|
Directed by: Rob Zombie Starring: Sid Haig, Bill Mosely, Sheri Moon This movie was amazing. Everything I had hoped for and more, quite simply. For those of you that hated "House of 1000 Corpses", don't let that deter you from seeing this one. There are onyl two connections between these two movie, and those are the characters and the revenge plot. The movie isn't a thing like "House" was at all. Personally, I truly loved "House of 1000 Corpses", but that doesn't matter to this review. This film was in an entirely different category of filmmaking. Rob Zombie has come a long, long way since then and it shows. The way the movie was filmed is extremely gritty and realistic, none of that technicolored MTV stuff from "House." Everything in this movie is real, in your face, and unforgiving as hell. Once it starts up, and it starts up fast, it never stops. There were no dull moments at all, unless you consider a scene in the sheriff's office a slow scene. Everything, and I mean everything, is brutal and to the point. Sid Haig put on an excellent performance, once again, as Captain Spaulding, or Cutter (his real name). He had the sadistic qualities of any serial killer, a well-done father figure (complete with bickering), and a great comedic relief value. Bill Mosely as Otis was superb. His acting is spot-on the entire time, switching from laid back guy to psycho-maniac in an instant, and then back. Love the guy, love the acting, love the character. Sheri Moon, well, she kicked rear end, as well. Excellent body, too, not a bad thign to look at. She's excellent at manipulating between sweet and innocent to insane and/or bitchy. All in all, it was a truly excellent film. Zombie has come a long way since his first film, and this shows just how great of a director he really is. I can't wait until he starts doing more movies because he is one of the extremely few left in hollywood that is willing to go as far as he possibly can. This film was extremely horrific in the sense that everything in it could really happen. There really are psychos like this that exist in the world. This movie is not glorifying the subject, it is simply documenting it and putting it out there for people to see. I don't feel that Rob Zombie is promoting this stuff. He is putting it on film for the sake of entertainment/shock value, and it succeeds perfectly. If he continues with this current road he is on, he will definitely go down as my favorite director. Films nowadays don't get any more realistic than this, which is something I enjoy seeing. Seeing poo poo blow up for no apparent reason is cool and all, but it carries no meaning or depth. Movies like this, made for only $7 million, and capturing the true, brutal essence of human nature at its very darkest is what is missing in the world today. No, I'm not saying we should be showing more people getting killed in sixk, horrific ways. What I'm saying is we need to make films that are more down to earth and cost a shitload less than $100 million+. CGI, my rear end. This movie uses very, very little CGI, mainly for a shot of a knife going into a woman's chest and her pulling it out.. Everything is done by practical means. Squibs, makeup, poo poo that is put to good use for the sake of making a good movie. Michael Bay may know how to blow a ton of things up, but he sure as gently caress can't make a good movie. Rob Zombie has returned me to the glory days of filmmaking, the days where simple effects make one happy, the days when life was good. Hollywood could leanr a lesson with this type of filmmaking. Maybe then they'll shut their money-hungry mouths. EDIT - I should note that I left out a bunch of things that I wanted to say. Hell, I could go on and on about this film, but it is now 1:30AM and I'm tired. RATING: 5.5 PROS: Excellent film-making, top-notch acting, incredibly brutal and gory, genuinely horrific CONS: None. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0395584/ NovaHunter fucked around with this message at 06:29 on Jul 25, 2005 |
#
?
