I can't remember being so bored and disgusted during a movie in a long time. "The Devil's Rejects" picks up where "House of 1000 Corpses" left off and the family finds themselves under the assault of the local police in a shoot out right at the beginning. The assault is led by Sheriff Wydell who happens to be the brother of another Wydell killed by the family in the first movie. Mother Firefly is arrested but Otis and Baby escape the shoot out and are soon joined by Captain Spaulding at a seedy motel after they take a traveling band hostage. Then the movie takes great pains to show us how depraved these people are. They torture and humiliate their hostages just because they can. Why? I don't know, perhaps there is a point to it in the end. After they finish with the hostages Captain Spaulding takes them to his brother Charlie's whore house while Sheriff Wydell tortures Mother Firefly back at the police station. Do you remember Billy Dee Williams' "Lando Calrissian" character in "Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back"? Well that's exactly what Charlie is: a businessman under threat by a higher authority to give up his friends in order to save his own ass. That's what he does and Wydell get Spaulding, Otis, and Baby with the help of two hired thugs. From there on, Wydell pretty much exhibits the same respect for the trio as they do for their hostages. I'm not saying who wins or loses but in the end the audience is treated to the entire Lynryd Skynyrd "Freebird" song to some slow motion bloodshed.
What can I say? This is about the most pointless movie I've ever seen. As an audience, we don't empathize with Baby, Spaulding, or Otis at all. We think they are disgusting and morally depraved but there is no answer as to why we should even care about them which is essential for keeping the audience emotionally involved in the story. During the humorous parts I couldn't even laugh because the characters were just people that I hated. I kept thinking, "I hope someone puts a bullet in all three of their skulls soon. I don't know how much longer I can watch this." I felt as tortured as their victims since I was essentially watching an hour and a half of three people who I hated from the beginning. In "House of 1000 Corpses" I really liked Sid Haig's "Captain Spaulding" character and thought he was the high point of the movie. In "Devil's Rejects" I couldn't stand him. If you've seen Oliver Stone's "Natural Born Killers" then you've seen "The Devil's Rejects" except that in this movie the characters aren't really that entertaining.
Seeing how bad this movie was is a shock since I liked "House of 1000 Corpses" even though it was a little rough around the edges. I expected, coming into this film, that Rob Zombie would have honed his craft and whip up something even better than his previous effort. The truth is that his new film is much, MUCH worse than I could have possibly imagined.
Folks, this ain't even worth a rental!
What can I say? This is about the most pointless movie I've ever seen. As an audience, we don't empathize with Baby, Spaulding, or Otis at all. We think they are disgusting and morally depraved but there is no answer as to why we should even care about them which is essential for keeping the audience emotionally involved in the story. During the humorous parts I couldn't even laugh because the characters were just people that I hated. I kept thinking, "I hope someone puts a bullet in all three of their skulls soon. I don't know how much longer I can watch this." I felt as tortured as their victims since I was essentially watching an hour and a half of three people who I hated from the beginning. In "House of 1000 Corpses" I really liked Sid Haig's "Captain Spaulding" character and thought he was the high point of the movie. In "Devil's Rejects" I couldn't stand him. If you've seen Oliver Stone's "Natural Born Killers" then you've seen "The Devil's Rejects" except that in this movie the characters aren't really that entertaining.
Seeing how bad this movie was is a shock since I liked "House of 1000 Corpses" even though it was a little rough around the edges. I expected, coming into this film, that Rob Zombie would have honed his craft and whip up something even better than his previous effort. The truth is that his new film is much, MUCH worse than I could have possibly imagined.
Folks, this ain't even worth a rental!