See what the poster says? Well, nasty, savage, and brutal barely begin to describe this movie. You can throw in violent, blood, gory, and sadistic, and there are probably still some adjectives lacking.The story opens only a short time after the end of the move's predecessor, House of 1000 Corpses, which I haven't seen. A misshapen hulk drags a corpse through a wooded area. A guy is asleep with the corpse of what once was a woman. Two living women sleep peacefully. Then the sheriff and his deputies arrive to "do the Lord's work." A bloody shoot-out ensues. Some members of the Firefly family are killed. Mom is captured. Otis and Baby escape, get in touch with dad, and then things really get hellish. Even the sheriff who wants to do the Lord's work changes until by the end of the film, he's no better than the Fireflys.
Not that the Fireflys don't have a sense of humor. They take their nicknames from Marx Brother movies, after all. On the other hand, they get their laughs from killing people, which isn't funny at all. They kill because they can and because they like to. It's what they do.
If you didn't know better, you'd swear The Devil's Rejects was made around 1977. It's a perfect re-creation of the exploitation films from that era (The Hills Have Eyes comes to mind). If you like that sort of thing, you'll like this one.
8 comments:
Good Lord, Bill, don't tell me you watched this one over a holiday weekend. The AV Club ran an interesting piece last week inducting it into their New Cult Canon, calling it the best 9/11 movie to date.
A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. I seem to have missed the 9/11 connection.
Strange Thanksgiving viewing to be sure. I dug this one a lot, more than the neon mess that was 1000 Corpses. Besides, any film that uses "Freebird" in a completely unironic way deserves kudos.
I'll never hear "Freebird" again without thinking of this movie.
I've seen this one without seeing House of 1000 corpses as well. Interesting film, but I refused to watch Zombie's remake of Halloween.
While not in the classic mode of some films, Carpenter's Halloween is a B-movie classic that should have been left alone, even if all those rotten sequels took some of the shine off.
I have to say - I was really disgusted when I watched this. And YET, I kept watching (guess that is the train wreck phenomenon). They reveled in the gore and violence to a degree I had not expected (I had not seen 1000 corpses - nor will I ever if I can avoid it)
The beauty lies in Zombie's dialogues and the quirky characters, far more fleshed-out than in your usual gore fare. I always laugh when I hear Otis threaten one of his woul-be victims: "Boy, the next word that comes out of your mouth better be some brilliant fuckin ' Mark Twain shit 'cause it's definitely getting chiseled on your tombstone"
Maybe you just can't catch the subtle references and nuanced plot development of the sequel without having watched "House of 1000 Corpses."
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