Jul 25, 2005 06:26
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 19, 2024 22:23 |
|
|
First of all, I agree with the original review. Check this movie out even if you didn't like House. To be honest, I was a little disappointed with it myself. This movie, on the other hand, is done quite well. It contains many of the elements that made 70s horror films good. Don't worry if you are not a fan of Zombie's music because there isn't any of it here. In fact, the sountrack is quite good and contains some great rock from the 70s including Free Bird by Skynyrd. Coincidentally, the scene in which that song is played is arguably one of the best. One of my favorite things about this movie are the cameos. Horror movie buffs will recognize many people from some of the classics. Ken Foree (Peter from the original Dawn of the Dead) is great in this movie as the pimp & brother of Captain Spaulding. He was easily one of my favorite characters from the movie. The acting was pretty well done. Sid Haig is great as Captain Spaulding as well as Bill Moseley (Otis) who many people might already know was also in the second Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Every time he spoke in both this and H1KC I was reminded of his line from TCM2, "Dog will hunt". Sheri Moon was average. To be honest I was a little annoyed by some of her lines. Leslie Easterbrook (Mother) was a decent replacement to Karen Black but I also thought she took some of her scenes a little too far. I would have to say that William Forsythe stole the show as far as acting is concerned. He did terrific as the Sheriff and once again Ken Foree as Charlie was top notch. Overall the movie was quite good. I loved the scenes in which we see the family interacting with eachother and generally acting like a normal family might. This made the violent scenes more powerful as we realize that people aren't always as they appear and the guy or girl next door could very easily be a sadistic killer. As stated in the previous review, the gritty and realistic feel to the movie is what makes it all the more powerful. I'm looking forward to see what Rob Zombie can do in the future with different characters and a different movie altogether. RATING: 4 PROS: Some great acting. Funny & disturbing at the same time. Cameos. Soundtrack. CONS: Sheri Moon and Leslie Easterbrook could have been better. The scene in which the victim got hit by a truck is a little overdone
|
|
#
?
Jul 25, 2005 11:32
|
|
|
As expected, I was in love with the film. It seemed to be getting mixed reviews; the St. Paul paper gave it 3-and-a-half stars out of 4. Other papers possibly less. In any case, Rob's directing style had definitely improved. He seemed to take the criticisms from the first movie and change them around to make the second an even better one. There are no 15-second music video insertions, no annoying Baby laughs and you find the characters to be much more in depth. For example, in House, you don't quite get who Captain Spaulding is. You know he's a silly guy who, when threatened, is the most serious of the serious. In this film, you get to see the guy for who he really is and what he has done. Their killing/torture is like a drug; when they go to the motel, why do they torture the band and their wives? They just DO. They could have found another place to hide out for the time being but it was just a 'fun' adventure for them. Otis was amazing... after you see the movie, try and picture Bill Mosely as just an actor. That he goes through his life doing everyday poo poo. It's difficult to because you see him AS Otis. I wish there was a little more of Michael Berryman in there [the guy who worked for Charlie Altamont at the Frontiertown] and there should have been some sort of conclusion for The Unholy Two. But those are minor complaints. The story itself is much more involving. House, as much as I loved it, didn't have much of a plot to it as everyone is well aware. It was like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre where the plot was... inspiration? You can see how they were inspired by different sources and those came through effectively [Ed Gein for example] but the story is kind of randomly tossed together. In this film, there is a definite progression of events that allows you to flip-flop your mind as to who you're really rooting for here. There are references here and there but the closest thing that would come to it would be the Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2. And even still. I am surprised the amount of everything that they were allowed to have in the film. Sure, Rob had to pass it by the MPAA 8 times or so but you see guts splayed out on the road, nails being hammered into hands, a pseudo-gun-masturbation-scene and so forth. It's good that he was able to get away with more than he could with the first film. And the scene where the woman is wearing the face and running through the desert... my god that was even better than what I imagined. Specific scenes that I loved: The beginning of the film when Baby and Otis make the getaway during 'Midnight Rider': wading through the water, running in the field, hopping in the car. And all the cheerleaders in cages in the basement. Fantastic. When The Unholy Two arrive at Charlie's place and it is set to Terry Reid's 'To Be Treated' with no other sound effects and splashes of color. Beautiful. The torture of the Rejects and the sheriff's growing madness. It's a definite turning point in the film and it was just.... bizarre... to see the three being treated in such a way. You got to see a side of them that you never did in the first movie. That brings me to the ending. I have never quite seen an ending like that. I'm not going to give too much away but my loving god... I'd sit through the movie again just to see that. There could not have been a better possible ending for those characters and I will never ever ever hear Freebird the same way again. It's one of those movies where if I were a woman or didn't have any control, I would have burst into tears. It's great. It's no coincidence that most of my favorite scenes were set to music... it was used in such a way that was just... perfect. After all this, it's very obvious that I am a fan of Rob's style. If I had been an outsider, I'm sure I would have seen it differently. But personally, I give it 5.5 out of 5 stars. I can't wait for the DVD. Rating: 5.5/5 Pros: Amazing soundtrack, mostly good acting, involving story, lots of gore, nice scenery, great old-school horror cameos Cons: A little of the acting, specifically Sheri's motel scene and the roadie
|
|
#
?
