It is easy to understand why some Universal executives believed rocker Rob Zombie could create an intense and gruesome horror film.

Zombie’s love of horror films is well known and is on display in his music video "Living Dead Girl." It is no surprise then that "House of A 1,000 Corpses" could easily contend for the worst horror film of the last decade.

The plot is basic. Four young adults are traveling cross country and stop at a roadside attraction. It is run by the only good aspect of the film, a character named Captain Spaulding. Spaulding sells chicken, gas and has "The Murder Ride."

The four kids go on it and are treated to gruesome tales of murderers, including one called Dr. Satan. Once the ride is over the kids have Spaulding draw a map to the spot in where the doctor was hanged 50 years ago.

The rest of the plot plays out like a remake of "Texas Chainsaw Massacre." This makes sense as Zombie has definitely modeled this film after 1970s exploitation horror films like "TCM" and "Last House on the Left."

The group run into a family of psychotics. The rest of the film showcases these offbeat villains as they slowly torture the youths to death in the villain’s house.

Before one even sees the movie, a certain round of kudos has to be given to Zombie for creating a film that hasn’t been seen for decades: a gritty, intense, and ultra-violent horror film whose sole aim is visceral thrills. In an age of teeny-bopper slashers, this is a good thing. It’s just too bad that Zombie had to fail on every level.

Zombie obviously has no idea how to write or direct a film.

Most of the time one can barely tell what is going on with misplaced jump-cuts, fuzzy editing and general incoherence. This movie had a simple plot, as the directing wouldn’t have allowed the audience to follow anything more complex.

There is also the fact that Zombie has no idea what made movies like "TCM" powerful. What gave those kinds of movies their visceral thrills was that their horror was rooted in reality. In this film, the characters of the psychotic family are written and played so over the top that one doesn’t believe any of this could happen in real life.

One has to wonder if these actors were on the same set, as they seem to be in completely different movies. For a good laugh, catch the character of Mama, head of the psychotic household, who seems to have walked off a really bad Tennessee Williams play.

One has to wonder what Zombie wanted this film to be. If the family was supposed to have an element of schlocky fun, that certainly fell flat. They weren’t scary or funny. They were annoying.

The movie simply wasn’t disturbing, as these events could only happen in bizarro world. If that isn’t bad enough, stock footage of other horror films are edited into many of the murder sequences. There’s no point to this aside from padding out running time. By the time the zombies and the androids pop up in the end for no apparent reason, the movie has simply given up and fallen apart.

Ironically, the first 15 minutes involving Captain Spaulding are hysterical. The campy tone, which the rest of the movie lacks, is played perfectly here by actor Sid Haig. Sadly, Spaulding disappears fast.

This movie is a failure on every level. The film is not scary, but it is incoherent, annoying and a failure of good intentions.