Ahoy, squirts! Quint here... Now I saw THE DEVIL'S REJECTS the night before I left for Comic-Con. Throw in 2 last minute set visits (one in Mexico for a low-budget horror movie -info coming soon- and the other up in LA to visit The D) and any chance I had to review the movie was killed. Below you'll find a plethora of reviews for Rob Zombie's flick... some I agree with and some not so much...
Personally, I think the film is a giant step forward for Rob Zombie. Before HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES came out there was all this buzz about it being the hardest, most balls to the wall horror movie ever and it didn't even come close to living up to that reputation. However, THE DEVIL'S REJECTS does. There's still a lot of awkward video style editing, but it's not batshit out of control crazy like it was in the first film. There's also some really cheesy, cheesy-ass lines. "Dyin's not an option!" BUT the movie does work and it IS hard as hell and Sid Haig has one of my favorite scenes in any film I've seen t his year... Let's just say it involves him and PJ Soles. Also, and this is not a complaint, but Rob really, really loves his wife's ass. For good reason, mind you, but boy does he go out of his way to show it to us. Again, I am not complaining, but it is something that stood out for me... um... I mean I noticed. For any horror fan or '70s grindhouse fan (If Rodriguez's and Tarantino's GRINDHOUSE doesn't look like THE DEVIL'S REJECTS, then something's wrong) this is a must see. I'm interested in seeing how this divides people because it most definitely will.
Anyway, enough about me... here's the first of the bunch, from our very own MiraJeff! Enjoy!
Good day AICN'ers, MiraJeff here to take on The Devil's Rejects, Rob Zombie's follow-up to House of 1000 Corpses. For the record, so you know where I'm coming from, I thought Corpses was a forgettable exercise in horror that sacrificed story for stylized violence. While The Devil's Rejects is more of the same, it does trump Corpses in both regards, adding up to a worthwhile sequel for hardcore fans of the genre.
Zombie succeeds in dodging the sophomore slump not just because Corpses was underwhelming, but because Rejects is even more sadistic and depraved. Zombie has clearly grown as a filmmaker, though he does manage to veer into overkill territory, as we should all expect him to by now. Ever since his White Zombie days, he's always been a peculiar personality, and his morbid fascination with clowns is downright creepy. Clowns have always scared the shit out of me too, from Killer Klowns and John Wayne Gacy to Homey, Shakes, and It. And while Captain Spaulding (Sid Haig) has earned the right to be lumped in with the aforementioned characters, he seems "relatively" tame compared to his maniacal offspring, The Unholy Two of Otis (Bill Moseley) and Baby (Sherri Moon Zombie). Rejects follows these two humanized demons after they escape an illegal raid on their house by Sheriff John Wydell (William Forsythe) and a fuckload of renegade cops. All these tobacco-spitting, Aviator shade-wearing officers of the law with itchy trigger fingers have no idea about the house of horrors they're stepping into. It is a world of unimaginable pain and suffering, all of which is documented in several gruesome scrapbooks that reminded me of John Doe's notebooks in Se7en. During this opening sequence, the Rejects dress in full body armor and look like a mix of Jason Voorhees and a welders' union. Zombie treats us to a delightful freeze-frame credit sequence set to the Allman Bros' "Midnight Rider" that reminded me of the grindhouse horror flicks of the 70's and more recently, David Gordon Green's Undertow.
Eventually, Otis and Baby hideout in a motel where they take hostages to have fun with, torturing them both mentally and physically. Wydell tracks them down with the help of two bounty hunters (Danny Trejo and Diamond Dallas Paige) and the Unholy Two are forced to go on the run again, this time joined by Daddy Spaulding on their endless trip of mayhem and murder. Wydell is a no-good fucking junkyard dog in this movie and Forsythe has the perfect blend of swagger and intensity to make him come to life in the film. His is a revenge story that involves him getting even with the demented family who murdered his brother. Zombie gets middling performances out of his other actors, most notably his wife, Sherri Moon, who is a complete whack-job and simply not a talented actress, as well as Moseley, who comes off at times like a homicidal Stifler. Haig is enjoyable as the patriarch of this insane clan, but his dialogue is so tongue-in-cheek that Capt. Spaulding plays like Beetlejuice with a mean streak. Aside from Forsyth, the film's best performance comes from Leslie Easterbrook as the deranged Mother Firefly. She chews scenery and manages to hold her own against Forsythe in their brief scenes together. There are also some fun smaller roles that underscore Zombie's appreciation for old school horror vets, such as Ken Foree (Dawn of the Dead) Michael Berryman (The Hills Have Eyes), P.J. Soles (Halloween), Tom Towles (Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer), Ginger Lynn (a lot of pornos I own) and Brian Posehn (Mr. Show).
