The Devil's Rejects

The first time I watched Rob Zombie's House of 1000 Corpses it kind of shocked me. I thought it was too disturbing and gory, but at the same time it was terrific fun and innovating, at least for me who hadn't seen every horror movie ever made but would really like to. Captain Spaulding is a genius character, as are Baby and Otis, but the movie was not entirely about them, it was more about the killing these teenagers, which made the movie a really great and gory kind of slasher movie, like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, where we have these teens trying to survive a family of killer freaks. So when Rob announced The Devil's Rejects I got really excited, as it was going to be a movie focused on these awesome killer freaks, and it just made my top list of movies to see this summer. Having seen it, I have to say that the movie highly surpassed my expectations, as Rob has made huge improvements in his direction. But more on that later.

So instead being a movie about teens getting killed, we have a movie about the Rejects having to leave the House of 1000 Corpses, after the police, lead by the terrible Sheriff Wydell, raids the house and force them to escape. And so Capt. Spaulding, Otis and Baby go on a road trip, killing everybody on their way, trying to find a way to revenge the attack and capture of Mother Firefly.

Sid Haig is just perfect as Capt. Spaulding, looking scary and at the same time making jokes at any possible time. The beautiful Sheri Moon (Rob Zombie's wife) plays a very playful Baby and she's just a delight to watch. And then the most serious and horrifying of them is Otis played terrific by Bill Moseley.
But the scene stealer is William Forsythe as sheriff Wydell. A great character perfectly played and he makes a great run for best horror movie sheriff against R. Lee Ermey's Sheriff Hoyt from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

But what makes this movie so great is Rob Zombie's work. The screenplay is excellent and it really makes you feel for these characters. The Rejects of course. And so when they get hurt or something happens to them you just want them to stand back up and kick the living shit out of the cops or whoever it is that hurt them.
I wont spoil it of course, but I have to comment on it, because the ending is just perfect. And it's been done before a lot of times, but still, I just loved that it makes the movie end in such a poetic way. Just perfect.
There's also some very cool little scenes in the middle of the movie that have little to do with the story, but work to expand the Rejects universe, like a conversation between Sheriff Wydell and a movie critic about the names of the Rejects (taken after Groucho Marx characters) that then turns into a discussion about Elvis Presley.

And while I hated House of 1000 Corpses' scene when the cop gets a shot in the head and the camera zooms out for like a minute, I do acknowledge that Rob got a cool original cinematic idea, that for me didn't work but for others probably did. There's nothing like that here, but there are a few other new techniques he uses, like having the motion pause in the middle of an action scene, the music starts playing really loud and then he cuts back where it was and the action continues.

The music plays a huge role in the movie, full of southern rock classic from Allman Brothers and Skynyrd to name a few. I've read that Rob calls the movie a Horror-Western, and it's just a perfect description, and the music contributes a lot in making it sound like a western road trip movie. This is really a soundtrack I'll own and listen all the time.

If I had to complain about something, it would be about the horror factor. Rob changed the darkness of the first movie for comedy, which is a lot here, even in the most horrific scenes, but still plays great, as this is a very different movie.

So I loved the movie. Rob Zombie has made great improvements and he has a few impressive new techniques that I haven't seen done before, and they worked perfect here. The Devil's Rejects is a lot more than I was expecting, a disturbingly cool movie that is one of my favorites of the year.