Devil's Rejects, The
See also:
House of 1000 Corpses (Noah K.)
There must have been something special about House of 1000 Corpses , because I was actually looking forward to Devil's Rejects. Despite his plotless, indulgent script, Rob Zombie showed a genuine talent for visuals in his debut film (every scene looked like a heavy metal album cover), and I was hoping for more of the same in this sequel. It may have also had something to do with Rob Zombie's wife being an absolute fox.
Sometimes, we reviewers get it wrong. In my review of Corpses , I criticised the script for not motivating its charismatic family of killers, suggesting they needed "something to strive for...or the need to escape being caught". In Devil's Rejects , the same killers are on the run from the cops, and everything that was special about the first film is absent. All the macabre and nightmarish imagery is traded off for a straight-forward roadtrip of violence, and it was so empty and bland.
Zombie is just an awful screenwriter. I actually think he would make quite a name for himself as a director if only he directed someone's screenplays other than his own. He just has no talent for it.
Firstly, his plots are a mess. In the beginning of the film, the family of killers are ambushed in their own home, and a shoot-out ensues. But it's only after one family member is gunned down and another is caught that the others think to escape using the old secret exit in the basement. Come on!
And if his films are meant to be funny, then he can't write humour. He fattens each and every scene with so much dialogue, and it's all just so bad and witless and pointless. Lines like "I'm the Devil, and I do the Devil's work" – what the hell is that supposed to mean? He only confused things more by calling the killers the Devil's Rejects.
Another difference between the sequel and the original that I couldn't help but notice is that this film is very perverted. Like a Spinal Tap lyric. In the opening scene, one of the killers is dragging a woman's corpse through the woods, and the camera cuts between multiple angles of her body like some sick porn film. In another seemingly long scene, one of the killers forces a woman to strip at gunpoint, and then caresses her body with his gun.
You walk a fine line when you criticise a horror film for being distasteful, because any horror fan will tell you that's the whole point. It's meant to shock, it's meant to be voyeuristic, and it can be exhilarating to watch. When can a horror film step over the line? That's a hard one to answer. I would say, in this case, when it becomes pornographic. Like, when a woman's corpse is being dragged along, and the film cuts to a close-up of her erect nipples. Unless he's trying to appeal to the tastes of that necro demographic out there, it doesn't seem to have much of a point to it.
I feel like I've been burnt a second time, and yet ya know what? I think I'll check out Rob's next project. Hell, I'm thinking about getting into some White Zombie. His score in both films is pretty awesome. Despite all my qualms with his films, he's quite clearly a very talented artist, and perhaps I just need to find the right Rob Zombie project. His next film is an animated feature. Maybe this one will work for me.