The soundtrack is an eclectic but entertaining mix of hillbilly blues and Southern-fried rock. The end of the film finds Zombie getting a bit too self-indulgent, as he films an extended road trip into the sunset set to 'Free Bird,' which is way too long and leaves some unanswered questions. The film could stand to be significantly shorter and its momentum is ruined with too many comic asides and Tarantino wanna-be monologues that involve Elvis, the Marx Brothers, and chicken fucking.
Rejects succeeds in showcasing the darker side of humanity by making its characters remorseless killing machines, like a trio of Natural Born Killers who get off on inspiring fear in others, rather than motivated by love. This is a gory horror film that deserves a bigger audience than it's going to get. I have no idea how pussy J-horror remakes like The Ring 2, The Grudge, and the truly awful Dark Water attract more horror fans to theaters. It will be interesting to see if Rejects can bring out the weirdos and lure in the crazies for another sadomasochistic story of trashy terror. The film may leave some viewers with a bad taste in their mouths, but I, for one, was relieved to finally see a horror movie with some balls. I mean, High Tension was great but that ending sucked. I'll leave this one to the TalkBackers and promise to be back soon with a review of 9 Songs. Til then, happy hunting...
Here's the next!
Just got back from an advanced screening of Rob Zombie’s THE DEVIL’S REJECTS and here are a few thoughts....
Imagine a less grueling LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT with comic relief that actually works and you’d be close to THE DEVIL’S REJECTS; a movie that delivers (and then some) on the fleeting moments of promise that HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES occasionally hinted at.
After a brilliantly paced and choreographed opening shoot-out at the Firefly hideout we follow the surviving members of the cult as they take hostages and are pursued by the fanatical Sheriff Wydell (played by a very menacing William Forsythe).
One of the things I enjoyed most about HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES was the demented tone of the whole thing. We get the unsettling feeling that the filmmaker is rooting for the bad guys, cheering them on as they torment and kill their victims. In this film Rob Zombie does something altogether different but just as unsettling; he makes the villains human. He does this not only by writing the characters as three dimensional, but by emphasizing that the Firefly clan, above all else, is a family. This is particularly brought home by the few scenes that Captain Spaulding (Sid Haig) and his brother Charlie Altamont (Ken Foree) share together. The two actors have amazing on-screen chemistry and it’s very easy to believe these two have been through a lot of shit together.
Another stand-out element of this film is the humor. There are some hilarious moments in this film. Our reintroduction to Captain Spaulding, an inappropriate conversation about chickens and countless one-liners delivered by Otis Driftwood (Bill Moseley) provide more than adequate comic relief to the grim, gritty proceedings.
A few nitpicks: The actress playing Mother Firefly horribly overacts and is very distracting, Zombie’s frequent reliance on tight close ups can be occasionally jarring and there’s a rather obvious homage to LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT that doesn’t pack a fraction of the cinematic “punch” the original scene does.
Overall though, Rob knocks this one out of the park. He’s made a ballsy, brutal, blackly humorous flick that’s probably as close to 70’s exploitation revenge cinema as we’ll get until Tarantino & Rodriguez hit us up with GRINDHOUSE.
If you use this you can call me LovesLikeRabies.
Peace
Now, the Geek in the City's spoiler free review!
In much the same way that Desperado is a pseudo-sequel to El Mariachi, Rob Zombie’s The Devil’s Rejects is a loose sequel to House of a 1,000 Corpses. Like Corpses, The Devil’s Rejects has a harsh and gritty style no longer scene in modern cinema, particularly in this modern era of flashy horror films. I was a little disappointed in Zombie’s first attempt at feature filmmaking. His love for the 1970s style horror film was evident, but House of a 1,000 Corpses felt like Rob had taken all his favorite elements from films like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Last House on the Left, and The Hills Have Eyes tossed them in a blender and shot it. While The Devil’s Rejects is far from a perfect horror film, it does reveal that Rob Zombie is growing as a director and writer as he was able to take his simply slasher film characters and make them a bit more believable.
What is good?
