The Music and Movies of White Zombie, Pt. 4: From the Bowels of Hell
Welcome back to this special series where I’ll be covering the movies sampled and referenced by the greatest band in the world, White Zombie. In the last installment of the series we covered some films from Russ Meyer and took a deep dive into the life of ultimate badass Tura Santana. This installment we will be discussing From the Bowels of Hell - prison reform and the importance of capes. Let’s explore the films sampled in the next two songs, Soul Crusher and Cosmic Monsters Inc.
Compared to other songs on the La Sexorcisto album, Soul Crusher has a shockingly low amount of samples, one to be exact and it comes from a movie we already discussed in this series, High School Confidential. What it does have is multiple film references in the lyrics, each a highly symbolic film which includes a dystopian future and a commentary on prison reform.
Demon got my soul and I said "Drive!"
Come on -- speed kills -- but I'm alive yeah!
In my Durango 95 Yeah!
Casino on the edge she move like a twister
Gravity crank -- solo my sista -- Come on
She said "Take me away" Away Away
Shout!
That ‘Durango 95’ lyric is of course in reference to the classic film from Stanley Kubrick, A Clockwork Orange. This isn’t the only reference to that movie in the song. Zombie also references a red-red-kroovy and horror show later in the song. In an earlier entry of this series we discussed how the lyrics of Zombie’s songs make absolutely no sense but perhaps, the seemingly nonsense lyrics are just an homage to the crazy slang used in A Clockwork Orange and in that spirit, this article was almost written in Clockwork slang but my glorious editor suggested that would be horrible idea, a real horrorshow. (editor note: thank god he listened)
Now there have been numerous interpretations of this film over the years but for the sake of this article, we are going to look at what it says about the prison system. In the film, Alex, played by Malcom McDowell who Zombie cast as Dr. Loomis in his Halloween films, along with his group of droogs commit random acts of violence, culminating in a murder that gets Alex incarcerated. After a short stint in prison, he goes through an experimental therapy and is rehabilitated of his criminal urges. That’s the goal of the prison system right? Rehabilitate people so they can be released to lead “normal” lives as upstanding citizens, right? You would think so but as this film shows, that's not always the case.
Once Alex is set free from prison and is physically incapable of committing crimes the world does not welcome him with open arms. His parents essentially disown him, the local police treat him like a criminal, goading him into the committing more crimes and although Alex has paid his debt to society, it’s not good enough in the eyes of his victims and their families who seek revenge and retribution for the murder he committed. Whether Kubrick knew it or not, A Clockwork Orange made a huge statement on criminals being prosecuted and subsequently deemed rehabilitated/debt owed by the state. Granted, mob justice isn’t any good, but it's the best solution we have right?
Wrong! When a big state government is in charge it is at the whim of those in power and that changes pretty frequently. We see at the end of the film where a new regime is sympathetic to criminals, treating him with less condemnation and what is the end result? Alex gets his urges back and having not learned his lesson, sets out to continue his violent ways. It’s clear by the end of the film that neither is endless, crushing punishment nor is a truly sympathetic approach manageable in today’s society, so what is? A second reference in the film may hold the key.
Digg'n in my heart I find a human generator
Duke of N.Y. See Yeah! Eliminator
All you need is love - Yeah! Like
A cool and crazy freak machine she twanged
Off and out like I never seen
I'm gonna take her, I'm gonna take her
Down, her down, her down, watch out!
Okay, so maybe the reference to the Duke of NY is in regards to the bar that Alex and his droogs hang out at in Clockwork Orange, but for the sake of argument we are going to pretend it’s a reference to Escape From New York which has a completely different approach to prisons and that approach is freedom.
