The Devil’s Rejects (2005) Lionsgate/Horror RT: 111 minutes Unrated Version (strong sadistic violence and gore, strong sexual content, language, drug use) Director: Rob Zombie Screenplay: Rob Zombie Music: Tyler Bates Cinematography: Phil Parmet Release date: July 22, 2005 (US) Cast: Sid Haig, Bill Moseley, Sheri Moon Zombie, William Forsythe, Ken Foree, Matthew McGrory, Leslie Easterbrook, Geoffrey Lewis, Priscilla Barnes, Dave Sheridan, Kate Norby, Lew Temple, Danny Trejo, Diamond Dallas Page, Brian Posehn, EG Daily, Deborah Van Valkenburgh, Michael Berryman, PJ Soles, Ginger Lynn Allen, Jossara Jinaro, Chris Ellis, Mary Woronov, Daniel Roebuck, Duane Whitaker, Michael “Red Bone” Alcott, Juanita Guzman, Jordan Del Spina, Sean Murphy (Moran), Robert Trebor (uncredited). Box Office: $19.4M (US)
Rating: ****
Although The Devil’s Rejects is a sequel to 2003’s House of 1000 Corpses, saying that one is better than the other isn’t exactly fair because they’re two different types of movies. Whereas the earlier movie is most definitely horror, The Devil’s Rejects is more like a fugitive-on-the-run flick with elements of horror. Writer-director Rob Zombie cites Bonnie and Clyde, The Wild Bunch and Badlands as his primary influences on this follow-up to his debut feature about the Firefly family and their predilection for torture and murder. It was a wild ride through a psychedelic carnival funhouse. In The Devil’s Rejects, Zombie tells a more straightforward story with less style than story. In that respect, you could argue it’s the better film.
About seven months after the events of House of 1000 Corpses (May 1978), Sheriff John Quincey Wydell (Forsythe, Stone Cold) leads a raid on the Firefly house of horrors. In the ensuing shoot-out, Otis (Moseley, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2) and Baby (Sheri Moon) escape through a tunnel in the basement while Mother Firefly (Easterbrook, the Police Academy movies) is taken into custody. At this point, a couple of things are established: (1) Sheriff Wydell is looking to avenge the murder of his brother, the deputy played by Tom Towles in the first movie and (2) Captain Spaulding (Haig, Galaxy of Terror) is a member of the Firefly clan (he’s Baby’s father). After agreeing to rendezvous, Otis and Baby go to a run-down motel where they take a country-and-western band hostage in their room, killing their roadie (Posehn, The Big Bang Theory) and torturing the others.
Meanwhile, Wydell continues his search for the outlaws dubbed “The Devil’s Rejects” by the media. He questions Mother who refuses to give up any information. He eventually enlists the services of a pair of criminal bounty hunters called “The Unholy Two”, Rondo (Trejo, Machete) and Billy Ray (former WWE wrestler Page).
If my love for House of 1000 Corpses destroyed my credibility as a film critic, my loving The Devil’s Rejects guarantees I’ll never be taken seriously in that capacity again. LOL! I say that facetiously, of course. Art is subjective, is it not? Like Tarantino, there’s no middle ground with Zombie’s movies; you either love them or hate them. I haven’t liked all of Zombie’s movies. As much as I enjoyed his take on the horror classic Halloween, I HATED his Halloween II, a mess to end all messes of a movie. His first two remain his best work. Of the two, The Devil’s Rejects is the one that really shows his strengths as a filmmaker. He has a knack for turning depraved material into a trashy form of art by approaching it with heedless, subversive zeal. It doesn’t just border on camp; it blatantly crosses into it with gleefully reckless abandon.
Who knew a movie about a trio of violent sociopaths on the run could be so much fun? I’d even go so far as to call The Devil’s Rejects subversive. In a hilarious sequence I should probably be offended by (but I’m not), Zombie lets us know exactly what he thinks of elitist, know-it-all critics. When it’s realized that the names of Firefly family members are the same as characters played by Groucho Marx, they call in a critic (Trebor, 52 Pick-Up) to consult on the recently deceased comic actor’s filmography in hopes that it will shed some light on the antagonists’ pathology. Instead, he pisses off Wydell by making negative comments about Elvis Presley whose death overshadowed Groucho’s (they died within three days of each other in ’77).
Once again, Zombie populates his movie with a dream cast starting with Haig reprising his role as the dirty, foul-mouthed clown with bad teeth and a sick mind. He takes it even more OTT in this second go-around. If he wasn’t having so much fun playing Captain Spaulding, I’d find it easier to label him a villain. Although evil and disgusting, I find this particularly clown funny. Moseley and Sheri Moon are also good in their respective roles. The three actors have great chemistry.
Forsythe is awesome as the vengeance-minded lawman determined to kill all those responsible for his brother’s death. He has some great lines. At one point, he tells a deputy to be careful lest he be “cold-slabbed, toe-tagged and mailed to [his] mom in a plastic bag”. While Easterbrook does good work as the malicious matriarch, I missed Karen Black. The awesome supporting cast includes Ken Foree (Dawn of the Dead) as the proprietor of a brothel where the Rejects hide out for a spell, Michael Berryman (The Hills Have Eyes) as his assistant and EG Daily (Bad Dreams) and Deborah Van Valkenburgh (The Warriors) as “employees”. Geoffrey Lewis (Every Which Way But Loose), Priscilla Barnes (Three’s Company), Lew Temple (Trailer Park of Terror) and Kate Norby play the band members/hostages. Look also for PJ Soles (Halloween), Mary Woronov (Rock ‘n’ Roll High School), Daniel Roebuck (River’s Edge) and porn actress Ginger Lynn in brief roles.
Yes, The Devil’s Rejects is a total bloodbath. There is violence and gore aplenty including one of the best road kill scenes I’ve ever seen. The final scene, intercut with home movie footage of the Rejects in happier times, recalls Bonnie and Clyde and The Wild Bunch. It’s set to the tune of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Free Bird”, one of many great Southern rock tunes on the soundtrack. It’s totally the right kind of music for this movie set in the Texas desert with its dusty back roads. The Devil’s Rejects doesn’t have the same extreme stylistic touches as its predecessor. Like I said, the narrative is more straightforward. It’s still pretty wild though. I LOVE this movie! It’s brilliant. It’s definitely Zombie’s best work.
