THE DEVIL'S REJECTS

Writer-director Rob Zombie’s follow-up to HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES reunites viewers with Otis, Baby and Captain Spaulding in the horror, sequel THE DEVIL’S REJECTS. THE DEVIL’S REJECTS picks up where CORPSES left off. Following the Firefly family’s massacre, the local authorities are called in to bring justice to the wicked family at their rundown estate. After a brutal shootout, Otis and Baby escape, meet up with Spaulding and begin their trek across the town attempting to avoid the cops and bring further suffering to the town’s residents.

I’ve never understood the appeal of films like THE DEVIL'S REJECTS. At its worst, THE DEVIL'S REJECTS is a sick, disturbing endorsement of violence, cruelty and satanic bliss. At its best, it’s mindless entertainment which seeks to exploit these aspects for momentary fun. Either way, the film is an excessively self-indulgent exercise which believes that violence, profanity and sex are forms of entertainment, rather than a means of generating drama, fear or comedy. The film contains the same gruesome content as the most recent TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, but here we’re encourage to enjoy the slaughter. The film isn’t funny, although it desperately tries to sound wickedly hip; it isn’t scary, despite the characters twisted nature; and it isn’t suspenseful, as the Firefly family steamrolls whatever is in its path. THE DEVIL'S REJECTS is a film which wallows in the mud, and feels like it should be rewarded for doing so.

Grade: D-