I went into a screening of this movie completely blind. I hadn't seen 1000 Deaths, and I haven't even seen any of Rob Zombie's videos. (I do like his music,BTW) I had essentially no idea what to expect.This movie is what "Natural Born Killers" *TRIED* to be. It's "Kill Bill" without the nod and wink that this is campy/funny. This movie is intense, violent, gory, gritty, harsh chilling and creepy. The only movie/scene that can compare the intensity to is "Saving Private Ryan", particularly the scene where Mellish is slowly stabbed by a German near the end of "Ryan". This movie can/will take your breath away.

That being said, if you like this sort of thing, the movie is VERY well written, directed and acted. The casting was beautiful. Captain Spaulding, Otis, Lady Firefly are brilliant. Others were also great.

I saw this at a private screening with a Q&A with Rob Zombie afterward. The audience experience was odd. Sometimes there would be cheers, only to have them choked off by the next few seconds. This movie kept you on the edge of your seat. There were moments of funniness, and well done comic bits, but this is NOT a comedy.

During the Q&A, a gentleman (who said he liked 1000 corpses) described the movie as "the worst, most violent depraved movie I have ever seen. It glorifies violence..." This comment received some cheers. Rob replied VERY professionally (quote/paraphrase) " I think you might have had the perfect response. ...if you want truly depraved, see Cannibal Holocaust or Man Bites Dog... this movies does not glorify the violence, it shows how ugly and nasty it is... I don't want people to cheer the bad guys..."

Bottom line? This movie makes you uncomfortable. It is absolutely, positively NOT FOR EVERYONE!!! It takes a long, hard, ugly look at the exploits of some truly horrible human beings and their affect on their surroundings. It was also done extremely well. If you like this genre, it gets a solid 9. However, due to its general limited appeal, I have to drop it to a 7 overall.