Devil's Rejects, The

The Devil's Rejects is not an easy film to review, I had to see it three times before I could even form a semi-clear opinion. Technically speaking it's very well done and it has a graphic style most horror films avoid like the plague, but that doesn't mean it's an easy film to watch. When I first saw House of 1000 Corpses I didn't quite know what to make of it. Sure, it had it's moments, but with each further viewing it's numerous flaws hit you like a punch in the face. The annoying camera gimmicks, like colour tinted home video footage and brief music video montages, had me rolling my eyes, while the third act of the film was a complete joke. I feared if they ever did do a sequel it would be yet another confusing Texas Chainsaw wannabe. Thankfully I was proven wrong. There's not a campy bone to be found in The Devil's Rejects, a film so brutal, raw, and, at times, uncomfortable to watch that I completely understand why so many people disliked it.

I'm sure everyone knows the story by now so I'll just give a brief synopsis. The Firefly family is hunted down by the brother of one of the murdered cops from 1000 Corpses and it turns into the road trip from hell. That pretty much sums it up. Rob Zombie's writing and directorial skills have come a very long way since Corpses. Reject's script is much tighter and character driven, and thank god he's ditched all those tired camera tricks he used in Corpses, instead he opts for hand held shots and extreme close ups to convey the horror in Rejects. I'm sure he knew doing a tired retread of Corpses would have been the easy and safe route to take, but where's the fun in that? Why not make a film that's completely different in style and tone. Some of the best sequels in the genre are the ones that dare to be different from their predecessors. Bride of Chucky, Wes Craven's New Nightmare, Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, all of these films took chances and because of that they really are love ‘em or hate ‘em movies. The Devil's Rejects can now be added to that list as it has more in common with Bonnie & Clyde and Last House on the Left than it dose 1000 Corpses.

Aside from Zombie's much improved writing and directing skills, he's also developed quite a knack for inspired casting. Bill Moseley, Sid Haig and Sharri Moon Zombie all reprise their roles and once again give some fantastic performances (Haig and Moesley more so than Moon), but Karen Black has been replaced by Leslie Easterbrook (the hot blonde from the Police Academy films) and this hurts the film a great deal. I must have herd every person in the theater say "that's not the mother from the last one". Not only does she barely look like Karen Black (her false bad teeth have mysteriously vanished) but she gives a really poor performance, sometimes going so over-the-top it's painful to watch. Thankfully she's not given much screen time and we have a fantastic cast of supporting characters to make up for it. William Forsythe, Ken Foree, Priscilla Barnes and Geoffrey Lewis all give fantastic performances, and the cameos from P.J. Soles, Michael Berryman, Ginger Lynn Allen and Steve Railsback are some of the best scenes in the movie. But it really are the performances by Moseley, Haig and Forsythe that drive the film and hold it together. When I met Bill Moseley last summer he told me filming the scenes in the motel were some of the hardest things he's ever had to do in his life, now I completely understand what he meant.

Although Rejects contains some of the most brutal violence and subject matter I've ever seen, it also has it's share of dark humor, and when I say dark I mean DARK. Scenes like Captain Spaulding having some crazy sex are meant to be funny but others I'm sure only a very small percent found funny. Did everyone laugh when that guy got shot in the head and his buddy puked, or when Otis is making his escape and it's revealed he has a dozen tortured girls caged up in the basement? Probably not, but that's the kind of stuff Rob Zombie dares some of us to find disturbingly funny.

SPOILERS ahead. He also dares us to empathize with some of the most twisted psychos ever put on film. Not everyone will feel this way, only us sick and twisted people. Towards the end of the film I saw Sheriff Wydell as the bad guy, not the Firefly family. I wanted Wydell to bite the dust, not Otis or Captain Spaulding. I did feel kinda bad for the people the Firefly family were torturing and killing, yet when they are being tortured at the end by Wydell I felt even worse for them and didn't want to see them die. When Tiny finally kills Wydell at the end I almost stood up and cheered while my sister looked at me like I was crazy, as she wanted to see the Firefly family get what they deserved. I think this is just because we in the horror genre have been raised to root for the bad guy, under the right circumstances. Had Michael Myers been killed by Dr. Loomis the audience would have been satisfied, but had Busta Rhymes killed him it would have been an outrage. The same can be said about the conclusion of The Devil's Rejects. Had the Firefly family been tortured and killed by Wydell I would have been pissed, but since they went out in style, a la Bonnie & Clyde, I was satisfied.

One of the other major improvements I liked about Rejects was the soundtrack. Tyler Bates provides a fantastic score and I can quickly see him becoming a major force in the horror genre. Not for a second did I buy the fact that House of 1000 Corpses took place in the70's because all we ever herd was Rob Zombie music, but thankfully this is not the case in Rejects. In fact I don't think Zombie has a single song in the movie, but instead has put together a fantastic collection of tunes from the good old days with bands like The Allman Brothers, Steely Dan, Muddy Waters and Lynyrd Skynyrd. This really helps the atmosphere of the film.

As you can tell I really enjoyed the film, it surpassed my expectations and blew that huge disappointment House of 1000 Corpses right out of the water. About the only complaints I have are the films length and the fact we never find out what happened to Dr. Satan considering he was the entire focus of the original film (I know his scenes were deleted and will be on the DVD). At least 10 minutes could have been shaved and the movie wouldn't have lost any of it's impact. Because as much as I enjoyed the film I must have checked my watch about 5 times during the ultra slow motion conclusion to "Free Bird". The Devil's Rejects is not a fun movie, it's not a campy movie, and sometimes it's downright painful to watch (in a good way), but it invokes a reaction from the audience and stays with you long after you've left the theater, even if you didn't like it. And that's something no horror film from the past twenty years has done. I can't wait to see what Rob Zombie has in store for us next.