Zombie knows his genres well and he uses this knowledge. He seamlessly melded traditional horror film elements with the rarely tapped hyper-violent psycho-killer flicks that came out of the failed counter culture movement of the late 60s and early 70s. Avoiding blatant gore to elicit shrieks from the viewer, Zombie lets the situation itself build tension and dread within the audience. There were many moments where I, a huge horror fan, found myself wanting to turn my head because I was certain something horrorific was about to happen; only to have the tension lessened just enough to let my guard down. A mistake I made multiple times as I jumped and squirmed in my seat. While I will avoid any spoilers, I feel I should warn folks. There is a scene in The Devil’s Rejects that will give you nightmares without a spilling a drop of blood. Zombie is able to draw strong performances in The Devil’s Rejects. The actors are surprisingly solid, particularly for a genre, which lately, has been known for cheesy one-liners and poor dialogue.
What is not so good?
It seems as if Rob Zombie is still trying to find his own personal style. The film will shift from a basic steadicam or dolly shot to a shakycam, NYPD style of shooting. While this change in shooting can be disorienting enough when it happens in between scenes, the effect is downright jarring when it happens within the same scene. In fact, most of my issues I have with Devil’s Rejects are not pure criticisms. Rob Zombie is a growing director and like all living entities, his art is experiencing some growing pains. While I was surprised at how well Zombie was able to walk the line between horror and crime film, I felt he kept his story a little too far on the crime side and people expecting a pure horror film may be disappointed. Those who only have slight knowledge of Rob Zombie and his work may assume the film is filled with gore. It is surprisingly light on the gore side, allowing the viewers own mind to fill in the horrific blanks. However, what gore was used relied heavily (at least to me) on CGI. When used in conjuncture with traditional gore effects, CGI can help augment the scene as evidenced in Land of the Dead. However, in a film that is so grittily filmed, the CGI gore sticks out like a sore thumb.
As I said, it is not perfect, but when Rob Zombie is in his groove, The Devil’s Rejects works and it works well. When he is off, the film falls a bit flat. If you are a fan of gritty horror films and you were sorely let down by the story and characters in High Tension (as I was), then give The Devil's Rejects a viewing. The Devil's Rejects is a good sophomore outing for Rob Zombie. If he continues to grow as a filmmaker then I see him graduating into a master of the horror genre.
I give The Devil's Rejects 3.5 Critical Hits out of 5.
I'd agree about the CG blood standing out from the rest of the movie, but damn that scene where... when you see the aftermath of... well, I'll leave that one a surprise. Maybe it'll hit you as hard as it hit me when I saw it. This next one is the last of the bunch and has clip links! This one comes from a fan of the original. Enjoy!!
Hi Harry, feel free to call me FeistyGirl! My hubby sent in the first review of Battlefield Earth years ago...
A friend of mine hooked me up with tickets to a sneak preview of The Devil's Rejects at a local Drive-In. Basically it is a Sequel to House of 1000 Corpses by Rob Zombie. To summarize, I really enjoyed the original flick (although the ending was atrocious, but I will get to that) and I would have to say this one is head and shoulders above the original, but I will get to that shortly.
If you have never been to a Drive-In movie I strongly urge you to go to one, they are so cool... They play cartoons before the movie, cheesy old 'Refreshment Stand' videos from the 50s (Yes, the Hot Dog jumping into the Bun with comments like "Have a Gay old time") You get to hang out in your car and do whatever you want to. (and I mean ANYTHING hehehe, no wonder they were so popular with the teens back in the day) We brought a butt load of snacks and drinks with us, and just vegged... halfway through the movie I was getting a little hot (was a humid night out) so I just said the hell with it and stripped down to a smile. Best part was a car full of people 5 feet away and they were none the wiser... Heehee
Before the movie started, they had a Trivia Contest and were giving away all sorts of prizes... Figured I would walk over and try my luck. I like to think I am a movie buff, and horror movies are my specialty, so I figured.. why not? Well 3 questions in and they wouldn't let me answer anymore.. out of a dozen or so questions I got all but 2 right first... and the two were Rob Zombie music questions and not Movie Trivia (was never a huge RZ music fan other then Dragula and a few older White Zombie tunes) The guy next to me said to me 'Thank God you're not allowed to answer anymore or we wouldn't get anything" I ended up walking away with a 4 ft wide poster with the image below:
Got kind of a cool 'Last Supper' vibe to it, huh?
Also got a cool beach towel with the same image, and a box of 50 matchbooks from Charley's Frontier Town (it was where they were headed in the film) All in all I made out like a bandit, whoohoo!!!! I'll take pics of the swag and tonight and update the Blog
On to the Show!
The Devil's Rejects
OK, this will be pretty much Spoiler Free. Anything that you read here is pretty much revealed in the first 10 minutes of the movie...
