The Devil's Rejects
There are some movies that exist purely to disgust. That is there role in life. There aren’t there to tell evocative stories with bleak violent overtones. They don’t exist to comment on society in a wickedly satirical way. Sometimes violent movies are there to entertain and to titillate in the goriest of ways. Heck our cinemas are filled with them. As brilliant as they are, movies such as John Wick heaves with bullet flung action escapades as blood splatters across the screen. In some twisted way, we enjoy them because usually it’s an unsung hero battling against a flurry of bad guys in an excitable way.
What if the centre of your story is a murdering bunch of psychopaths who want to do nothing but cause chaos across the backroads of rural America? Well, that’s exactly what happens with the brutal The Devil’s Reject - Rob Zombie’s completely unnecessary but somehow raucous sequel to House of 1000 Corpses.
The Devil’s Rejects is the film that takes the main antagonists of its first film and allows us to follow their murderous rampage as they flee from a Sheriff John Quincy Wydell - who wants retribution for his brother’s death. Unfortunately for everyone in the area, they aren’t going to hide quietly and they take their sick deformed notions to the roads, butchering everyone in their way. But all good things must come to an end. As Wydell closes in the net on them, the family make sure they won’t go out with a bang.
The thing about Zombie’s The Devil’s Rejects is that you may squirm in discomfort as Otis, Captain Spaulding and Baby fling themselves into a road trip filled with slicing and dicing, but you can’t help but leave breathless from being breathlessly entertained. As it lifts the despicable characters from the previous film, it doesn’t protest to be anything different. Zombie knows how to fulfil his centric cast with an air of deranged motives and history that makes them, albeit twisted, human - making it more daring and accessible to watch. This is violence for violence sake but it’s so well written that your toes curl as your heart races. It’s what separate it from cold series such as The Human Centipede - these are actual believable people who are demented, sure, but fully fleshed too.
Let’s not forget to mention the homages, both musically and cinematically that perforate this film into a different level of romping horror. The lazy Southern soaked sun, that brings horror into the daylight, has an air of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, so much so that you can smell the sticky blood on the motel walls. The soundtrack is a tantalizing collection of classic rock tunes that add a different level of excellence to the proceedings. For example, take the well timed finale that is greatly executed (pun fully intended) that sees a shoot-out between our “Rejects” and the police all set to Lynyrd Skynrd’s “Free Bird.” I mean there’s no way they’ll survive but they’ll go down in a blaze of triumph.
The most important thing to mention with The Devil’s Rejects is at no point do you support their plight. In fact, quite the opposite. The main pull through the movie is to see that epic finale where they are eventually caught in a hail of blood and bullets. It’s not to everyone’s taste and probably if I hadn’t watched this younger and loved every moment of it, I’d be more opposed. But it rings with the gory glory that is unescapably brilliant.