombie would be perfect to direct the deranged Edward Lee classic The Bighead, which mixes perverse monsters with equally perverse people.
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In fact, there are a lot of titles which would benefit from a Zombie remake, especially as Zombie continues this trend and shows how adept he is at modernizing classics with his own unique style. He has adapted the popular ’60s TV show The Munsters into a film, proof that he enjoys the challenge of remaking or re-envisioning a cult horror film or show.
His remake of Halloween was great because it was loyal to the original film yet also wildly inventive and an example of Zombie’s unique style. It also gave him a chance to cast Sherri Moon Zombie into a great role, that of Michael’s mother, and she plays a major character in all eight of Zombie’s feature films. She’s not his only muse though; Zombie’s influences are obvious, so it is not difficult to predict which films and series he could wonderfully remake or re-imagine. The following titles might be the most interesting.
Beavis and Butt-Head
Paramount Pictures
Rob Zombie’s Beavis and Butt-Head would be one hilarious film. One of Zombie’s least known projects is The Haunted World of El Superbeasto, a super raunchy animated movie. Zombie has a wicked sense of dirty humor and an obvious love of animation. In addition, he worked on the Pee Wee Herman Show as a set designer, so he obviously understands material that is both funny and that would appeal to a child, and at the same time subversive and bizarre enough to keep adult fans watching.
With that in mind, who better to make a Beavis and Butt-Head film (except, of course, for the original animator Mike Judge, who has already given us a pretty funny movie, Beavis and Butt-Head Do America)? There could even be a scene where the Boys watch a White Zombie video and make fun of it! Rob Zombie even has a song on the soundtrack to Beavis and Butt-Head Do America, so there’s already a connection.
Caligula
Analysis Film Releasing Corporation
If there is one thing that Rob Zombie loves, it’s some good, sleazy X-rated fun. Few mainstream films have ever given us as much exploitation and sleaze as Penthouse publisher Bob Guccione’s masterpiece Caligula, a film big enough to rope in huge mainstream stars such as Hellen Mirren, Peter O’Toole, and Malcolm McDowell. Zombie is a huge fan of McDowell, having cast him in Halloween, Halloween II, and 31, and showing his admiration for A Clockwork Orange in one of his videos.
Caligula was extremely controversial for its use of sex, depravity, and torture, three things that dominate most of Zombie’s work. The Devils’ Rejects, for example, has torture scenes borrowed from Last House on the Left, such as in the motel room scene where Sherri Moon Zombie makes one victim violently slap and abuse another hostage. Because Sherri Moon Zombie always has a major role in any Rob Zombie film, we can assume she would play Drusilla (previously portrayed by Teresa Ann Savoy). Sherri Moon has shown in Zombie’s films that she can be a dangerous and sadistic lunatic, capable of violent and extreme behavior while still maintaining her appeal, and would truly elevate Caligula.
Carnival of Souls
Herts-Lion International
Carnival of Souls is a gothic cult horror film from the 1960s that is most famous for a sequence in which the lead actress seemingly becomes deaf and there are over 15 minutes of silence in this highly symbolic film, which has already given birth to one unfortunate remake. Again, Rob Zombie loves casting his wife of 20 years, Sherri Moon Zombie, in great horror roles, and Carnival of Souls, like Zombie’s own Lords of Salem, centers on a woman who is going through a mental breakdown.
Sherri has never let us down and would do a great job as the lead in Carnival of Souls, one of the first horror films with a sole female lead. Zombie would appreciate the creepy and cult nature of the film and its unique weirdness, and like Halloween it looks like he could create quite an original remake that is both loyal to the original yet also represents his own dark, twisted vision.
Ilsa, She-Wolf of the SS
Cambist Films
Ilsa, She-Wolf of the SS is a notorious exploitation film about a female SS leader who engages in vicious torture and sexual assault of the women and men under her command. In Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s double feature Grindhouse, Zombie did a fake trailer called Werewolf Women of the SS, and Sherri Moon Zombie plays a sadistic Nazi SS werewolf.
