When I saw this in theaters this summer, it was preceded by a diet Coke commercial that was so upbeat, so chipper, so shiny-happy-people that it may as well have been all about puppies and unicorns. I would not experience happiness again for the next two hours. Nor will you, now that the film hits DVD today.

THE DEVIL’S REJECTS, you see – writer/director Rob Zombie’s sequel to his instant cult classic HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES – is a gory, dirty little picture so pornographically, unflinchingly violent that it makes its predecessor look like AIR BUD: SEVENTH INNING FETCH. That said, it’s surprisingly well-acted and Zombie again proves he’s one hell of a great director. As with CORPSES, he’s not quite sure how to end it, but the ride to the finish is such a wild one, I had to love it, even it went straight under my skin and bothered me.

Whereas CORPSES was a self-referential horror film bordering on comedy, its sequel couldn’t be any more different in tone. First off, it’s a crime film, and its horrors are more graphic and unsettling than anything the first movie could’ve possibly dreamed. And while CORPSES was candy-coated in coloring, REJECTS is bleak and unwashed, echoing the renegade crime films of the ‘70s.

The Firefly family that so terrorized the teens in CORPSES finds itself ambushed by the town sheriff (William Forsythe), looking for revenge for his murdered brother. Otis (Bill Mosely) and sister Baby (Sheri Moon Zombie) escape, but their mother (POLICE ACADEMY veteran Leslie Easterbook, replacing Karen Black) is put behind bars. Otis and Baby tip off their “daddy,” sadistic clown Capt. Spaulding (Sid Haig), and meet up with him at a seedy motel to form a bloodthirsty trio of degenerates who think nothing of sexually abusing and/or killing innocent people as they try to make their way toward freedom.

This brutal film is definitely not for everybody, but it’s also not the cheap piece of exploitation you might think it to be. There’s real artistry here underneath all the grime. I can’t wait to watch the DVD’s making-of documentary which – at two-and-a-half hours – is longer than the movie itself. Don’t be a wussy; get the unrated edition.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 8th, 2005 at 9:47 am and is filed under DVD Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.