For Starters, I was a fan of the original movie. I thought it was a great 9/10 of a flick. The ending with Dr. Satan and his lair felt completely out of place IMO... the original was a great tribute to the late 70's Slasher flicks. The entire movie had a very realistic feel to it, and then at the end they make these 2 cheesy Uber-Bad guys that are completely unrealistic and terrible makeup jobs, given the tone of the rest of the movie... It was the equivalent of watching Silence of the Lambs, and then at the very end having Pinhead from Hellraiser be in his basement... makes no sense right?
Anyway here is one important bit of information everyone needs to know about this movie:
It is NOT a Horror Movie at all!
It does not make any premises of being one. It is a 'Fugitives on the Run' movie. Overall I would say the closest comparisons would be the 1st half of the movie From Dusk Till Dawn and Natural Born Killers
Now, that being said, I would consider this movie to be a MUCH better movie overall then the first one. It picks up an undetermined amount of time after the first movie. Basically, the cops have found out who the Firefly Family is and what they are doing. They surround their house and a shootout occurs. Some of the family is killed, some are captured, and some escape... The ones that escape band together and make a run for a Safehouse run by a friend in another part of Texas. All the while they are being pursued by the Police and Bounty Hunters, and they have to do whatever they can to make it to safety....
Let me start by getting the negative point out of the way, although some would consider it a big one:
The Characters - This movie takes itself very seriously, unlike the campiness of the first movie. As a result, you don't really care for the characters at all. These are VERY bad people, and they do very bad things to others around them. It is very hard to feel any sympathy for these characters at all. Even Captain Spalding, whom I thought was a RIOT in the first movie, is taken very seriously in this movie.. he ditches the makeup almost immediately, and, because of the serious situation they are in, almost has none of his vulgar charm from the first movie. They all have their moments here and there, and they play off each other very well (I particularly enjoyed the ice cream scene), but overall I would have to say it is very hard to relate or feel for these characters, ESPECIALLY if you had not seen the first movie. The only character I even remotely felt any sympathy towards was Baby, and that was only because she is so damn Sexy and Carefree! *drool*
That being said, here is what I particularly enjoyed about this movie:
Cinematography - The cinematography in this film is outstanding! Rob decided to pretty much ditch all of the MTV style from the first movie, and went with a full on tribute to 70's style filmmaking... this film looks and feels like a movie from the 70s, and if you didn't know better you could swear it was made in that era. It is not an homage to the 70s, nor does it use any cliches. It had that gritty, serious, artistic look that fits the film perfectly.
Realism - Remember what I said about the ending of House? Well, luckily they completely ignore that part of the mythology. Those characters are not only not in the movie, but they are not even referenced. Smart Move Rob, you got rid of your Jar Jars! The movie is very realistic, and feels like you would think it would. Bad people are on the run, and they will do whatever it takes to anyone in their way.
Sex and Violence - Whoa.. they went all out in this department. While the violence isn't over-the-top gory, it is simple, visceral, and realistic, which in my opinion is much worse and move effective then buckets of blood flying everywhere. Also, as was the case in the 70's, the ladies certainly aren't afraid to get naked! While it is not along the lines of people just walking around naked casually a-la Showgirls, but the nudity certainly fits in the areas it is presented. My only complaint is that Baby doesn't get naked except for the occasional heiney flash, although she has an amazing butt! (yeah, I'm jealous, see the clip below to see her hot heiney, but only if you are 18!)
Sound - OK, the Soundtrack to this movie deserves a special mention. It has been a VERY long time since I have enjoyed a soundtrack like this one. Full of Southern Rock classics like Midnight Rider, Shambala, Funk #49, Rocky Mountain Way, Freebird, I could go on, and all fit the mood and feel of the movie exactly. Rob must have spent extra time here, and it shows. I even sat all the way through the end credits enjoying the music. Click the example below to see what I am talking about in regards to the music selection, but beware:
!!This clip contains Spoilers, Violence, Nudity, and Diamond Dallas Page!!
!!DO NOT CLICK IF YOU ARE UNDER 18, OR DO NOT WANT TO SEE SPOILERS FROM THE MOVIE!!
DON'T YOU DO IT! DON'T YOU DO IT!
The Soundtrack in this movie gets the "FeistyGirl Award of Excellence" and will be a new addition to my library soon!
Overall, if you are a fan of House of 1000 Corpses], or of 70's Schlock Cinema in general, you will enjoy this film. Just be sure to leave the kiddies at home!!!!
Feisty
