[IMDB link] [Netflix link] Gotta watch the sequel
PEOPLE: Rob Zombie directs this sequel, starring most of the original people from House Of 1000 Corpses 1. Also, Brian Posehn has a bit part. Notable because we’ve met him :)
QUIRKS: This movie isn’t quite so much of a horror movie as the first.
Free Bird?!?!?!?! Yes, Free Bird is used. Pretty well. And, despite yelling “Play some Skynyrd!” at almost every concert I’ve ever been to, I would never have appreciated this final scene had I not played the song in Guitar Hero.
And as an understatement: There are some really messed up scenes in this movie. Like gunpoint rape in front of your friends.
VISUALS: Not as many tripped out scenes. Much less over-done. (Both were things I liked better about the original.)
MORALS: Freedom isn’t free? Sometimes it costs you your life.
POLITICS: Because the viewer of both these movies knows more about what has happened than any individual character does… It’s pretty hard to not be a fan of the cops abusive behavior and police brutality. They had it coming, 100-fold. Well, it is a movie :)
BAD STUFF: No more creepy high-pitched laugh from Sheri Moon Zombie. This movie is decidedly less creepy than the first. Also, there is [highlight for spoilers]→ no ambiguity about the clown being evil here. In the 1st movie, they showed him as sympathetic, and I actually thought that he wasn’t evil. In the last scene, when the main bad guy pops up from the back seat — I thought he was going to kill them both, and the clown was really trying to help. It seems like his character was a bit different this movie.
Also, no Dr. Satan. Which I thought was kind of a big part of the point of the first, so it seemed weird to throw it all out. But there are deleted scenes with Dr. Satan on the dvd.
GOOD STUFF: Since this movie isn’t a straight horror slashfest, there is actually more plot, and more resolution to the plot, than in the first. And they manage to make you feel happy [highlight for spoilers]→ that the bad guys lose, and then they make you feel sorry for them, and then they turn it into some kind of magical moment that’s really inappropriate for serial killers. It was a very nice scene.
CONCLUSION: Completely satisfying, but the first movie set me up to expect a horror, so I ended up liking the first movie better. This was more of a generic pass for me. If I only had to rate the last 30 minutes of the movie, we’d be talking 5 stars.
RECOMMENDATION: See both of the House Of 1000 corpses movies!
FRIENDS’ RATINGS: Ian loved it–better than the 1st. Wayne really liked it–the same as the 1st.
Mood: shouldn’t be awake
Music: Freezepop – Tender Lies
Claire's blog 
July 6, 2009 at 9:18 AM
It was a very different film from the first one of the series. So much so that it was downright jarring to think of them as connected in any way other than the characters.
Devil’s Rejects was more of a road trip or chase movie horror. :)
July 6, 2009 at 9:39 AM
A lot of time had passed since I’d seen the first, and while I found the first sort of mindlessly enjoyable, I didn’t remember much of it, plot-wise. So I went into this pretty blank. The Devil’s Rejects actually works quite well as a stand-alone.
I think what I liked here is that while Zombie is still blatantly ripping off old movies, the endless homage is less the primary focus here than it was in Corpses. Zombie has a lot more story to tell here, and that story is just as engaging as the exercise in retro-exploitation filmmaking he’s consciously engaging in.
Plus, while everyone and his brother is retreading classic horror (Corpses is a pretty unapologetic ripoff of Texas Chainsaw Massacre), fewer people are resurrecting really great gritty late-60s-to-70s grindhouse style exploitation flicks, which is a genre I particularly love. Zombie does that, and does it just as well as Robert Rodriguez or Q.Tarantino here. In fact, I’d say that Devil’s Rejects is the best entry in this genre since the first half of From Dusk Til Dawn, which also had a similar feel (dusty road movie with criminals on the run, etc.)
Of course, knowing that Zombie has talent enough to make a film like this makes his feeble Halloween remake all the more disappointing.
Oh, and I think I’ve recommended this movie to you before, and I know you shy away from old movies, but if you dug this, you should really take a look at Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch. It was one of Rob Zombie’s primary influences on The Devil’s Rejects, and I still think you’d dig it.
July 6, 2009 at 12:37 PM
Interesting comments, as usual.
My mom has been recommending that movie to me…I might try it out.
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