The Devil's Rejects

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!

I went to this movie having seen 1000 Corpses which I thought was a great retro B style horror in the Texas Chainsaw massacre genre.

This movie FAR exceeded any expectation I had. Zombie NAILED it in this one. Classic Freeze frames, awesome soundtrack(used with purpose)-Just enough gore with out going over the top.. the essential random nudity shots that we B fans have come to expect. Suspenseful through-out.

I realize that what makes all of these components work:

A- This movie (Unlike 99% of all B Horros) is not predictable. You do not know what is going to happen next.

B- Zombie builds characters. You learn history and connections, and see things from their view.

C- Slight comedic aspect added.

Summary: MUST SEE, MUST OWN

in the words of my horror loving awe-struck friend "This is hands down the best B horror I have ever seen!"

Reasons to watch this film (one or more may apply):

• If you love Rob Zombie's work
• If you have seen House of 1000 Corpses
• If you like, love, or at least can tolerate mindless, brutal, sadistic violence, sometimes in a sexual manner
• You are not judgmental of Rob Zombie's personal character at all
• You are in a morbid mood
• You have yet to see it and feel like you're so desensitized to graphic cinema
• You hate roadies
• You like dark, dark, DARK comedy
• You love the F-word
• You're a fan of the actors
• You're not yet sick of Free Bird
• Sheri Moon Zombie turns you on (just don't tell Rob!)
• The constant depiction of how horrible people can act towards another, with a complete lack of empathy or good will, does not bother you

Reasons NOT to watch this film:

• If graphic violence upsets you
• If you hate clowns on any level
• If you have seen other live-action works by Rob Zombie and absolutely hated it
• If you can't handle (and seriously, no shame if you can't) profanity, anti-religious acts by fictional characters, a cinematic void of anything uplifting and good, and the theme that no one is pure and that all mankind is inherently downright evil.

• If suggested necrophilia is a deal-breaker
• If you cannot understand that the actors, along with Rob Zombie, are actually normal people who are pretty cool to their fans
• If depictions of physical AND mental torture just isn't your thing
• If the slightest bit of violence gives you nightmares (seriously, if you can't handle a character suffering from a paper cut, you haven't a chance to handle this movie)

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.