Zombie clearly is enamored of this small subgenre of ‘Nazisploitation,’ which is as trashy and offensive as it sounds. Thus, a perfect film to remake for him would be Ilsa, She-Wolf of the SS, or, in fact, any of the other Ilsa films, such as Ilsa, Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks. Whatever film she is in, Ilsa is perverted and sadistic. These films all have dedicated cult followings because they are just flat-out bonkers! It’s obvious that Zombie would cast Sherri Moon Zombie as Ilsa, as she has a major lead role in all of his films, and she is a terrific exploitation actress who would give an extraordinary performance.
The Last House on the Left
American International Pictures
The Last House on the Left is such an obvious influence on Rob Zombie and his directing style. In that film, there is cruel and perverse torture, sadistic behavior to make you cringe, and a whole lot of violence. As pointed out earlier, Zombie’s The Devil’s Rejects re-enacts some of Last House on the Left, when Sherri Moon Zombie forces one innocent victim to physically abuse another hostage.
Last House on the Left may have been the ultimate exploitation film from the 1970s, and Zombie pays homage to and shows the influence of such 1970s exploitation shockers as The Last House on the Left, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and The Hills Have Eyes. Zombie even has The Hills Have Eyes star Michael Berryman in many of his films. The Last House on the Left has already been remade, but that shouldn’t stop another remake which presumably would be better than the mediocre other.
Freaks
MGM
When asked why his dialogue consists of foul white trash language, Zombie has defended this by referring to the common trope of ‘writing what you know.’ Zombie grew up in a world of carnivals and sideshows, and that type of redneck talk is what he grew up listening to. Since he grew up surrounded by sideshows and human oddities, then he is a perfect choice to direct a remake of the original Dracula director Todd Browning’s exploitation horror classic Freaks, which features the oft-quoted chant of “One of us! One of us! One of us!”
Zombie is at home in the world of so-called ‘freaks,’ which can be seen in his films. For example, the character Tiny Firefly from House of 1,000 Corpses was one of the largest men on the planet and in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the tallest actor. Wearing a bizarre-looking mask, he appears as a genuinely frightening character, intimidating because of his size. In the film 31, little people (including a miniature Hitler) attack the traveling show members who are the film’s protagonists. Zombie has compassion and love for these people and puts them in his movies, and he would be great at directing the savage revenge exploitation film Freaks. In fact, Zombie could have done a great job with the recent remake of the noir classic Nightmare Alley, which takes place at a carnival.
Two Thousand Maniacs!
Box Office Spectaculars
If there is one thing Zombie is known for, it is his white trash villains, and one of the most notorious films about Southern redneck evil is Herschell Gordon Lewis’ Two Thousand Maniacs! The film follows a group of Northeastern Yankees taking a trip down South, where they encounter a village that is all set to start their annual festival, and that warmly welcomes in the Yankee tourists. However, it’s a big ruse and the festival involves torturing and executing the Yankees in the most macabre and gruesome ways.
H.G. Lewis films are ripe for remakes — they have great ideas, yet were filmed on such a low budget that they look like they could be updated to make them less cheesy. Several years ago, Jeremy Kasten remade HG Lewis’ The Wizard of Gore with Crispin Glover and the result was an amazingly over-the-top modern grindhouse classic. Rob Zombie can similarly update Two Thousand Maniacs!, making it gorier, more macabre, and more realistic, and the themes of the South against the North would fit perfectly within Zombie’s oeuvre.
Helter Skelter
CBS
Rob Zombie has always had a fascination with Charles Manson. The title of his song Cease to Exist comes from a Charles Manson song, and Zombie narrated a documentary called Charles Manson: The Final Words. Helter Skelter is the made for television film that was made about Manson and the Manson Family, yet it was inaccurate and inflammatory, based on the outlandish book by prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi (called the “Bug” by Manson Family members). At one point in the book, in trying to portray Manson as the embodiment of evil, the author ridiculously states that Manson glared at him and that it made his watch stop. He uses this questionable story to make Manson almost supernaturally evil.
A more realistic film about the killers needs to be made, and Rob Zombie is the right person to do it, as evidenced by his attachment to the documentary. Zombie likes to combine violence with trippy psychedelics, which is very evident in his music, and there is no better story of violent psychedelia than Helter Skelter. Another reason was that Zombie, from his documentary, seems to know the objective truths about the case, while Helter Skelter was little more than a propaganda film that made Manson into America’s boogeyman. Zombie can be trusted to tell the story as it really happened, and in a psychedelic way.
