The Devil's Rejects (2005)

   

Produced, Written & Directed by: Rob Zombie

Starring:

Sid Haig .... Captain Spaulding
Bill Moseley .... Otis
Sheri Moon Zombie .... Baby Firefly
William Forsythe .... Sheriff Wydell
Ken Foree .... Charlie Altamont
Leslie Easterbrook .... Mother Firefly
Dave Sheridan .... Officer Ray Dobson
Geoffrey Lewis .... Roy Sullivan
Priscilla Barnes .... Gloria Swanson
Kate Norby .... Wendy Banjo
Lew Temple .... Adam Banjo
Danny Trejo .... Rondo
Diamond Dallas Page .... Billy Ray Snapper
Brian Posehn .... Jimmy
Elizabeth Daily .... Candy

Special Appearances:

Michael Berryman .... Clevon
Ginger Lynn Allen .... Fanny
P.J. Soles .... Susan
Deborah Van Valkenburgh .... Casey
Chris Ellis .... Coggs
Mary Woronov .... Abbie
Daniel Roebuck .... Morris Green
Duanne Whitaker .... Dr. Bankhead
Glenn Taranto .... Anchorman
Steve Railsback .... Sheriff Ken Dwyer
Robert Trebor .... Marty Walker

Release Date: Theatrical: July 22, 2005

       

 

 

Rating:

 

After the terrifying slaughters of all the corpses the demented Firefly family kept at their farmhouse a group of police try to floush them out of their house but the family fights back.
Suddenly Mother Firefly (Leslie Easterbrook) is arrested while Baby (Sherri Moon Zombie) and Otis (Bill Moseley) manage to escape and their father murdered.

Otis and Baby contacts Captain Spaulding (Sid Haig) of what happened.
Otis and Baby goes to a hotel to meet Spaulding and hold a couple of country musicians for ransom and play sick games with their wives.

They kill them all and hide out at Spauldings half brothers whorehouse.
However, a crazed Sheriff named Wydell (William Forsythe) kills Mother Firefly and hunts down the others for revenge

 

This was a bit of a different twist than it's original story used in House of 1000 Corpses which seemed necesary since alot of sequels seem to be very pointless and not meeting up to the original but this kicks it's butt big time by making the story stronger than ever since the first one was a waste of time.
It's cool showing the run down house with Tiny Firefly dragging a corpse on the ground as well as the insides of the house and the demented resients sleeping with gruesome corpses lying around in certain spots and then the police surrounding the house. This seemed to work very well since it picked up right after the first one and showed neat effects on paper articles on what happened before making this fun to watch too. Plus there's great gun shooting with the Firefly family trying to fight back and most of them taking off and driving away.
I just loved the moment with a nasty obnoxious head Sheriff Wydell getting nasty and abusive towards Mother Firefly with her acting crazy but it gives you a good feeling that he is mistreating her after her evil deeds towards those thousands of victims they killed at their home. This was well written in.
In aother scene we disocver a band touring and staying at a motel having a good time in which you don't want this ruined until Baby and Otis are planning something terrible since their vehicle is stalling and need someone else's but decide to have their own fun. Baby seems to bring on a sleazy type of charm towards one of these band members named Roy Sullivan as this seems like a nice attention grabber but at the same time we were all taught not to talk to strangers and this is a very good reason why which we all know what's going to happen next.
The story becomes more disturbing when Otis but's a gun to his head and hauls him into the motel room throwing alot of the others off as well as grabbing one of them from a shower and into the room so everyone is together which is embarrassing being held hostage without any clothes on. Plus Baby acts like a sleazy little brat towards everyone that you feel like smacking her around. Then Otis forces one of them named Gloria Swanson to take off her clothes as this is even more peer pressuring and hard to watch imagining if you were in this situation. To top it off one of them named Wendy Banjo asks to go to the bathroom and Baby manipulates her to hit Gloria hard in the face in order to do so. I found alot of this paying a tribute to Wes Craven's Last House on the Left since there's alot of psychological elements used here and was in a more disturbing fashion too.
We spot even more disturbing moments like Captain Spaulding getting menacing towards a mother knocking her unconcious in order to steal her car as well as sneering towards a little boy making him fear of clowns. This was cleverly written in and came across as truly intimidating too.
Otis takes both people from the motel Roy and Adam out somewhere to dig something up and yet one of them tries to use a weapon on Otis in order to set themselves free in which this was suspenseful to watch making you wonder if they will succeed but yet the downfall is they failed as well as sacrificing their lives while doing this. There's another moment when Gloria tries to stop Baby and this fails too using some acting sequences which looked well done. Later on someone puts a corpse face on Wendy which was another paying tribute to Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 that was never shown during it's theatrical release and on the special edition only that fans were talking about who saw it. This seemed pretty intense with all that was happening.
Another great scene was a dream sequence when Wydell talks to Officer Ray Dobson at the Firefly house when he says it's his new home now making you wonder if he gave in to the family and became demented too. It really boggles you big time.
The story gets more meaty this time which was my favourite moment as Wydell kidnaps Baby, Otis and Spaulding by maming and torturing them turning the tables in which the story looked very intelligent that they are now the victims confronting a maniac serving them right for their evil deeds. Of course he did nastier things to Baby which I was cheering on big time getting what she deserved. Yet, you expect Wydell's plan to backfire and it just does. But Zombie gives the film a perfect ending and not leaving a door open for another sequel since sometimes they're overly done.
Bottom line is this one works well on it's own and seems to be a paying tribute to those Grindhouse films making it actually look like it took place in the 70's with today's graphic violence. It was a bit more of a crime flick than a horror but many horror fans cherished this one greatly.

