The Devil’s Rejects, Rob Zombie’s follow-up to House of 1000 Corpses, blasts out of the projector like a creature let loose after being entombed for three decades, out for blood and seriously pissed off. By accident of timing or by design, the movie lays waste to the recent trend toward "safe" scares and overproduced FX extravaganzas and gets back to the genre’s nitty-gritty. This is the Terminator of horror films… that rare piece of horror cinema where you truly can’t anticipate how bad things are going to get, and Zombie is not only merciless in his depiction of evil, he dares to empathize with the most heinous characters imaginable—and dares YOU to empathize with them as well. And this time, not just the material is informed by ’70s genre fare, the cinematic approach is as well. Zombie’s use of freeze-frames, handheld camera and choice songs on the soundtrack evokes that seminal decade like no movie since. And despite his stated intent to be nothing but dead serious, The Devil’s Rejects is often pretty damn funny too. Zombie evinces a talent for colorful language to rival Quentin Tarantino’s, as well as an even stronger penchant for casting exploitation cinema’s best character actors. Of these, only Dawn of the Dead’s Ken Foree has a significant part, but genre fans will find it entertaining to see supporting roles that could have been filled by Central Casting instead populated by the likes of Geoffrey Lewis, Danny Trejo, Steve Railsback, P.J. Soles and Michael Berryman.

The moments of black humor provide momentary relief and variation from the sustained tension and carnage. There’s nothing funny at all about the mayhem enacted by Spaulding (Sid Haig), Otis (Bill Moseley) and Baby (Sheri Moon Zombie), who take to the road after their house is raided by the cops in the movie’s opening setpiece. Leading the law-enforcement charge is Sheriff John Wydell (William Forsythe) whose brother fell victim to the brood and who has sworn vengeance upon them. Keeping an audience caring about what happens to people who clearly couldn’t care less about the lives of others is a difficult trick, even in a grueling horror tale, but Zombie pulls it off. That’s in large part due to the demented family camaraderie established by Haig, Moseley and Moon Zombie. The Devil’s Rejects demonstrates a commitment to horror that’s always welcome, and feels like such a pure and all-encompassing expression of what Zombie loves about the genre that it will be interesting—and likely harrowing—to see where he goes from here.

—Michael Gingold, FANGORIA

"Warped… Hypnotic… If House of 1000 Corpses had a one-night bang with Badlands and The Wild Bunch…" – John Fallon, ARROW IN THE HEAD

"A film that transcends easy genre labels. It’s unflinching, brutal. It’s Peckinpah. It’s Deliverance. It’s ’70s. And it’s the best time I’ve had watching a movie in a long while." – AIN’T IT COOL

http://www.thedevilsrejects.com/

Director: Rob Zombie
Screenplay: Rob Zombie
Cast: Sid Haig, Bill Moseley, Sheri Moon Zombie, William Forsythe
Producers: Peter Block, Mike Elliott, Andy Gould, Marco Melhitz, Brent Morris, Michael Oshoven, Michael Paseornek, Rob Zombie
Distributor: Lion’s Gate - Maple Pictures-Christal Films

Christmas Miracle, The Canada 2005 | 11 min English language