You see, The Duke’s got it all wrong. The whole movie is about the Duke of New York wanting to Escape from New York and use the president to get that escape. But why Duke? Why? Escape from New York and what? Get captured by the police and sent right back to New York? What are you gonna do Duke? Are you going to go from being the King, the A Number One driving around without a care in the world with chandeliers on your car to being some normal human in a Prius doing weekend lawn maintenance? What New York represents in the film is complete and total freedom. Sure you have to deal with roving gangs of assassins and scavengers, but if you have a weapon to arm yourself and a few good friends, you don't have much else to worry about. I am not a criminal but at times the New York of 1997 seems better than this “free” world we live in where certain movies are hard to get, certain books are banned, non-conformist thought is shunned and I have to use these stupid fucking paper straws. Freedom my friends, freedom is the best prison and the best prison is Escape from New York.
Onto something a little less serious as we dive into the next song on the record, Cosmic Monsters Inc.
“Meanwhile, behind the facade of this innocent looking bookstore”
I love this sample that opens up the song Cosmic Monsters Inc. so much! To me, it was always like “Oh what’s behind the facade?” and then this crunchy ass riff hits and you are like “Oh, heavy metal is behind the facade” and you start head banging and moshing around like a madman. The sample comes from a bizarre episode of the Adam West Batman series from season one titled Zelda the Great. In the episode, a bank robbery occurs on April Fool’s Day and the thief takes exactly $100,000 and leaves tons of other money behind. When the cops can’t figure out who committed the crime they call Batman and he gets the paper to run a story saying the money was counterfeit to get the criminal to steal again. He also detects that the criminal is a woman and she wore a bunch of colorful scarves, but who would wear a bunch of scarves to a crime scene?
Meanwhile, behind the façade of this innocent looking bookstore, there is the workshop of Eivol Ekdol who designs and builds illusions for magicians. An aging magician, Zelda the Great, comes to Eivol to buy tricks for her stage show but they cost $100,000 and for some reason, she doesn’t make enough money as a travelling magician so she resorts to robbing banks for $100,000.
It’s really, really silly and makes zero sense.
When Batman calls the newspaper and has them run the story about the money being fake the criminals are like, “Oh well, guess it’s true” and don’t even bother looking at the money. Batman also runs a story in the same paper advertising a rare emerald called the Star of Sammarkand which would be on display to which they immediately conclude, “Oh, that’s a Batman trap”. What makes less sense are the lyrics to this song:
How big is life? Can it ride like the butterfly?
Star in the dust -- rocketman -- supersky
Sugar on the hill -- Explode and never die
I think I will -- Come on take it!
High -- I gotta O yeah! Come on
So high -- I gotta O yeah! Come on!
So loosely illustrated -- A trick of light -- I demonstrated
Right to you what you do!
I don’t know what the fuck Rob Zombie is trying to say in this song, but I am just going to assume it’s a Batman trap or perhaps, a terrible plan from incompetent aliens.
They come from the bowels of hell
The transformed recent walking dead
Zombies guided by a master plan
For complete domination of the Earth.
Towards the end of Cosmic Monsters Inc. there is this sample from Plan 9 From Outer Space or what some people call the worst horror movie of all time. To be honest, you probably need to watch more terrible movies, seriously, the Witchcraft series of films has 16 entries and Amityville has 18. The worst of the worst of those alone would drop Plan 9 into the top 25 category at a minimum. What Plan 9 from Outer Space does have is probably the most inept aliens of all time, let’s take a moment and evaluate their plan for global domination.
So, the aliens' plan is that they will resurrect the dead to cause insanity on earth. They will then sit back and wait for the humans of earth to listen to their guidance and in return they will destroy the zombies. If the humans don’t listen, they will let the zombies destroy the earth and then they will destroy the earth with a doomsday weapon.
You have a doomsday weapon to threaten humanity but instead you unleash zombies? And you think humans will be like, “Oh aliens! Help us from these zombies!” but the aliens never officially said they were the one with the zombies. It doesn’t make any sense, at all, perhaps Rob Zombie took influence for his lyrics.
Stay tuned for the next installment of the series The Maddest Story Ever Told where we will cover the next two songs on the La Sexorcisto album; Spiderbaby (Yeah-Yeah-Yeah) which has samples from three of the greatest horror movies of all time and I Am Legend which is the first of many references to the classic piece of literature. Special guest appearances from Vincent Price, Sid Haig and Max von Sydow.
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