The Devil's Rejects

Not the kind of movie I would normally even consider, but after recommendations from a couple of people who's opinion I trust, I rented the movie this weekend. Writer/Director Rob Zombie is obviously a great fan of 70s drive-in fare like "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and "The Hills Have Eyes" and has learned his lessons well. He has a solid directorial style and a great ear for comically profane dialog - the banter in this movie reminds me of "Goodfellas" with maniacal Southern rednecks rather than East Coast Italian mobsters. And with a cast that includes William Forsythe, Sid Haig, Geoffrey Lewis, Ginger Lynn Allen, Priscilla Barnes, Steve Railsback, P.J. Soles, Mary Waronov, Deborah Van Valkenburgh, and Michael Berryman, and a Super 70s Soundtrack featuring The Allman Brothers, The James Gang, David Essex, and Lynyrd Skynyrd among others - you know Zombie has his pop cultural/cult movie references in order. I enjoyed this movie more for the humor than the for the "horror". The characters are all named after various Marx Brothers characters and while the gore is graphic and there are some truly chilling images in the movie, Zombie just misses the "beat" to put some of these sequences over the top, while the acting performances by a couple of the leads - namely Zombie look-alike Bill Mosely and Zombie's utterly babe-o-licious wife Sherri Moon Zombie - are less than stellar (although in Ms. Zombie's case it doesn't really matter - major eye candy!). So, a "qualified" recommendation for those who don't normally go for this kind of movie but who think they might enjoy it based on the description above. I thoroughly enjoyed it myself and think Rob Zombie is a genuinely talented filmmaker who will eventually hit one out of the ballpark if he keeps at it, which I'm sure he will. He comes pretty darned close with "The Devil's Rejects".

Rob Zombie took the same characters he created for House of a Thousand Corpses and gave us a higher-budget, flashier, and more commercialized murder-shocker - The Devil's Rejects. This is certainly a prettier and more polished film, with better production values, occasionally brilliant camera-work, and better acting (despite having the same principal cast). The same elements of the original are mostly intact - a psychotic serial killing family, vaguely satanic sadism, comedy, torture and a lot of blood. What's missing are the ambiguities, the darkness and the outright psychosis which appear in "House". And to compensate the audience for the loss of some of the elements which made "House" a good film, Zombie throws in sex - the most over-used plot device in cinematic history. Of course, its not just sex, but sexual violence mixed with torture, blood and nightmares.

In other words, where 'house' was a dark, campy, creepy murder flick, "Rejects" is a light-drenched, raw, fairly (but not entirely) serious murder flick. No problems with the script, the acting, the concept, or even the plot - but, some definite problems with the entertainment value of the film. This just isn't terribly original and drops the idiosyncrasy of "House" for a typical Hollywood approach.

Rejects starts out with a police raid on the house of a thousand corpses. Most of the family escape through a tunnel in their basement (why the police were unable to find this tunnel is a mystery). The police nab the mother, who plays up the satanic expectations of the police interrogating her and infuriates the sheriff (well played by William Forsythe) into an obsessive, vengeful state (his brother had been murdered by the family years ago). The Fireflies leave a trail of terror and murder in their wake and Forsythe follows it, until he is able to set his trap. I won't go any further with the plot outline because I do not want to write a spoiler, but I do want to elaborate on Forsythe's intense performance. His rage and self-righteous wrath blur the boundaries between cops and criminals quite effectively as the story progresses. If you want to know what I mean, you'll have to see the film.

The Firefly family, through most of the film, consist of Otis a lank tall man with long stringy gray hair, Captain Spaulding, an intimidating evil and merciless clown and Baby, Spaulding's daughter, a cute blond particularly fond of torturing her male victims. The characters are more or less consistent with their portrayals in "House", but I have to admit, I think Shari Moon Zombie's Baby was very inconsistent from film to film. In "House" she is completely and utterly insane and fearless - using her shrill psychotic laughter especially well. In 'Rejects', she screams a lot, does a lot of running-away, and is actually fairly rational compared with her sadistic, torture-loving murderous kin.

