The Devil's Rejects

[Mofo Rising]

WARNING!  I am going to swear below.

So I went and watched THE DEVIL'S REJECTS tonight.  I wasn't too keen on the movie at first.  I enjoyed HOUSE OF A 1,000 CORPSES for the first hour, but thought it devolved into stupidity at the end.  However, I read an interview with Rob Zombie on The Onion and was intrigued enough to check it out.

Surprise, surprise, I loved it.  But I also need to qualify that with the fact that I only know one other person I can recommend it to.

The movie is really nothing like the original, other than a slavish devotion to 70's sleaze.  In fact, sleaze is this movies reason for being.  That's one of the reason's I felt I should support it by seeing it in the theater.  Sleaze is something I feel we could do more with.

The movie is just f**ked up.  SIN CITY was also f**ked up, in it's own way, but the enjoyment of the movie was derived from its pulp plot.  This is not so in THE DEVIL'S REJECTS.  The movie spend the first hour making us hate the "family" and then spends the last half making us root for them.  It's easy to see what Zombie is doing, but he does it with such reckless abandon I couldn't help but admire it.

Also, anybody who makes a Rondo Hatton reference in relation to Danny Trejo wins my schlock film fan vote.

I give it a solid recommendation, but like I said, I don't really know anybody I could get to watch it with me.  At least see it for Sid Haig who is at his disgusting best.

[Vermin Boy]

I saw it the other night, and I totally agree; I loved it, but you pretty much have to have a strong stomach and an encyclopedic knowledge of 70s trash culture (interestingly, though, my friend, who HATED the first one, loved this one, so maybe not). The cameos alone should make it required viewing for anyone on this board: Mary Woronov, Steve Railsback, Ken Foree (Peter from Dawn of the Dead!), PJ Soles, Michael Berryman (!!), and undoubtedly a few others I missed. The leads were great, too; I'd never thought of Bill "Choptop" Mosely as a great actor (fun to watch, but not great), but his performance in this one genuinely impressed me. I also enjoyed how Zombie inverted so many horror movie conventions, especially with Baby at the end.

[BeyondTheGrave]

I saw this when it first came out a couple of weeks ago and I really liked it. I didn't like House of a 1000 so it came as a surpirse that I enjoyed this one. I tried to get people to see it too but some are really jaded over House of 1000 that they won't bother. Its a shame really it is better than the first IMO. I felt it was competely different from the first in terms of style, storytelling and pacing.

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Most of all I hate dancing then work, exercise, people,stupid people

[Ash]

I saw this opening weekend and loved it!

My favorite aspect of the film was William Forsyth's performance as the cop hell bent on revenge for the death of his brother.

The scenes in the jailhouse where he sticks it to Mother Firefly were excellent.
The scenes at the end where he finally catches up with Otis, Baby & Spaulding were absolutely priceless.

I'm definitely shelling out the cash for the DVD when it's released.

I give this one 3 1/2 out of 4 stars.



Post Edited (08-13-05 20:24)

[Allhallowsday]

SPOILER ALERT (nothing unforgiveable): 
Just watched THE DEVIL'S REJECTS for the first time the other night (my sister-in-law gave me a bunch of used horror DVDs).  Well, it's certainly superior to HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES, but I do have to point out that it's kind of stupid, aside from it's incredible SLEAZINESS  as Mofo Rising wisely stressed.  Don't look too hard at the plot, uhm take a very long drive to a rendezvous and let's hang out long enough, with cops in hot pursuit, to murder and torture, uhm for no reason, and then drive somewhere else and uhm we're caught by a trap and then the person who sets the trap comes to help but only after the three have been magically transported back to their home in the same night (not such a long ride there, and one man to bring three people, handcuffed and then tied to chairs... hoo boy...)

That being said, I think I now understand why Kester Pelagius referred to TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE as "torture porn" (in the Do We Need A New Term for B-Movie? thread) I think because ROB ZOMBIE owes such an enormous debt to TOBE HOOPER, and no matter how hard he tries he can't come near TCM in any way, but he can certainly disgust and disturb his audience with what I'd call "torture porn."  (By the way, there is almost no gore in TCM, and no sex, but there's plenty here, though hardly buckets full).  The influence of QUENTIN TARANTINO is also apparent with the pointedly pointless didactic dialogue, and scenery-chewing performances (a couple of which are wonderful) but ROB ZOMBIE doesn't dust off very many overlooked or forgotten nuggets (like "Bustin' Surfboards" by THE TORNADOES...)  "Free Bird?"      Don't get me wrong, I love LYNYRD SKYNYRD, but that great record is hardly obscure and WTF, ZOMBIE is remaking the end of THELMA & LOUISE?  As Mofo also pointed out, it's easy to see what ZOMBIE is doing, and the film has it's thrills (Cheap thrills.)  But, sorry, I didn't root for these creeps, I was glad to see the sheriff (another whack job) abusing them the way we had watched them hideously abuse and humiliate people through two movies.  Nope.     Bye now!