Review of The Devil's Rejects (2005) by Alexander Z — 23 Sep 2010

Well, after House of 1000 Corpses, which was an interesting failure of a horror movie, I was ready to write Rob Zombie off as another failed crossover director, but I wanted to give him another chance. The Devil's Rejects blows House of 1000 Corpses away in just about every way. The acting is better, the editing is better, the cinematography is better, the soundtrack is better, the ambience is better, everything is just better. It no longer feels like a ludicrous shock attempt like the first one, but a very developed setting full of psychotic killers. The highlight would definitely have to be William Forsythe. He does an amazing job, especially towards the end. But I have one major gripe that comes about 15 minutes before the credits involving the sheriff and Tiny. What happens in that key scene has a very deus ex machina feel to it and really jolted me out of the moment and annoyed the hell out of me. I would have rather had the movie end on the path it was headed instead of finding a damn silly way to keep the movie going in order to add that pointless final scene that was reminiscent of Natural Born Killers.

Still, kudos to Rob Zombie. He really elevated the material to something engaging and worth watching.