Rob Zombie's directorial debut will to some come off as pure genius and to most as total crap. To us '70s horror buffs, it is a treasure trove of in-jokes from the lines, the purposely bad acting, the spook-show gags, the horror host intro, the backwoods kooks, the gore, and even the odd reference to the slew of Bigfoot films from the 70s. Everything we could have wanted is covered here. Zombie even throws in that it takes place on Halloween to complete it all.

Now to non-fanatics this will all be pointless and the film we be silly. That's why above all else it must be understood that it's made for us and not for the mainstream. Zombie's direction isn't that all different from what he used to do in his music videos. His trademark grainy Super-8 vignettes are sprinkled throughout the film. The best include one about Bigfoot, a disgruntled roadside hobo, and one where Baby, (Sheri Moon's character) naked, is groped by skeletons. The story is simply Texas Chainsaw Massacre redone in a campy, self-referencial kind of way. This is what Tobe Hooper tried to do with Chainsaw 2, but failed miserably.

The film contains perhaps the two greatest scenes never done in horror history. The first has one character wearing the skin of the victim's father while trying to feel her up. The second scene is a long, extended crane shot the goes up and up while we wait for a character to get shot in the head and as our anticapation goes up so does the crane. Finally the shot rings out when we least expect it.

The acting is damn good too, even though it's played campy; some of it comes off inspired. Bill Moseley's acting is ten times better than the travesty he did for Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2. Sheri Moon (the really hot go-go girl in all of Zombie's videos) for never having acted, does better than some real actors. Sid Haig (who us freaks know from Jack Hill's Spiderbaby) is the real star as Captain Spalding. The only real two letdowns in the film are the waste of a great horror actress Karen Black. Her role is virtually non-existant and they could have done a lot more with an actress of her calibre. The ending is also a sore point. I won't give anything away but it has less to do with '70s horror and more with a cheesy Rob Zombie music video.

It may not be Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but after years of being in limbo and garnering cult status it doesn't let down, and though it's not a masterpiece, it's the next best thing.