Finally, I don't think you can really 'get' this film if you haven't seen 'House'. So if you have any reason to want to see it, see "House" first. Some of the behavior of the characters will make little sense to you without their back-story.

Bottom line: Weakly recommended for horror fans.

The Devil's Rejects is not always an easy film to watch. It has a genuine savagery that makes recent films such as Hostel or Saw II, non spectacular though they were, appear rather tame.

I think part of the reason the film is such uncomfortable viewing is through Rob Zombie's creation of a strong sense of ambiguity as to who we are supposed to sympathise with- who are the antagonists and the protagonists? Initially things seem quite clean cut- psychopathic killers= evil, Sheriff on a vigilante mission = good, but then the lines blur. The Sheriff turns nasty, yet we the audience take joy in his sadism- are we as bad as these killers? And at the same time we the audience feel flashes of sympathy for the killers too- through glimpses of their own, warped domestic bliss. This is interesting and

one that gets under your skin and disturbs.

I have to mention the humour also- which is also a nice contrast to darkness, though some of the humour is very close to the edge- you DO need those moments of light relief, to prevent the proceedings becoming completely grimy and depressing.

The only main downside of this film is it does at times feel overly long, almost deliberately drawn out,and that can distract from the intensity of things.

Personally this film marks a huge improvement for Rob Zombie after the debacle that was House Of 1000 Corpses, a masturbatory fan boy effort which had an okay build up but quickly descended into cartoony drivel. With The Devil's Rejects Rob Zombie seems to have shifted focus from being a kid with a film camera and a budget, and shifted focus on telling a story, and making the audience FEEL something, and he actually does a pretty good job of it too.

Special mention has to go to Sheri Moon. A real delight to watch. I can't help but smile when I see her on screen- I wouldn't be at all surprised if she finds herself with a huge gay following. A lovely mixture of sassiness, innocence and an edge of something slightly darker. I like her a lot- well at least when she's not making racist playground chants fashionable again.

I'm actually excited now about Zombie's remake/ reinvention/ prequel of Halloween. Okay so the term "remake/ reinvention/ prequel" fills me with an underlying sense of dread, but I'm going to breathe out and try trust Rob Zombie on this one. If nothing else, I know it'll be anything but bland.

This movie has some classic ingredients for a great horror movie. Interesting characters, some really vile gore scenes, bad language, unnecessary nudity, and some familiar faces; Leslie Easterbrook (from the Police Academy movies), Ken Foree (the original Dawn Of The Dead), 80's pop singer/actress E.G. Daily and Michael Berryman (The Hills Have Eyes) provide more than enough nostalgia for retro junkies, like myself.

The story isn't overly fast paced but the gore can be thick and pretty relentless and is at times implied rather than shown which I think adds to the experience. I really enjoyed Leslie Easterbrook as Mother Firefly (replacing Karen Black who was in the first movie, House Of 1000 Corpses). She does some wonderful overacting in her scenes, it's a shame she wasn't in it more, same goes for E.G. Daily who plays a sassy hooker. In fact everyone was great in their parts, let's face it this is not Shakespeare - this is a horror movie, I for one demand hammy over the top performances and a bit of camp! I don't want to give anything away but I will say my favourite scenes involved Mother Firefly and the sheriff, and Captain Spaulding and a mother and child. If you enjoyed House Of 1000 Corpses, this is a superior sequel in my mind and you wont be disappointed. If your idea of horror is a glossy PG-13 rated remake you might want to try weaning yourself onto this kind of movie with something a little less extreme.

OK, I loved "House of 1000 Corpses". I loved it for completely different reasons than I loved "The Devils Rejects". The mood in the first one is far more campy, almost cartoonish. The actual fear and horror mixed with that weird wink is perfect. "The Devils Rejects" on the other hand seems almost real. These people are out there...these people do not care about you or your children. Hell, they don't even care about your dog or furniture. The music, the angles, the complete disregard for the feelings of others. Blantant hedonism at it's best. Some folks walked out...I sat singing "Free Bird" till the screen went black. If it's for you, don't miss it. If you believe you are the least bit squeamish...go get that new direct to DVD Stitch movie!