Review of Devil`s Rejects, The (Special Edition)

Introduction

Let`s get one thing perfectly clear; I really do NOT like horror films. From the schlock to the realistically unnerving and vomit inducing, the entire spectrum leaves me nonplussed and irritated. When Rob Zombie`s follow up to his cult hit `House of 1000 corpses` landed with a resonant thump on my doormat, I attempted every aversion tactic I could possibly think of in order to keep myself from having to put this particular DVD into the player and sit through two hours of stomach churning violence.

After almost a month of putting off the inevitable (well, inevitable if I wanted to retain my cushy position as a `DVD reviewer` writer), the moment arrived and `The Devil`s rejects` was forcefully shoved into the player, accompanied by a little prayer.

The movie itself follows the murderous escapades of three brutal killers who have managed to escape the law until now, but have recently found the noose tightening around their rather scrawny and unpleasant necks. A sequel to Zombie`s aforementioned debut picture, the characters of Otis, Baby Firefly and Captain Spaulding are responsible for one thousand dead bodies (which I believe to be more of a rough estimate than a coincidentally metric total), and are subsequently hunted by amoral law enforcement officers against the background of sun-baked Texan highway and desert.

Although managing only a handful of further murders along the way (hardly the prolificacy that their legend had suggested), their vile and repugnant characters still manage to shine through. Alarmingly, so does that of Sheriff Dwyer, the man in charge of putting these people in the custody of the state.

Yet despite looking grander and more ambitious in nature, the film was reportedly made for half the budget of its predecessor, a fact attributed mostly to its director and producer`s pinpointing of the leaky holes which led to money being wasted last time around. Zombie`s cult following as a film-maker due to `… 1000 corpses` DVD success has enabled him to have a second swipe at the cinematic swing-ball, and what emerges is a more accomplished, if not less overtly gruesome effort.

Video

For a film on such a tight budget, the picture and quality of cinematography is certainly to be applauded. Capturing the swelling heat and dirty surroundings of the locations contained within, an overall uncomfortable feeling emanates throughout, and one would presume that this was exactly the intention. For some reason, the blinding southern sun is mostly a lot more terrifying than pitch black - at least you cant see severed heads in the dark!

Audio

The majority of the music accompanying the film is that of the deep south - the kind of country tinged rock that went out of fashion along with anti-Vietnam war protestors. As a result, hillbilly music is the order of the day, and the inclusion of `Free Bird` by Lynard Skynard as our heroes/villains drive towards their showdown with their authoritarian pursuers is, for want of a less hackneyed phrase, a stroke of genius. Such is its impact, that it makes you realise that, despite hating horror films, you enjoyed this one quite a lot.

Features

The 2 disc `special edition` of this movie includes a DVD crammed full (and I mean FULL) of extra bits that should fans satisfied long after they`ve watched the movie 45 times and learnt the script (f) word for (f) word. These include the mammoth `30 days in hell` documentary, clocking in at well over 2 hours, a blooper reel, out-takes, deleted scenes and plenty of featurettes far too bizarre to list if you haven`t seen the film.

Rest assured, it makes the whole thing pretty much essential and will leave those who bought the 1 disc version for a few pounds less, feeling not only empty, but also slightly stupid.

`30 days in hell` is, of course, the reason why you`ll buy it. With a running time longer than the extended film itself, it serves as basically a guide of how to (and how not to) make a budget picture. When I say `budget`, we`re talking millions of dollars here, but it is interesting to see how far - or not - that money actually goes in the world of movie making. In depth and informative, a picture of Mr Rob Zombie the director is also painted, and the effort that he has made to see his vision come alive is openly documented on screen throughout the program.

Conclusion

`The Devil`s rejects` needs slapping across the back of the knees for several reasons. The first is that all promotional literature refers to the ending as being one of the depraved and terrifying in cinematic history. It isn`t. For one thing, no fictional horror in this mould could ever come close to depicting suffering in the ways that, say, holocaust pictures do. Secondly, I am, as stated, no big fan of horror films, and so blood and gore alone can never truly win my praise. It`s not big and, mostly, it`s not really clever.

This said, in other areas I was shocked in an altogether good way. To dismiss `The Devil`s Rejects` as another horror film would be to do it a great injustice because there is a lot more to it. The best offering that it brings to the table is, without a doubt, the ability to make psychopathic scumbags appear likeable. When placed next to the almost-as-depraved Sheriff Wydell (William Forsythe), suddenly the dichotomy of the sometimes unlawful and immoral badge of law enforcement comes to the fore. In short, there are no good guys, just different degrees of bad guys.

In creating this impression, the actors themselves have a big part to play. A great deal of them were in the prequel, Sid Haig is Spaulding the clown once again, with Bill Mosely and Sheri Moon (Zombie`s wife) as his partners in hideous-crime. Whereas there aren`t going to be any Oscar-nominations for anyone involved, their depiction of small-town cranks is perfect and serves the director well in showing the `dark side of the saloon`.

More importantly than anything, however, the film stands alone. I hadn`t seen `…1000 corpses` when I saw this DVD, and it made complete sense. Thankfully for the uninitiated, `The Devil`s Rejects` almost entirely relies on itself for characterisation and storyline, creating not only the startling existence of a sequel that betters the admittedly flawed original, but one that cuts itself free and swims to shore alone.

Lets make sure one thing`s clear though, I really do NOT like horror films.