Review of The Devil's Rejects (2005) by Warren G — 18 Sep 2013

Rob Zombie's sophomore film is technically a sequel to House of 1000 Corpses but, the further the film moves along, the less it has to do with that film except for the three main characters, it's opening sequence and a few references.

The story picks up with vengeful Sheriff John Quicey Wydell (Willaim Forsythe) laying siege to the Firefly house to avenge the murder of his brother Lt. George Wydell (Tom Towles), who the vicious clan killed in House Of 1000 Corpses.

Mother (played here by Leslie Easterbrook) is captured, while Baby (Sheri Moon Zombie), Otis (Bill Mosley) and Spaulding (SId Haig) make their escape. The film then takes us along for the gruesome ride as the three fugitives flee to a motel where they torment and murder some of the guests and occupants while the revenge crazed Wydell continues his manhunt to track them down.

Again a homage to exploitation flicks of the 70s, this time Zombie creates a savage crime thriller about three deranged murderers on the run from an equally deranged lawman and the group of innocents caught in the middle.

This an unflinchingly violent tale that is straight out of a 70?s grind-house revenge flick or sleazy biker movie. It can be very brutal, gruesome and quite disturbing at times. Gone is House's goofy humor and uneven tone, Zombie maintains an intensity from the opening shoot-out to the climactic showdown and crafts a lean and mean movie of the kind they don't make anymore.

His expert use of classic 70?s music throughout, ads to the overall effect and atmosphere of the film. You may never listen to Freebird the same way again. One of the things I liked about the film is that it's three main characters are horrible people who do horrible things but, when Wydell catches up to them, he has let revenge turn him into a far more horrible person and you begin to root for our homicidal trio.

Zombie takes a few moments here and there to show what little humanity the three have left, at least in relation to their bond with each other, so when their paths finally collide with the deranged sheriff's, we clearly see that Wydell has lost all his humanity in his quest to make them pay for his brother's death and it makes him the villain.

Sure the film has flaws, did we really need to sit through the torture and torment of the hotel guests for so long and the re-emergence of a Corpses character later on is a bit jarring as we left that film behind in the first act.

Zombie sometimes revels in the trashy nature of the characters a bit too much but, the director/musician also shows growth as a filmmaker and the film does gives us a rousing last act with a really cool shoot-out finale.

Again, not perfect but, Zombie continues to show he does know his source material and does have his own ideas about what to do with his influences. He is a director to watch whether you like his type of films or not.

Also stars a who's who of low budget film icons such as Ken Foree, Danny Trejo, P.J. Soles and Michael Berryman to name a few.