Why Rob Zombie Is The Most Unique Horror Director Of The 21st Century – Screen Rant

Rob Zombie's long history as a musician is just one of the things that makes him the most unique horror director of the 21st century.

In 1985, Rob Zombie was already on his way to becoming the most unique horror director of the 21st century. Given his long history as a musician prior to becoming a filmmaker, no other horror director can claim a trajectory into making horror movies quite like Zombie's. 1985 was an important year in Zombie's career as a director because it was the year that he formed his heavy metal band White Zombie, a project that has clearly influenced and guided his work in horror movies since his film debut, House of 1000 Corpses (2003), and up to his most recent movie, 3 From Hell.

However, Zombie's interest in horror movies wasn't born in 1985 with the formation of White Zombie. It's actually quite the opposite, and it's not the only influence on the aspects of his filmmaking style that makes him so unique as a modern horror director. Zombie's interest in horror movies clearly predates his career as a musician; that interest is evidenced by the fact that the band was named after the 1932 horror movie,White Zombie, which is argued by some as being the first ever zombie movie. Additionally, White Zombie the band partly belongs to the horror rock genre, which is characterized by influences from horror movies, B movies, science fiction, and pulp fiction.

Related: Every Unmade Rob Zombie Project (& Why They Didn't Happen)

Heavy metal and horror rock music have gone hand in hand with horror movies for a long time. Many bands in the genre, including Black Sabbath, Alice Cooper, Slayer, and the Misfits, create music that feature the same occult themes and symbolism often found in horror movies as well as direct references to the horror movies themselves. In this tradition, many of Zombie's songs, such as Die Zombie Die, More Human than Human, and I Am Legend, feature similar themes and references. Therefore, before becoming a filmmaker, Zombie, in White Zombie and his other musical projects, was already developing many of the theatrics, aesthetics, themes, and character archetypes that he would later incorporate into his horror movies.

Zombie's horror movie aesthetics are inspired not only by heavy metal music and classic Universal horror movies like Dracula, but also by carnival workers, clowns, hillbillies, and comic books. Zombie once summed up his diverse influences in a 2005 article for Men's Health: "Growing up I wanted to be Alice Cooper, Steven Spielberg, and Stan Lee." He also credited growing up poor, sticking to his artistic vision, and his family's work in carnivals as major influences on his work as a horror director. However, these influences taken alone aren't what make him the most unique horror director of the 21st century. Instead, it's the way he puts them all together. The twisted carnival workers, evil clowns, Satanic cults, and hillbilly serial killers found in his horror movies are a combination all his own.

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Why Rob Zombie Is The Most Unique Horror Director Of The 21st Century - Screen Rant