THE DEVIL’S REJECTS
After much deliberation,I managed to whittle down my favourite genre movie of the 21st century to Rob Zombie’s masterpiece, THE DEVIL’S REJECTS.
This is a movie that spoke to me from the very first moment I saw it in Birmingham in 2005. I remember it well because I had recently broken my hand and couldn’t drive so my wife asked a mate of mine to see THE DEVIL’S REJECTS to cheer me up, and for some reason drove us to Rubery in Birmingham, which is about 25 miles from where we lived, but it made a nice change to go somewhere different.
I have been a Rob Zombie fan since my mid-teens when I first heard White Zombie’s ‘La Sexorcisto’ album, and I loved HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES so it was a no-brainer that I was going to enjoy this. I knew very little going in except that it wasn’t going to be as ‘horror’ as its predecessor and the tone was a bit more serious.
Coming out of the screening I immediately knew this was a movie I was going to return to as it had everything that I love - gore, sex, violence, dark humour, the 1970s, vengeful cops and it was a road movie. Sid Haig is one of my idols and he was magnificent, starting off as the clown of the previous movie but when the make-up came off he was as menacing as he was funny. Bill Moseley has never been better, the actor channeling Charles Manson - or the public’s perception of him - to make Otis one of horror cinema’s most evil killers. Here he is mesmerising in the insanity of the character, which is something that sequel 3 FROM HELL never quite captured, where Otis seemed almost cuddly and loveable, a sort-of parody of how he was in this movie.
It is a very simple movie about despicable characters doing despicable things. I can put it on anytime and still get that same hit of 1970s-esque dirt n’ sleaze that I find so enthralling. The only slight downside is that there are one or two digital blood effects that Zombie didn’t have time to do practically. If you didn’t know they were there or you are watching on a crappy DVD it is barely noticeable, but I do know they are there and I have a Blu-ray so my brain always sees them.
Nevertheless, THE DEVIL’S REJECTS is a movie I love, I will always love and, quite honestly, any movie that ends with a shootout to Lynyrd Skynyrd’s ‘Freebird’ deserves to be number one in a list somewhere, so it may as well be here. It’s just a shame Rob Zombie spoilt that perfect ending by making 3 FROM HELL, but what can I do? Just watch THE DEVIL’S REJECTS again for about the 30th time, that’s what. It made mainstream genre cinema nasty again, just for a bit, and for me, it still works.
Chris Ward