Horror feels right at home in Zombie's house
By Diana McKeon Charkalis, Special for USA TODAY
LOS ANGELES ? Inside the Zombie house, a wooden electric chair with leather straps sits by the front door. A full suit of armor stands nearby. There's
even a stuffed white mouse resting on an entryway table. But when a visitor comments that their Halloween decorating is coming along nicely, there's
laughter from musician/horror film director Rob Zombie and his wife, actress Sheri Moon Zombie.
No white walls for him: Rob Zombie, with wife sheri, says brightly-lit homes with white walls make him feel like he's at the dentist's.
By Dan MacMedan, USA TODAY
"We haven't done anything yet," says Rob, 40. "That's how it always is. It's our Christmas look, too."
The rest of the house follows suit in kitschy yet macabre style, creating an Addams Family-meets-The Texas Chainsaw Massacre look.
"We're really into atmosphere," says Rob, whose movie The Devil's Rejects is out on DVD Nov. 8. "So it's almost like we're doing art direction in our
house." At most people's homes, "they'll have all the lights turned on and white walls and I'll feel like I'm in a dentist's office."
Rob, a connoisseur of things horrific, feels more at ease among the dearly departed. Take the living room, for example, a taxidermy treasure-trove.
All manner of stuffed animals live in the expansive space, which the couple uses mostly for entertaining. There are deer, a lion, and a particularly
creepy cross-eyed coyote. A recent addition ? a monkey ? is perched on the coffee table. But the star of the room is the 12-foot polar bear in the
corner. It's a prop from the original Addams Family TV series.
"Once you have one dead thing, people give you more," he says. "We get a lot of taxidermy for birthdays and Christmas."
Most of the walls are covered with the vintage horror movie posters that Rob collects. More are still rolled up and he says he's trying to curb the
urge to acquire. "We're paring down," he says. "I don't want to feel like I'm a museum curator in my own house."
The 6,000-square-foot home once belonged to actor Dan Blocker (Bonanza's Hoss), and before they moved in, it was inhabited by a dentist with a
penchant for peach. At first, they painted many of the walls black. But it proved too dark for the 1928 English Tudor's interior, which didn't allow
much light in to begin with.
"Rob would go off to the studio and I would call him and say, 'I can't walk through the entryway; I can't see,' " Sheri says.
Since then, they have brightened things up, switching to aged reds and oranges. "It is a lot of work, but with every change we make, it gets better
and we're more comfortable," she says.
Originally a four-bedroom house, it has been reduced to two; the other two have been converted into a gym and a screening room. The couple also made
one outbuilding a game room with a row of pinball machines. "Class of 1812" was purchased in part because it features a voice that announces: "My name
is Zombie and I'm your host." There's also an "Elvira and the Party Monsters" game. The real-life Elvira, actress Cassandra Peterson, a friend of
theirs, tried it out once during a visit.
The Zombies met 13 years ago through a friend and have been together ever since. They eloped three years ago on Halloween and now share their home
with five pets: Dracula, a pug, and cats Lily, Boris, Spooky and Frankenstein.
The only spot devoid of horror in their house is the guest room, which Sheri decorated with a soothing palette of greens and creams and nary a monster
in sight. "I wanted it to look like The Four Seasons," she says.
Rob, who founded the '80s hard-core punk/rock band White Zombie, is recording a solo album for release in March. He directed dozens of his band's
videos before making his first feature horror film, House of 1,000 Corpses, in 2003; Sheri stars. Next up: The Haunted World of El Superbeasto, an
animated film based on his own comic book. "It's sort of like Austin Powers meets The Munsters, (but rated) NC-17."
Last Halloween, the couple had more than 1,000 trick-or-treaters come to the door. "Instead of making it like 'Happy Halloween,' we had all these
realistic-looking severed limbs and hung them from the trees and lit them," he says. "It looked really cool and really scary."
Sheri dressed as a friendly witch and Rob donned what he describes as a "giant, evil pumpkin head."
"The kids would start screaming and crying," he recalls. "And then Sheri was super-nice to them and was like, 'Here, have some candy.' "
Rob Zombie's five favorite films to screen for Halloween:
1. Frankenstein (1931). "The one that started it all."
2. Freaks (1932). "As disturbing now as it was over 70 years ago."
3. Halloween (1978). "Simple, scary and brilliant."
4. Dawn of the Dead (1978). "Seen this 200 times and I love it more each time."
5. The Devil's Rejects (2005). "Whoever made this film is insane."
she is soooo fucking hot.KyleOz - 10-28-2005 at 12:27 PM
She was living dead girl right?XHonusWagnerX - 10-28-2005 at 12:50 PM
Quote:
Originally posted by KyleOz
She was living dead girl right?
YUP! She is hot....Jason the Magnificent - 10-28-2005 at 01:13 PM
When she walks in front of the camera in 1000 corpses and those pajama bottms are slipping down....holy mother of fuck.XHonusWagnerX - 10-28-2005 at 01:29 PM
Quote:
Originally posted by Jason the Magnificent
When she walks in front of the camera in 1000 corpses and those pajama bottms are slipping down....holy mother of fuck.
YUP & with the glasses on in that whole scene! Then done up in the pale white face make up and curley hair. In Devils Rejects when her and Otis are
making the big get away at the begining and her pants are coming down as they walk through a river.
And what ever Rob Zombie video it was where its like a Clockwork Orange ripp off. She was hot in that too.Discipline - 10-28-2005 at 03:28 PM
She is one hot piece of ass. Has she ever done anything not related to her husband?XHonusWagnerX - 10-28-2005 at 11:48 PM
Quote:
Originally posted by Discipline
She is one hot piece of ass. Has she ever done anything not related to her husband?
shes in a movie called Toolbox Murders that I dont think Rob had anything to do with, but thats it I think.brooklyn - 10-29-2005 at 11:36 AM
