Starring: Sid Haig, Bill Moseley, Sheri Moon Zombie Directed by: Rob Zombie
After watching White Zombie, I was curious to see what Rob Zombie's scriptwriting and directing looked like. I chose to watch The Devil's Rejects – first because I really didn't want to see House of 1000 Corpses, and I also remember Zombie promoting this film during his set at Ozzfest in 2005 (a day I also got the worst sunburn of my life, saw Iron Maiden and did not see Ozzy because he was 'sick.' But that's a completely different story.)
The Devil's Rejects does have a bit of a plot – the family that murders together in House of 1000 Corpses is now the focus on of a police manhunt after scrapbooks documenting and linking them to over 75 killings are found in their home. Baby (Sheri Moon Zombie) and Otis (Bill Moseley) escape and call Captain Spaulding (Sid Haig) to tell him to get his biscuits out of Dodge as well.
They all head for the meet-up point while Sheriff Wydell – leader of the manhunt and brother to a victim of the family – becomes increasingly driven by revenge and completely motivated to capture the remaining three. He is also willing to go outside the lines of the law by hiring two bounty hunters (Danny Trejo and Diamond Dallas Page) to bring back Baby, Otis and the Captain in 'good enough' shape for him to have a few words with them.
Adventures along the way to the showdown with the Sheriff include torture, murder, sexual abuse, taunting, gratuitous T&A, lots of blood, and Otis making a mask out of the face of one of his victims. All of which I found very difficult to watch. The two tolerable things in probably 90 minutes of torture and murder by Otis, Spaulding, Baby and Wydell (out of 109 minutes in the film) were the soundtrack (mostly southern rock from the 70s) and Spaulding's brother Charlie (Ken Foree).
The directing itself was also good – Zombie used some nice transitional devices from scene to scene, and the ending sequence was well done. Had the storyline/action in the film been less troubling to watch (at least for me), I would probably recommend it with no reservations.
That being said, if you:
- Like a movie where half the script consists of the f-bomb.
- Want to see DDP act like a bloodthirsty madman
- Like a lot of gore
Put it in the queue.
However if you:
- Don't like movies with no 'good guys.'
- Don't like to watch people being psychologically and physically tortured.
- Are afraid of clowns with bad teeth
Don't put it in the queue.
Written by Jennifer Venson