Dead End Drive-In: Now Showing – The Zombie Horror Picture Show
Written by Gaz E
Sunday, 25 May 2014 03:20
Rob Zombie – ‘The Zombie Horror Picture Show’ (T-Boy Records)
Forget about the so-called death of CDs, what about the live video cull? Almost exclusively resigned to being album bonus discs, if they ever get a physical release at all that is, the long form concert film is rarer these days than a LostProphets album sale.
If anyone could help resurrect the format, generally only utilised by bands with MASSIVE fan bases or small labels with access to footage in the public domain, then surely it would be Rob Zombie.
So keen are RZ fans for everything that the man films that many even claim that his take on horror master John Carpenter’s Halloween is better than the original: sacrilege of course, but proof that these obsessives are more than willing to view anything and everything that the former White Zombie frontman puts in front of them….even his love letter to Euro Horror, The Lords of Salem, which went over a lot of confused heads…..
The Zombie Horror Picture Show was never going to suffer the same fate: no, as the Rob Zombie live experience is lauded over by all that have witnessed it, lusted over by pretty much everyone that hasn’t, this feature-length concert film, made by RZ himself, was destined to pique the interest.
Filmed in front of a suitably crazed Dallas crowd, The Zombie Horror Picture Show is ushered in by a typically scratchy vintage movie credit homage, Zombie’s signature B-movie aesthetic smeared all over its entire 81 minute running time: there’s split screen work, cameras placed at the very back of the arena, where fans headbang and gets their rocks off with plenty of space around them, and in the moshpit, where fans get sweaty with their shock rockin’ brethren. Spotless HD images clash with footage weathered for maximum effect and, well, it works a treat.
‘Teenage Nosferatu Pussy’ kicks things off, RZ atop a platform with the Z-word splattered across it, the rest of the band masked, Piggy D playing a ludicrously awesome upside-down cross of a bass. It’s second song, ‘Superbeast’, though, when all hell breaks loose: the stage’s plethora of video screens kick into life and the effect is so massive that you’d expect a passing UFO to veer off target and crash into a passing satellite.
‘Super-Charger Heaven’ sees a 20ft “devilman” take to the stage, the Alice Cooper influence on Zombie never more apparent. ‘Living Dead Girl’ affords the cameramen the chance to capture many, many bare breasts – more than your average Mötley Crüe video, as it happens – before guitarist John 5 rips out a version of ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ that leads into the cover of Grand Funk Railroad’s ‘We’re An American Band’, the live film interspersed with archival
footage and clips of the band off-stage and at soundcheck.
The now-infamous robot featured in the ‘Dragula’ video – originally from ’30s movie serial The Phantom Creeps – cheats on his adopted song and makes an appearance as White Zombie’s ‘More Human Than Human’ pulses out of the PA, before ‘Sick Bubblegum’, ‘Never Gonna Stop’ and ‘Ging Gang Gong De Do Gong De Laga Raga’ bring things back to the modern day, the second of this trio proving to be the show’s only weak(ish) point.
Possibly the first drum solo for two decades not to put me to sleep offers Messrs 5, D and Zombie time for a comfort break/eleventh costume change, Ginger Fish thumping along to some samples before RZ returns on the back of a big fuck-off cyberpunk robot/train interface for ‘Meet The Creeper’, John 5 then picking at an acoustic guitar as the video screens fill with galaxy shots prior to the crowd being told that ‘Mars Needs Women’.
A Rob Zombie movie one-two follows: ‘House Of 1000 Corpses’ clips filling the screens for the song of the same name, the frontman now pushing around the skeletal micstand that was once the centrepiece of his stageshow, now relegated to sometimes-used prop (complete with castors), the foam that rained down onto the stage ceasing somewhat as ‘The Lords of Salem’ pounds out, 5 smashing his axe into the stage at the song’s conclusion.
The guitarist returns with a light-up guitar straight out of the Ace Frehley box of tricks for ‘Dead City Radio and the New Gods of Supertown’, his frontman outdoing him as he stands atop a huge ghetto blaster which is, quite possibly, the best stage prop created by any band for a long, long while.
‘Thunder Kiss ’65’ gets a lengthy extension as 5 solos like a mofo possessed as RZ grabs a flashlight and goes walkabout in the crowd, climbing into the balcony, high-fiving all in his path, returning for the show-stopping (literally) finale that is ‘Dragula’.
The backstage footage littered throughout the credits offers a nice touch as, I’d guess, few will want this concert film to end…especially as the disc is almost bare bones in way of bonus features: a photo gallery the only extra, though it does contain a slew of fantastic candid photographs. The choice of three audio options should placate the sound enthusiasts too.
Whether it be on Blu-ray or upscaled DVD, feast your eyes on this Superbeast of a concert film.
To pick up your copy of The Zombie Horror Picture Show – CLICK HERE
