Day 322: The Devil's Rejects

I don't know why I ever watched this movie. The House of 1,000 Corpses is one of my least favorite horror movies of all time but I guess I had heard enough positive buzz about this one to give it a go.

The Devil's Rejects picks up where House of 1000 Corpses left off, more or less. After one killing too many, the local police (William Forsythe as John Wydell) raid the Firefly family home and kill one (Rufus) while capturing Mama Firefly. Baby and Otis escape and try to reunite with Captain Spaulding, Baby's father. They kidnap, torture and kill most of a country group called Banjo and Sullivan. However, as Wydell interrogates Mama Firefly, he finds out she was responsible for killing his brother. This unhinges the Sheriff and he vows vengeance against the whole clan. Things get grim from there.

This is the only Rob Zombie movie I've liked so far, so if you're a fan you may be built differently than I am. The first half of this movie is business as usual for the Firefly clan as the three on the run rape and torture their way across Texas. Then, like the weird magic trick that happens when you start sympathizing with King Kong, the killers become the victims as Forsythe moves from a figure of law and order to one of sadistic vengeance. By the end of the movie, you are fully on the side of the Fireflys and Zombie luckily doesn't waste that goodwill by sending them right back to their evil ways. If Tim Burton has a soft spot for outcasts, Zombie has one for monsters. It turns out the best way to make them sympathetic is to put them up against something worse than themselves.

Granted, I've only seen this movie once so the magic trick may not work a second time around. However, I would stand by this as a mostly intense experience.