The Devil's Rejects

Directed by Rob Zombie
Starring
Bill Moseley
Sheri Moon
Sid Haig
and William Forsythe

Horror recently has fallen into a rubbish slasher genre which gain all of their scares by using cheap loud noises and by having something quickly jump at you on the screen, no real atmosphere of fear about anything other than when your going to have to cover your ears. (Despite being a good film a perfect example of this would be Drag Me To Hell)

Now Rob Zombie moving from his music career for a small time to be a director, i had seen his first piece of work House of 1000 Corpses...it seemed like a typical horror movie, stealing lots from old greats like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre...basically revolved around the typical teenagers getting trapped in the middle of nowhere with an insane family only that the characters in the movie were not very well developed and the whole idea of the movie seemed to be just to show slightly disturbing things to gross out the audience, fun to watch but just quite a pointless movie.

Three years later i hear about The Devils Rejects which would be released in 2006, i was not sure whether or not to see this movie but after reading about how the movie explored the family more than just being a horror movie i was pretty curious. So after buying a cinema ticket to see some kids movie i snuck in to see The Devils Rejects.

I was incredibly surprised with this movie, Rob Zombie really did try his hardest and delivered on all aspects...acting, story, violence, scenery (most of the movie was shot on location and not in a studio).
At the time in the cinema it was just a great horror movie to me but it wasnt until about a year ago that i started to fully appreciate the movie.

Ever since the movie has came out, most of the reviews or opinions i have had off of other people appear to be the same, they are decided that they do not like this movie, thats fair enough but a large amount of people full on insult the movie calling it a simple gorefest to disturb the audience and has no real purpose or story, these points i cannot help myself to disagree 100%.

The story seems simple at first...the brother police officer of a victim of the family swears revenge and decides to hunt down the family and arrest them...as the story goes on you see that arresting them is not his main objective he wants to torture and kill the family with extreme rage, going as far as hiring bounty hunters and going rogue from the police force. On the other side of the story we have the family Otis, Spaulding and Baby heading to meet another family member so they can hide and relax.

It seems very simple but the way in which the story develops is what makes it work so well...throughout the movie you see the family torturing and killing people, there is no way you can sympathise with them at all they are just the most disgusting human beings, and Officer Wydell (the GOOD guy) you can understand his rage and root for him to hunt these people down and kill them. As the story goes even further on you see the human side of the family, sitting down together and enjoying some relaxing time, drinking a beer and partying...you understand that they are human beings able to feel fear, happiness and every other emotion but are still bad people. Officer WYdell slowly starts to become so obsessed with catching them that it appears he is losing his mind and as the film comes to a climax you truly beleive he has and begin to root for the family.

Thats why i liked the story so much it appears to take an entire 180 on the whole thing, turning the sadistic family into the victims and you start to feel sorry for them. it would seem impossible half way through the movie for you to beleive you would feel sorry for these people, but the officer despite going insane you still root for him as well, so you are unaware who the good guys and the bad guys are and it leaves you with an original feeling which i had not really felt in a horror movie before.

The cast is brilliant, Otis played by Bill Moseley is so captivating as is the clown Captain Spaulding played by Sid Haig. We have cameos all over the place, but not cheap and comedic...its a big tribute to all horror with the cameos...even all of the minor characters are so entertaining to watch whether it be the Bounty Hunters played by Danny Trejo and Dallas Page or simple victims...almost every character in the whole movie would make a fun spin-off movie.

The music is great, Rob Zombie used music from bands that were famous during the time of the movies setting, and if there is one thing that is Rob Zombies strong point it is setting a scene to music, he seems to be able to take a relaxing song and put it to a scene that is full of disgusting violence or suspense and make it work really well.

So now i will defend the movie against some of its haters who seem to be taking a dislike to the movie and turning it into a needless attack on the movie, if you dont like the movie thats fine but there is no need to make reviews claiming stupid statements such as.

"Seriously – anyone who legitimately identifies with a band of whiny, backward serial killers with dirty hair and a shared brain needs to do a reality check."

That was part of the movies progression, to take us away for a while the 'dirty haired serial killers' and show us something more human so we can hopefully view them as more than just killers.

"we learn absolutely nothing more about the Fireflies this turn around"

Anybody who says this clearly do not understand the movie at all...the development is very clear as i have already explained.

I understand the idea of watching a movie for entertainment, and most people view this movie thinking its going to just be that...but few seem to look at the film and analyze the aspects that Rob Zombie went for, it is not a simple bloody movie made to shock the audiences, it is a well done, gritty low budget tribute to old movies like Last House on the Left and Easy Rider only with a proper named cast and decent intreaguing story and some slight preachy undertones on violence morals.

It still remains as one of my favourite horror movies, and stays high as my favourite horror movie of the 2000's.