The Devil's Rejects (2005) Movie Review, Trailer, Film Still and Poster

U.S. 2005
Director: Rob Zombie
Cast: William Forsythe, Sid Haig, Sheri Moon Zombie, Bill Moseley, Leslie Easterbrook, Priscilla Barnes, Kate Norby, Danny Trejo, Dallas Page
Rating: NC-17. Edited version: R
Release Date: May 6th 2005
Running Time: 1 hour 49 minutes

The Movie Review

The Devil's Rejects film still 1

Who's got the worst smell?


THE DEVIL'S REJECTS
Storyline:
Cast:
Ending:
Overall:

The devil's rejects was released as the second movie of Rob Zombie, and this film serves as some kind of a sequel of House of 1000 Corpses. As a new director, Rob Zombie who was well known as a musician seems to have diligently absorbed several upsides that he could possibly dig from other horror movies. And his second film proves his directing have improved greatly added that this horror movie is also written by him.

A house where the brutal family of Serial killers in Texas named Firefly clan is living is being attacked by the local law enforcement officers led by Sheriff John Quincey Wydell (William Forsythe). Three of them got tackled including Mama Firefly (Leslie Easterbrook), but two manage to get escape, Baby Firefly (Sheri Moon Zombie) and Otis (Bill Moseley). Those two sickos are searching for a temporary refuge at a shabby motel called Kahiki Palms where they plan to regroup with their father, the clown Captain Spaulding (Sid Haig). Of course these two sickos doesn't let anything weak enough to torture passes by, so they humiliates and torture five guests of the motel, mainly just to play game. Sheriff Wydell, on the other hand, is chasing them not solely because of his job desk, but for personal reason, for a vendetta. And when the hunter becomes the hunted and vice versa, this is where the things start to get really interesting.

You will instantly get the 70s vibe from the beginning, probably Rob's effort to remind the audience of the slasher movie era of the 70s. Superb camerawork and several sick comical of the main characters are just the right material to put more soul to the wholeness of the movie. The villains are now more characterized, at some point you could actually see how normal they are, and that's just exactly what makes this film more interesting. As the audience are starting to feel sympathy for the villains, seeing them to feel afraid and week as actually no different from the protagonists. Don't worry, that's not to say the justice is neglected. No no no, the payback is great. It's fun to watch a horror movie where your emotion could be dragged here and there but without any intention to fool the audience.

All the entire cast's performance is remarkably well-blended, no over-the-top and no lame acting. But what I fond of the most is Rob's selection of soundtracks. I frankly do not like them all and probably would not listen to them after the movie ends, but as soundtracks, those songs are the perfect icing to this horror cake. And not just that, it seems Rob knows how to combine those songs with the drama and has brought up the emotion that I feel as an entertainment and not a showcase of a director's capability in depicting torture.

Considering The Devil's Rejects as a movie on its own, without knowing that this is merely only the second movie of a new director, The Devil's Rejects in fact highly entertaining. Well, I mean this is a horror movie, with several scenes that would make you cringe, nevertheless the real process of the torture doesn't vividly shown. If you could realize something, there's a different between watching how the victims got hurt and watching how the pain is brought back to the bad guys. Rob zombie highly likely realized this, and that's what keeps this movie entertaining for its role flip-flopping.

© iwan pranowo of Movielogy.com