Jul 27, 2005 23:05
|
|
|
 The Devil's Rejects is a wonderful piece of exploitation that has been long absent from the world of cinema. With a glut of style of substance remakes of Japanese horror films, new versions of horror classics that seem to use little but the title of the original film as their inspiration, and uninspired sequels, the blood-soaked depravity of Rob Zombie's latest film is a great return to trash film glory days when movies like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, 2000 Maniacs, and Dawn of the Dead purely aimed to scare the crap out of audiences, and succeeded. I totally hated Zombie's first film, House of a Thousand Corpses. Aside from the brilliant performance by Sid Haig as the scuzzy killer clown, Captain Spaulding, I thought the entire affair was amateurish and hard to enjoy, but I loved Haig in it so much I was willing to give his follow up film another try. I'm glad that I did. I don't know what happened to Mr. Zombie in the last couple years, but The Devil's Rejects is the work of an incredibly skilled writer/director. I loved it so much I paid to see it twice in one day. It's a brilliant sleazy nightmare that is shocking, scary, funny, thrilling, and horrifying all at the same time. This is not a movie for everyone. If you're easily squeamish, and hate movies with excessive killing and clown sex, you're probably better off going to see March of The Penguins. For what it is, The Devil's Rejects is one of the best exploitation films ever made.  The film opens with a ton of cops ready to fire on the ranch house of a family of notorious serial killers called The Fireflys who've already killed at least 80 people. Sheriff Wydell (played by William Forsythe) has a particular mission to get rid of the whole family because his own brother fell victim to their murderous ways some time ago. He's a cop who's become so crooked and sadistic that his methods are as shocking as the Firefly's. At the core, the movie works so well because of it's incredible cast. As Captain Spaulding, the father of the killer family, Sid Haig is incredible. With his volcanic complexion, rotten teeth, and pasty clown makeup, Haig has a mixture of repulsiveness and charm that is almost unexplainable. He can switch gears from menacing to hilarious before he finishes a sentence. His dialogue is priceless, and spoiling it here within this review would be doing the viewer a great disservice. Spaulding's adult son and daughter join him on the run, and are played with equal amazing skill by Bill Moseley as Otis, and Zombie's wife Sheri Moon as the sexy and lethal "Baby". Mosely is creepy as hell as a Charles Manson meets Greg Allman hybrid who we first see waking up with a dead naked lady in his bed as cops shoot out his window. He can deliver funny lines like, "I'm Willie loving Wonka, and this is MY loving CHOCOLATE FACTORY!" and still come off as scary.  The lovely Mrs. Zombie is hypnotically crazy and beautiful throughout the film. A mixture of Elizabeth Shue and vintage Farrah Fawcett with a dash of Squeaky Fromme, she owns every bit of the screen she's on, which is a particularly great feat with this charismatic cast. Using her sexuality to ensare her victims one second, and shaking her brilliant rear end while singing "Chinese, Japanense, Dirty Knees, Look at THESE" the next, she's an unpredictable and crazy killer that is alluring, complex, and shocking at the same time. Her casting is hardly the result of nepotism. Zombie's direction and editing skills are brilliant throughout the film, throwing in dashes of humor just when things get too revolting. Then smacking you upside the head with an incredibly violent scene when you let your guard down.  The supporting cast is a virtual "Who's Who" of shock cinema. Perfectly suited cameos by Eating Raoul's Mary Woronov, Michael Berryman from The Hills Have Eyes, and #1 zombie asskicker Ken Foree will delight genre fanboys yet entertain folks who've never even heard of them. The soundtrack is incredible as well, full of enough Lynrd Skynyrd, Allman Brothers, and Joe Walsh music to have your own Redneck Woodstock. Each song perfectly compliments the scenes in this late 70s based film. Hats off to Rob Zombie for having both the vision and the clout to get a movie made like this in today's overly commercial and safe film world. I hope to see more of his work in the future. Go out and buy a ticket to see this today, so Hollywood will get the message that this kind of film has a small but loyal audience that likes to spend money on a quality product. I've seen it twice already, and am seriously considering going back for thirds. liquorhead fucked around with this message at 23:42 on Aug 2, 2005 |
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2005 01:07
|
|
|
