Blogorium Review: Rob Zombie's The Haunted World of El Superbeasto

Okay, let's get this out of the way right now: The Haunted World of El Superbeasto is not what you would call a "good" movie. It is a sporadically entertaining movie, one that is frequently funny (and intentionally so), but it can also be trying for a first time viewing. I would not recommend watching this alone, and I'll explain why directly.

While Rob Zombie's animated opus (three years or so in the making) doesn't come out on dvd until Tuesday, the Carousel was having two special showings tonight, one at 10pm and one at midnight. Because I didn't want to go alone, I dragged Barrett and Nathan along, and I'm glad I did. If I'd watched this movie by myself, it's very likely I'd be dwelling on all of the things I hated, rather than remembering what works.

The film, in essence, involves luchadore/lothario El Superbeasto (Tom Papa), his sister Suzi-X (Sherri Moon Zombie), and her robot Murray (Brian Posehn) trying to stop Dr. Satan (Paul Giamatti) from marrying stripper Velvet Von Black (Rosario Dawson). Also there are a bunch of incidental miscreants who float in and out of the story, not limited to werewolves, vampires, brides of Frankenstein, mermen, talking gorillas, and Nazis.

I think it's quite fair to describe Superbeasto as the animation aesthetic of Ren and Stimpy coupled with the sensibility of Fritz the Cat. There's almost non-stop animated nudity, various implied and explicit sexual references, reasonably gratuitous violence and gore, and plenty of profanity and illicit behavior coming from pretty much every direction. Strangely, this doesn't always work, partly because the film is frequently coupled with a "wink wink, get it audience?" attitude, largely on the part of El Superbeasto.

Fans of Dead & Breakfast (which I think is just Cranpire) will be happy to know that The Haunted World of El Superbeasto is peppered with songs that describe, facilitate, and mock the action. These are the high point of the movie, particularly the "Cat Fight" song near the end, although I'm also fond of the "Nazis on Motorcycles" song. They're written and performed by Hard 'n Phirm, a group made comprised of Zombie collaborator Chris Hardwick and Mike Phirman, and I can honestly say they kept me interested in the film.

Admittedly, when we started talking about the movie, there are a number of other jokes that really work amidst many that don't. There's a character that, for pretty much no reason, shoots rats out of his asshole that doesn't sound funny until you see it happen. The movie operates largely on Fritz the Cat and Ren and Stimpy logic, which is to say that lots of odd plot ends appear and are mostly forgotten or are answered in really bizarre ways (like the cat El Superbeasto stuffs in his pants at the beginning of the movie).

The trailer gives you some idea of the cast, but the end credits really surprised me just how many recognizable names are all over this film. In addition to reuniting The Devil's Rejects (Sherri Moon Zombie, Bill Moseley, Sid Haig, and even Ken Foree), El Superbeasto brings back Tura Satana to play Faster Pussycat, Kill Kill's Varla forty years later. You can also find the voices of Tom Kenny (Spongebob Squarepants), Rob Paulsen (Pinky and the Brain), Dee Wallace, Clint Howard, John DiMaggio (Futurama), Larraine Newman, Harland Williams, Daniel Roebuck, Cassandra Peterson (Elvira), and Danny Trejo. To be perfectly honest, I only caught about half of those during the movie.

I'd be lying if I said I don't want to watch it again, as I sense a second viewing will increase the parts I liked and smooth over the parts I didn't. The Haunted World of El Superbeasto is very likely to end up as an "After Hours" Horror Fest film; many of you wouldn't like how wantonly offensive the film is, and others of you might just hate it on principle. However, after dark, with a few colds ones in you, El Superbeasto may be exactly the 80 minutes you need to bridge creepy movies.

Consider The Haunted World of Superbeasto a recommended, but expect some rough patches and watch it with like-minded friends.