The Devil's Rejects

by Dane Youssef

Rob Zombie is without a doubt one of the most versatile and true-to-his-genre artists out there. "The Devil's Rejects" is the kind of movie uptight censors and worried parents always warned you was gonna get made some day.

A movie where the leads are psychopathic murderers, the violence is excess and the gore is so voluminous, that you have to ask: "Does this movie satirize this kind of sadism... or celebrate it? Is it a fun campy parody... or a sign that we may have gone too far with our ultra-violent-based entertainment?" This movie actually defines the term "overkill." Three of the more interesting deranged killers from "House Of 1000 Corpses" get their own spin-off in the "Frasier" or "Jeffersons" tradition. The three, who are a family, actually (a father and his son and daughter) go on a mass killing spree and are racing out of the country to legal freedom on the other side of the border. They seem to echo the Manson Family.

Their sense of humor is the kind of acquired taste like the movie itself has. It stems from the experience you'd get from... watching slasher movies throughout a lot of your life. Like lime green Jell-O, anchovies, fish eggs and black licorice, this is not for all tastes.

The movie is actually a lot smarter and more complex than you might imagine, if you're unfamiliar with what Zombie's movies are about. It's akin to films like "From Dusk 'Til Dawn," "Vulgar," "Desperado" and "Freaked." If you like these types of "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and "Friday the 13th" re-vamping in the video-geek traditions, here is a movie you may hold up as one for the history books. The dialogue is written a twisted brilliant way and the direction has a real retro-'70's homey-quality to it. In a way that doesn't feel contrived.

Sid Haig, Bill Moseley and Sheri Moon are all so perfectly demented in their roles, you have to wonder what they're like in real life. You pray they're nothing like they are here... and hope you never come across anyone remotely like this either.

Sheri Moon, wife of director Zombie, looks more like a typical American model-actress than the degenerate rank-skank she plays here. Moseley is real-life, was actually a columnist and Heig often played scuzzy thugs, but played the judge in Tarantino's "Jackie Brown."

I find it incredibly strange that some people seem to be COMPLAINING that the pursuing cop character (the sheriff, John Quincy Wydell) is as sadistic and mentally unbalanced as the family killers themselves. Why?

Yes, he is. But... why?

Why is that a bad thing? In any way at all?

Look, if there's anything history and government have taught us, it's that it takes one to catch one. Not just in the movies, but in life. And not just in real life, but in movies as well. You see, it's not just an opinion. It's a fact. It's the way of the world.

People... do we all not remember Tommy Lee Jones in "The Fugitive"? His I-Will-Catch-him-By-Any-Means-Nessicary-Law Enforcer way was one of the true milestones in the movie, and it got him an Oscar. Would we want any of the other major characters to be far less interesting than the leads?

When you eat a meal of any kind, you don't just want a rich main course and the side dishes to be as tasteless as styraphone. You want a whole meal you can taste.

And the stuff with the sheriff and the rest of the cops IS something to see. Why? Because he isn't any kind of undeveloped character. Zombie made him (and everything else) just as big, broad, colorful and energetic as the '70's genre that this one stems from.

There's some humor with the Kentucky-Fried Sheriff and the rest of his "Good Ol' Boys" in Blue. It goes without saying that in a small town, the cops are all red-necked. The way the stereotype of the small-town cop in a campy-slasher pic is handled with more laughs than usual. And there's a great moment where they call in a specialist, a film historian (see: uber film geek) to help them with the investigation and this film critic.... well, suffice to say, he insults the name of God in the house of the Lord and that's all I'm gonna say.

We all know Zombie is a neo-talent outside of the music biz. He did the LSD effect in "Beavis & Butthead Do America."

The end may justify the means, in this case. The hick cops and the colorful killers... in the end, it's an ending we all knew we deserved.

Speaking of Zombie, his film debut "House of 1000 Corpses," was a film I found to be embarrassingly bad. I'm a fan of those types of rock-horror camp movies in the "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and "House Of Wax" vein. SEVERED vein, in this case. But everything was played out so campy, so cheaply, so maudlin, so without suspense... that Zombie, I felt, made a movie that seems to be an insult, rather than a tribute to those horror-show camp classics.

But he's redeemed himself with this one. He's working without a net and it all could have gone horribly, pathetically wrong. So I give him props. BIG, BIG PROPS.

As I'm writing this now, he's currently re-making "Halloween." Though I wish he wouldn't, really. Why re-paint the Mona Lisa? Give it eyebrows, what? Will that REALLY be an improvement?

Brace yourself. Not for all tastes. Procceed with caution. Use extreme care.

NOT FOR THE FAINT-HEARTED, SQUEAMISH, PRUDISH... OR TOO MORAL.

by Dane Youssef

The Devil's Rejects has such a powerful name that the movie itself had to live up to... and it exceeded my expectations.

A fun sequel that plays out more like a police thriller than a horror movie.

Well balanced between gritty, over-the-top performances and fun, light-hearted-ness. It's hard to say whether this film tops its predecessor when their inspirations reside in two different area codes.

I find this is a better film, but this and House of 1000 Corpses seem to serve different purposes.

In any case, The Devil's Rejects is a more realized and stylized film that dishes out an enjoyable viewing experience.

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.

I just saw this film at a sneak preview screening in San Francisco. I had really loved Zombie's first film, HOUSE OF 1,000 CORPSES, and was looking forward to seeing how he was going to "re-create" the characters from that first film into this new one.

Stylistically, this film is exceptional. Zombie knows how to build tension and has a real gift for being able to pay homage to the horror flicks of the 70's without insulting or copying them. His choices in casting is genius and the performances in this film are quite good.

However, gone is the camp-value he infused into CORPSES. This film takes itself much more seriously and this does not help. In fact, the fact that Zombie focuses more on horror and torture without the same level of dark humor makes the film come off as somewhat cruel. Are we to actually enjoy seeing the victims tortured? Somehow, the fun of his first film is absent.

However, for those of us who have an appreciation for the films of the original 70's renegade film makers such as Tobe Hooper -- you can't help but enjoy Zombie's style of filming. This film also enjoys have some of the best southern rock ever created to serve as its soundtrack.

The three lead actors stand out and give great performances, but one wishes Zombie would have allowed them to go a bit more over the top. Karen Black did not return to play Moma Firefly which is too bad, but the actress who takes over the role does a great job.

In the end -- I think this is an interesting and valid second film from Rob Zombie, but I hope that he allows his cast and his audience to have a bit more fun. The world has enough torture and violence -- if we are to see it in a film it needs to give us a bit of a scare and a bit of a laugh. If only he had utilized that dark/twisted since of humor a bit more.

Still, it is worth a look -- but not for those of you who get upset by violence. And, please, this is not a movie for children. There was a child at last night's screening. That poor baby is going to be scarred for life!

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.