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REJECTED OR NOT?
It wasn’t all that long ago that rock star and horror fan Rob Zombie created a chilling new addition to the horror fan base of possible franchise hungry characters when he made HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES. Creating a franchise was not his intent. Rather, it was to pay homage to the full bodied horror films of the seventies and early eighties, those grab you by the throat films that he remembered. The trials and tribulations that Zombie had to go through to simply get the film released and the success of the film when it happened are now legendary. So it was likely that a sequel would follow.
THE DEVIL’S REJECTS is completely unlike the first film. Where the first delved into the oddball Firefly family and its penchant for homicide mingled with preaching, this one is straight up human destruction. Picking up where the last film left off, or shortly thereafter, we are presented with a new adversary for the family in the form of Sheriff Wydell (William Forsyth) the brother of downed Lt.Wydell (Tom Towles) from the first film.
Wydell has nothing on his mind save for the extermination of this family that robbed not only him of his brother but so many families of their loved ones. The brutality and loss of loved ones is hit on here rather than the fun horror film gore of the first film. The true depth of depravity and pain that the Firefly family is seen as we turn from garish lights in the original to more realistic daylight here. And in that light we are witness to all they have done.
The Firefly family escapes the attack of Wydell and his men with the exception of Mother Firefly (this time played by Leslie Easterbrook). Taken into custody, Wydell does his best to interrogate her, showing her pictures that the family took of their victims. But this is a lady without remorse.
Meanwhile, Otis (Bill Moseley) and Baby (Shari Moon) contact Capt. Spaulding (Sid Haig) and then head for a preordained meeting place. When the pair arrives they take several guests hostage in their room and begin to play twisted games with them, showing how truly low they can go. These are not the somewhat sympathetic cartoon characters from the first film.
When Spaulding arrives the trio makes preparations to get out of harms way. But at the same time we witness a transformation of Wydell at the same time. The change is disruptive to the film as he goes from lawman to God’s angel of vengeance. Tossed aside is the letter of the law and Wydell is reduced to little more than a member of the family in different clothing.
Wydell does finally capture the three and takes them back to their home. There he proceeds to torture them in much the same way they did their victims. Suddenly the villains of this piece aren’t as bad as we thought. And this is perhaps the biggest weakness of the movie. We are to revile these characters and BAM they become almost heroes.
The final moments of the film almost cement this feeling as the tones of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Free Bird” rise while we watch them driving. And the last thing we see is reminiscent of BONNIE AND CLYDE where other outlaws were hailed as mere victims.
In the end this movie is not near as satisfying as the first. The sudden change in structure at the end dissolves all feelings that we had something different than most films that make icons of their protagonists. Granted we won’t be seeing a sequel after this film’s end (never say never). And Zombie proves himself as a director with fine capabilities shown in two films now. While this film is more original than most released this summer and more entertaining than others, on the whole I expected more. The actors still rule and we can hope that Zombie is now given more to do having proven himself capable.