Rob Zombie's Horror Films: House of 1,000 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects

After watching "The Island" last Friday, I went to the other cinema, to watch "The Devil's Rejects". My friend came with me. She hadn't seen the first one, but thought this one looked great. Neither of us were disappointed in the film. I went with great expectations, and was very satisfied. My friend, who had never watched "House Of 1000 Corpses", loved it as well.

The movie starts off great. In my opinion, the best opening to any horror movie ever. The beginning, shows Sheriff Wydell and his officers driving up to the Firefly Family house, surrounding it. Sheriff Wydell is dead dead set on getting the family, since his brother was killed by them(You can see this in "House Of 1000 Corpses"). He gets a microphone and tells them to come out. It shows inside the family's house. Baby Firefly runs in Otis' room and says "There's a million fucking pigs out there!". Otis replies "Tell me something I don't already fuckin' know!", shaking his head, and grabbing his shotgun. The whole family puts on all these armored masks, and has some type of firearm. Otis looks at Jr and asks "You ready?" Jr replies "Yes". And the family begins to open fire, as well do the cops. The house is torn to shreds with bullets, as is the cop cars outside. The cops slowly begin to raid the house. Jr is killed, and Otis grabs Baby and runs for the basement, as the cops are raiding the house, Mother Firefly runs over to Jr(her son), and begins to weep. Wydell and his men are holding guns at Mother Firefly, as she picks up a gun, and holds it to her head, ready to commit suicide. But when she pulls the trigger, the gun's empty. It then cuts to Otis and Baby, running through a tunnel from their basement, while playing "Midnight Rider" by The Allman Brothers.

Otis and Baby call Captain Spaulding, and after a few murders by Otis and Baby, they finally meet up with Captain Spaulding. This movie has a different type of feel to it, than "House Of 1000 Corpses". Rob Zombie said that it was a 'stand alone' movie, meaning that you don't have to see the first one, to enjoy this one. Which is true, because my friend didn't see "House Of 1000 Corpses" and loved this. This has kind of more of a 'lighter' feel to it. As now, The Firefly family are in trouble, and are scared to get caught, just like their victims. In a way, they are the victims of this movie. As you get to see that they can emotionally and physically hurt.

Through-out the movie, Wydell becomes obsessed, and visits the abandoned Firefly family's house. He has a vision of his dead brother who was also a cop. In the vision, his brother he must KILL the family, not just arrest them, in order for his brother to rest peacefully. Wydell visits Mother Firefly in her holding cell, and stabs her twice, and kills her. Wydell becomes just as insane as the family. He even stops bringing the police along with him on his investigation, but instead hires two deadly and ruthless bounty hunters(Played by Diamond Dallas Page and Danny Trejo) to help him out. The hunters find out where the family are bunked up at, and set them up. The hunters kill innocent bystanders, just to catch the family. I actually felt sympathy for the family. Yes, the Firefly family, the same characters in the first Rob Zombie that tortured and killed innocent young girls. The hunters beat Otis up pretty bad, and throw him in the truck with Captain Spaulding and Baby. They drive to the Firefly family house, and the hunters drive off, leaving the family tied up, and Wydell in charge.

Wydell literally loses his mind at this ending scene. Through the whole movie, I didn't blame Wydell, and would have done the exact same thing he was doing, if this sick freaks killed my brother. But I was still rooting for the family. He began to stable their photo album pictures to the family's chest, and nailed some nails into Otis' hands, nailing him to the chair. He lets Baby Firefly free, and tells her to run, and she does. He pours gasoline all over the remaining two family victims, and lights fire the house. He runs outside, beating up Baby, and yelling things like "How does it feel? Not to be in control? Kind of like how you did the same thing to all those innocent young girls!!!". This was more like a revenge western, where anything can happen. Tiny(Another member of the family, that was just hiding in the woods) comes out of nowhere, and snaps Wydell's neck.

Tiny runs into the house, saving Otis and Spaulding. Tiny then walks back into the house, knowing he's going to die. But can't go on the run, since he is more less a freak. He is a badly burnt giant. The three take off on the highway, all bloody. It began playing "Freebird" by Lynard Skynard. I had a good feeling in my stomach, that they all got away, and this was the ending. I was wrong. After a minute or two, Otis slowed down. And you could tell something was wrong. There was a roadblock ahead full of Police Officers. Just then, it began to show home videos of the family, and their happy moments. I'm sure that Rob Zombie had to be going for a sympathy part here, because I was pretty upset by this. Otis begins to back his car up a little bit. And hands a shotgun, to Captain Spaulding, and a revolver to Baby, leaving an automatic for himself. He floors the car into the roadblock in slow motion. They get shot and killed.

This ending scene is perfect, but I still feel Zombie could have made another movie about the family, if they had survived. The script was written great. A lot better than the first. Some good one liners(Mostly from Otis) are:

"Consider this, I'm Willy Fucking Wonka, and this my Goddamn Chocolate Factory!"- Otis
"There is no fucking ice cream in your future!"- Otis
"Now if you gonna start killin'.. You'd better start the killin' right here!"- Captain Spaulding
"Shoot me, in the ass!"-Baby

I recommend this movie, to anyone, not just a film or horror buff, but anyone. It's got a lot of bad reviews about being to "Horrorific" or "Glorifying Violence", but you can judge that for yourself.

****(4) out of *****(5)