The acting is incredibly well done as lead actor Sid Haig (Captain Spaulding) returns and is nastier than ever in which he was perfect with his menacing attitude and violent reactions towards others. He brings out a ton of great monstrous energy into what he did in the film. I'd have to say that he really brought out alot more into this one without a doubt as well as having a good sarcastic attitude too. He is a natural character as always in films and brings plenty of a demented character to his part.
Bill Moseley (Otis) was more menacing than ever as you would NOT want him in your every day life hoping he will get what's coming to him. He was believeably obnoxious and truly intimidating at what he does not showing a nice moment in him at all. He was built on hate and really brought that out in his performance making you wonder if he's really like that. Quite frankly I found this to be his best performance ever than anything I've seen him in.
Sherri Moon Zombie (Baby Firefly) is nastier too and more spoiled as you want to hit her for her evil deeds. She shows a perfect coldness to her part along with her tough and bitchy attitude too. She put everything that she had to do with this one. She seemed like a nasty tomboy type of personality. I found her to be the best out of the whole cast and proving herself to be a worthy character actress too.
William Forsythe
(Sheriff Wydell) is right on with his character in which he brings a great seriousness to his role along with a great craziness to his role. He shows a perfect vengeful attitude as well as knowing on how to act forceful and intimidating too. I really liked what he did in his performance in which he gets it on big time and could've won an award for what he did in the film.
Ken Foree (Charlie Altamont) shows a good obnoxious type of behavior in his supporting role and really knows on how to act high strung with whatever that he did in his role. I always found him to be a natural character actor with everything that he did in his performances and it's nice to see him get work again these days.
Leslie Easterbrook (Mother Firefly) filled in to play this role instead of Karen Black but yet she realy studied this role well that you wouldn't notice the difference at all with what she did in her performance. She really knew on how to act insane and demented like she was losing her mind and just going with the flow to everything surrounding her.
Priscilla Barnes (Gloria Swanson) showed a good emotional attitude into her role by acting intense and frightened with what is happening to her along with showing alot of anxiety too. She performed this all incredibly well. It's nice to see her portray different types of characters since her days in Three's Company.