Rob Zombie and I have very similar tastes in movies. If I had a film crew, my movies might come out a lot like this. And I can say this in all honesty, because I don't know how to direct, and neither, I think, does Rob Zombie- but we both know what we find funny, and we both seeing horrific poo poo on screen. This movie comes across as a bunch of awesome scenes stitched together by the hair from Sid Haig's beard. I would say I liked it more than house of 1000 corpses, and I particularly enjoyed that little ditty as well. Maybe the appeal of both of the movies stems from the fact that no one else makes 'em quite like this anymore: unapologetically disgusting with no redeeming social value. But the movie is constantly stumbling all over itself, trying to get its disgusting ideas across. In the end, it felt like 2 disgusting movies, one drawing on "last house on the left," the other drawing on... maybe a "Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2?" It's campy and creepy, in the 2nd half, in a stark contrast to the beginning. HOWEVER, I walked out of the movie happy as hell, so even though I had real problems with the construction underlying the film, everything else in it was spot on perfect: cast, sets, dialogue, etc. 4/5
|
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2005 06:22
|
|
|
I didn't like House much, but I loved this movie. Figured I should finally get around to talking about it. In my mind, this movie has always existed but I've never seen it before now. I always had this idea that there was a brutal movie, set in the dust and grime of the desert during the 70s, with these characters and violence. Let me explain. When I was a kid, my parents were very open regarding media violence. They had an understanding that their values would shape me and not what was shown on the picture box. They let me watch whatever I wanted. To this day the reason I think Silver Bullet is the scariest movie ever made is not because the film itself is scary or well made, but because it made such an amazing impression on me as a child. But in the video aisle or on HBO, there were some things I wouldn't watch as a six year old because I knew they would be too much. Texas Chainsaw and things of that nature. In my head, though, all these crazy ideas would percolate with the talk I heard of the movies and the short pieces that I saw when others watched them. The Texas in my mind, with all of these horrible scenes and acts of violence that I imagined as being in the film, was A LOT more scary than the film I eventually saw. The same goes for all the other movies from my childhood, but all of these notions stayed in the back of my mind. Rejects is the movie that brings a lot of them into existence. Not the scenes that I imagined Leatherface enacting on innocent people, but the tone, look, settings, motivations and characters. Take the disgusting characters from Texas Chainsaw, the hillbillies and dusty desert from Raising Arizona (strange I know) and the horrible poo poo from your mind and you have this movie. It's a wonderful film because it's exactly what it needs to be. I don't think it's overly violent or gory. Yes, there are moments of gore but it's not put on screen just for the sake exploitation of gore. Of course there was no reason for the highway scene besides having the character die, but you don't see the scene in detail or linger on the gore for any more than needed. You don't see Otis skin the guy alive on screen, you just see the face mask. Heck, that whole seen in which he kills the two guys wasn't any more terribly violent than any action movie. The only thing I didn't like about the movie completely was the ending. Although the ending as shot was fitting and very well done, I would have LOVED for the cop and the Unholy Two to become a vigilante team that went on to hunt the worst of society through the wild west. Maybe I'm just a Trejo fanboy, though, so who knows? Highly recommended.
|
|
#
?
Sep 17, 2005 07:55
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 19, 2024 22:23 |
|
|
First negative review? Wow. This movie was fairly boring. None of the characters were likable (neither the killers, the sheriff, or any of the victims) and much of the time I was wondering why I was still watching it. I mean, I know it's supposed to be fairly over the top and completely ridiculous, but half the time I felt like I was reading something written by a twelve-year-old boy. One specific scene that sticks out as especially awful was the girl getting hit by a truck. It was a scene that looked almost completely out of a Roadrunner cartoon. Maybe that was the intent? I'm not sure, but it was completely out of place and unnecessary. But what, then, is necessary in this movie? Every time the sheriff was on screen I was hoping it would at least switch to the next scene because everything he did was boring, and everytime the killers were on screen I was hoping there'd be at least some amusing gore (this was actually done well in some parts, like the beginning when they stab that old lady and take her car), but instead, for the most part, we get a pretty lame plot (I know it's a homage, but that's no excuse for it to be so poor) with a bunch of people who can't really act. The 'funny' moments between the killers weren't really funny, and the only part I can remember with even remotely good direction and cinematography was the ending montage, but I suspect the only saving grace there was not having to hear the characters try to act. Best part hands-down was the soundtrack. But that doesn't mean Rob Zombie should make another movie, ever again. 2.5, 1 point for the rare funny/gory bit, and 1.5 for the soundtrack.
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2006 18:49
|
|
