THE DEVIL'S REJECTS...Clowns To the Left of Me, Chokers To the Right

The Devil's Rejects (NR) 2005

 
This movie has its own smell, contains more blood and filth than a Manson family reunion, and is so grimy it left a sticky film on my television screen.

Boys and girls, The Devil's Rejects is a thing of beauty.

Rob Zombie's sequel to his "meh" debut House of 1000 Corpses is a western-flavored, savage cinema feature that is saturated with body fluids and ill will. The story is such a cesspool that the DVD comes out of the case damp. To put it bluntly, even though it is more focused than its predecessor and takes place mostly in the light of day, Rejects is a very dark movie.

We begin at the Firefly home.

Sheriff John Quincey Wydell (William Forsythe) and a dozen slack-jawed, pit-stained deputies have come to arrest the Firefly family, a clan of southern fried killers responsible for the murders of several dozen people. No matter how flawlessly the police execute their plan of standing behind open car doors and yelling through a Mister Microphone, they can't convince the family to come out with their hands up or to ix-nay on the illng-kay.

Sociopaths. Am I right? 

Meanwhile, Otis Driftwood (Bill Moseley), Baby (Sheri Moon Zombie) and Mama Firefly (Leslie Easterbrook) hunker inside the corpse-infested abode wearing metal-shopped suits of armor and pointing enough weapons at the cops to make South Dakota jealous. And as you might guess, the tension between these two heavily-armed and emotionally unbalanced factions leads to, well...

Can you say, "guns a-blazing?"

Gunshots ring off patrol cars, wood and glass shatter the air, blood soaks into the carpet, actors without speaking parts fall like drivers education pylons, and the catering truck runs out of napkins and those little swizzle sticks that aren't really straws but look like they should be. Basically, it's Armageddon without all the locusts.

When the smoke clears, one of the killers is in custody and another has been forcefully cooled to room temperature. But the final two baddies are gone, having sprinted away like Cameron Diaz avoiding a fan's request for an autograph. Happily, this is where The Devil's Rejects becomes something more than just another "grindhouse" film as the cops try to find and capture the fugitives before their habit of killing becomes spree-like.

What is most impressive about this movie is that it is as beautiful as it is ugly, as endearing as it is terrifying, and as somber as it is funny. (A scene involving the purchase of a live chicken from a sexually frustrated redneck at the side of the road is especially hilarious.)

The horror doesn't come from graphic portrayals of violence, although of those there are plenty. The horror comes from watching the psychological and emotional cruelty inflicted on strangers by an unfeeling band of psychopaths who are as carefree as they are callous. To the Firefly family, torturing and killing other human beings is as uneventful as buying an ice cream cone. It's just another way of passing the time.

The dialogue in the movie is striking and memorable. The characters are larger than life but manage to fall short of cartoonish. And like a batch of Ex-Lax brownies, the plot as described is simple but effective.

There are other films that are gorier than Devil's Rejects, and others that are funnier. But there are very few that walk the line between horror and comedy as well as this one does.

So do yourself a favor. Fire up the DVD player, drop in Rob Zombie's modern classic, and get ready to ooh! and ah, hah hah! for ninety minutes or so. Just know in advance that when it's over you are going to need some time to recover.

And lots of Purell.

The Devil's Rejects Trailer

 Thank you to SC reader Derek Schmidt for recommending this film.