We also get numerous interesting cameos by low budget has been film actors and TV actors too so let's take a look here.
Ginger Lynn Allen (Fanny) had the perfect role as a prostitute in a dream sequence in which she certainly performed aggressively and had a great nasty laughter to what she did. She brought out alot of insane aggressions too. She proves that she can do other types of acting than in the adult film industry or the low budget film industry. I found this to be her best performence even if she was in it for two minutes or so.
P.J. Soles (Susan) showed a nice decency to her role and knew on how to act like an innocent mother by getting spooked since she was being attacked in which she knew on how to act out of fear with all of this. It was cool to see her in a big film again since her work in shows like Carrie and Halloween.
Duane Whitaker (Dr. Bankhead) had an appearance on a TV show by being on one of those religious types of TV shows and seemed to bring some interesting wit into his part which really grabbed my attention and did this fairly well.

Lots of nudity.
A naked corpse is dragged.
Also many naked dead corpses are in the farmhouse.
Former porn queen Ginger Lynn Allen exposes her breasts in a dream sequence playing a hooker.
A lady is naked taking a shower in a hotel and the demented family drags her out and is full nude.
Another one reveals a breast shot.
Sherri Moon does a butt shot.

Some gore in it indeed.
Lots of blood
.
Body parts are seen in a fridge.
Someone is shot in the head.
A guys neck is shot and blood splurts out.
Someones's face is cut off and used for a mask and then put on a victims face like in TCM 2. Then the victim runs out of the hotel and is hit by a truck with her brain splattered all over the road. YUCK!!!
Sheriff Wydell cuts open Mother Firefly's stomach and staples pictures on the family's chest.
Also he hammers Otis' hands to both armchairs that he is tied up in with his family.
Then he shoots Baby's leg but Tiny however twists his neck around.

The music was composed Tyler Bates and Rob Zombie in which they did a great job with having some hissing noises along with the odd heartbeats especially during the beginning of this film. Plus for the still and silent moments there's great dark rumbling noises too. Nice fast tapping sounds were also included with a victim trying to get away at a hotel which worked perfectly. There's also the odd metal screeching sounds along with some moaning effects too.

There's many terrific soundtracks by various 70's artists in which David Essex performs the song "Rock On" during a scene at a night bar with entertaining moments happening which had a great ehoey effect
Also near the end there's a Lynrd Skynrd classic "Saturday Night Special" making the story look very effects as to what's going to happen and really blending in incredibly well even if the song is a bit annoying.
There's tons more songs played throughout the film but these two stand out the most in my mind.

Fanny: What? Are you calling me a whore?
Captain J.T. Spaulding: I calls 'em like I sees 'em!

Sheriff John Wydell: Fuck Groucho!

Otis B. Driftwood: Hurry up and don't take too fucking long.
Baby: Fuck you!
Otis B. Driftwood: Fuck you!
Baby: Fuck you!

Baby: That's not the only thing I can do with my mouth.
Roy Sullivan: Say that again?
Baby: That's not the only thing I can do with my mouth.

Baby: Chinese, Japanese, dirty knees, look at these.

Adam Banjo: Please, mister, this is insane.
Otis B. Driftwood: Boy, the next word outta your mouth better be some brilliant fuckin' Mark Twain shit, 'cause it is definitely gettin' chiseled on your tombstone.

Otis B. Driftwood: Gimme some sugar, bitch. Make it sweet.

Otis B. Driftwood: I was going to take it easy on you and make it fast, but then you had to go and play the fucking hero!

Otis B. Driftwood: I am the devil, and I am here to do the devil's work.

Captain J.T. Spaulding: You ain't going nowhere, Bitch!

Charlie Altamont: You've got to hustle that pussy, baby. Find a new angle and you might attract a higher clientele.

Clevon: Did you hear what he called me, Boss? I ain't no chicken fucker.

Sheriff John Wydell: I'm going to kill every member of your family. They're going to feel the pain and suffering of every last victim!

Sheriff John Wydell: Only choice you got is to cooperate and tell me where they are.
Mother Firefly: [shouts] You just found yourself into something you ain't never gettin' out of!

Mother Firefly: I keep thinking about old times. Like when you was a fucking baby.

Otis: I am Willy fucking Wonka and this is my fucking chocolate factory!

Captain J.T. Spaulding: Tootie-fucking-fruity.

Captain J.T. Spaulding: ...And you remember happy boy.
Charlie Altamont: Hey You still an asshole?
Otis B. Driftwood: [gives Charlie the finger]