Sit back and relax because believe me you don't want this guy upset with you. It's best just to let him do what he wants and see if he goes away.
THE DEVIL'S REJECTS
Lions Gate
I'm posting a separate piece on exploitation movies as a way to chime in on the discussion we've been having here at ScreenAnarchy. But I can't help but review this movie this week without dipping into some of the same territory. This sequel to Rob Zombie's first film House of a 1000 Corpses is radically different in tone and style easily emerging as the better of the two; but better at what? Like the old tag line that asks us to tell ourselves “It's Only A Movie, Only A Movie, Only A Movie," Rob Zombies newest film asks us to find solace in the fact that, after all, a sick joke is just a sick joke. Perhaps the best thing for you to know about this film is that it ain't for the faint of heart or those with no sense of black humor.
Did I get the joke? Oh yes. Anybody who takes The Devil's Rejects too seriously should be locked in a hotel room with Captain Spaulding and forced to… Well the point is, that Zombie is aware his characters are despicable, sociopathic renegades and that they are for all practical purposes irredeemable. But he's also aware that the irony surrounding their behavior is thick enough to cut with a knife (pun intended). Even if there were no dialogue in the film the soundtrack would tell you that loud and clear. Southern Rock pervades as if it was a character in the film sounding out amusingly inappropriate grace notes at the most inopportune times. It's the sort of lyrical touch that the road movie is all about but here Zombie turns it on it's head by setting what the eye sees and what ear has heard at such odds that we realize the joke is on us; these guys not only deserve to die (don't we all) but we NEED them to.
Don't worry if you didn't see House of 1000 Corpses. As sequels go The Devil's Rejects pretty much stands on it's own. The Firefly family led by Captain Spaulding is on the run after the police discover their crimes from the first film. Momma Firefly has been captured but standing resolute even in the face of William Forsythe as a brilliantly self-righteous and sadistic sheriff whose thirst for justice is overshadowed by his thirst for revenge.
The film is peppered by a simply beautiful range of cameos. Dawn of the Dead's Ken Foree, Michael Berryman from The Hills Have Eyes, EG Daily, Halloween's PJ Sowles and Helter Skelter's Steve Railsback are all in this film and I'm pretty sure I didn't catch everybody.
There are great action scenes and shootouts and lots of over the top dialogue but the films deadliest weapon is the way Zombie walks the fine line between camp and discomfort. In one scene a woman is asked to strip and is molested in front of her husband. As played the content is actually fairly tame. If I listed it you wouldn't be all that shocked. But the scene is almost as disturbing as a similar moment in Michael Haneke's great film Funny Games. We are cast into the deadly seriousness of what is going on for a breath or two and then cast back out into the "family" of the Firefly's.
Likewise a sequence involving the torture of the Firefly's almost elicits sympathy for them, something I would have thought was impossible by that point in the film. And yet Zombie is clearly going for the grimmest of grins not furrowed brows and ultimately I'm not sure how I feel about myself and my own sense of humor after watching the film. The Devil's Rejects may just be the best American horror movie in years precisely because I'm unsure of who I'd feel comfortable recommending it to.
Am I the sort of person who can just enjoy The Devil's Rejects? This question may miss the point. Captain Spaulding, like any good clown, would spot the irony in a second. Maybe what makes me most uncomfortable is the kinship I feel with Zombie and company. I wouldn't invite Spaulding to do my kids birthday party but I didn't mind the road trip.