The Devil's Rejects (2005) - 4 out of 5 Stars

I was not impressed with House of 1,000 Corpses, so I did have a bias going into watching Rejects. What initially piqued my interest was seeing the clip where the girl escapes from the hotel only to be subsequently killed. Intense! So, I caved and got it.

One of the more interesting things, to me, was the use of more upbeat or mellow music accompanying acts of violence and/or murder, instead of the traditional creepy, “coming to get you” music. These scenes were less graphic, I think, because of the choice of mood music. I remember as a kid, the one thing that would really scare me was the creepy music leading up to the acts of violence. But the thing that has really stuck with me is how Rob Zombie made the Rejects sympathetic characters. In essence, they are pure evil, they kill for whatever reason, but by the last quarter of the film, you find yourself somehow rooting for them to make it. The “good guys,” especially William Forsythe as Sheriff Wydell, make being good seem bad.

I think that because the film focuses almost totally on the Rejects, that we definitely acquire Stockholm Syndrome by the end of the film. I know I did. Nonetheless, Zombie put forth a great film, and I look forward to seeing more work from him.