The Devil’s Rejects
(2005) 107 min.
Rated: R (nudity, sex, gore)
Country: USA
Director: Rob Zombie
Stars: Sid Haig, Sheri Moon Zombie, Bill Moseley
Links: IMDB | Wikipedia
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
A murderous family is on the lam after police break into their house of horrors.
Synopsis:
In Texas on May 18, 1978, Sheriff John Quincey Wydell and his state troopers are on a mission to round up the murderous Firefly family and destroy them for the crime of 75 murders and disappearances linked to them.
They are confronted at their farmhouse and a shootout ensues.
Rufus is killed and Mother Firefly is taken into custody. Baby (Zombie) and Otis (Moseley) manage to get away. Baby plays dead in a road and a driver goes to inspect her and gets stabbed to death by Otis from behind. The two then take the car and call Captain Spaulding the Clown (Haig).
The police announce in a news report that they’re looking for Captain Spaulding as well as Baby and Otis and put the mugshots on TV.
Otis and Baby hold up at Kahiki Palms, a run down motel. There they run into a band called Banjo & Sullivan and take them hostage. Otis and Baby kill their roadie and sexually assault one of the hostages.
Meanwhile, Mother Firefly is in jail custody. Sheriff Wydell has her look through scrapbooks that were found in the house. Mother Firefly tells the sheriff that they had a victim also named Wydell and this enrages him. He punches Mother Firefly and tries to choke her, but is eventually pulled off her as she taunts him.
Back at the hotel, Otis is driving with the two men from Banjo & Sullivan. Roy Sullivan and Adam Banjo. They top the van at a vacant desert area. Otis makes them come out and walk around. Roy asks why they’re headed there and Otis tells them that he plans for them to dig up some guns hidden there and that will be it for Roy and Adam. Roy questions why Otis would kill them and as Otis gets annoyed Adam strikes Otis turning it into a scuffle. In the chaos, Adam is stabbed in the leg and shot through the neck. Otis beats Roy with a stick.
Otis then mocks Adam and Roy telling them to pray for God to stop him. He claims he is the Devil and is here to do the Devil’s work before killing them both by beating Roy with the stick and stabbing Roy again.
Back at the motel, Baby is watching over the two women, Gloria Sullivan and Wendy Banjo. Wendy asks if she can use the bathroom and Baby makes her hit Gloria three times and tell Baby she’s having a good time before she’s released. As soon as Wendy is in the room she starts panicking and making a mess, trying to escape. When Baby is distracted, Gloria takes the gun on the table and points it at Baby. Baby throws a knife at Gloria, hitting her in the chest. Gloria, pulls the knife out, causing her to bleed profusely. Baby taunts her and asks her to shoot her, which Gloria tries to do, but there are no bullets in the gun. While this happens, Wendy runs out of the room, trying to scream for help. Unfortunately, she runs right into Captain Spaulding who knocks her out.
Back at the police investigation, they notice there’s a link between the name Captain Spaulding and Marx Brother’s characters. They decide to investigate further with the aid of a movie critic. He gives them a list of names Groucho Marx used in films.
The next day maid comes in to clean the room and finds the roadie and Gloria dead in the bathtub. Wendy is hanging on the back of the door, wearing Adam’s face skin as a mask. The maid is frightened and Wendy runs off into the road, getting hit by a semi-trailer truck going full speed.
The police show up to pick up the pieces and Sheriff Wydell enlists the help of Rondo and Billy Ray to help them catch Baby, Otis and Captain Spaulding. The two are able to track down information on a partner of Captain Spaulding and Sheriff Wydell gives them to go ahead to pursue them.
Meanwhile, the sheriff has a dream in which his brother asks for revenge. Wydell then goes to see Mother Firefly. He gives the guard the night off. Wydell then stabs Mother Firefly in the gut, killing her.
Captain Spaulding, Baby and Otis meet up at Charlie’s brothel. Charlie promises to take good care of the gang and they party for a while.
Rondo and Billy Ray gather the family and Sheriff Wydell shows up to arrest them and put them in a truck. Wydell drives the group back to the farmhouse and ties them to chairs to confront them about their past deeds. He staples images of victims to them and drives nails in Otis’ hands. He lights the house on fire and releases Baby so that he can chase her.
Baby runs into the yard and is caught by Wydell who starts to choke her. Suddenly, the lost brother Tiny comes out and attacks the sheriff, killing him. Tiny and Baby free Otis and Spaulding. Tiny decides to enter the house and remain there as it explodes.
Baby, Otis and Spaulding leave the scene in a beaten down Cadillac. They drive for a while as the sun rises. At the end of a long highway they see a police blockade. Baby and Spaulding arm themselves with guns as Otis drives towards the police officers. They die in a hail of bullets as Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Free Bird plays.
Review:
This film is a sequel to House of 1,000 Corpses. In many ways this is probably one of Rob Zombie’s better films. He attempts to flesh out characterizations and build complex motivations, but ultimately the film seems more of an homage to other horror films especially when littered with horror film star cameos.
The despicable family in the first film seems to get their comeuppance when a sheriff decides to get his hands dirty and go rogue. This, of course, would be pretty interesting if we would see more from his point of view. Instead the film tends to stick with the psuedo-Mansonesque Firefly family.
The family’s torture of the Banjo & Sullivan group seems pointless and only there to remind the audience of how despicable these characters are supposed to seem. And truly, anyone who isn’t a horror fan in general and isn’t used to torture scenes might be put off by them in this film as they are a little graphic.
I’m not entirely sure who exactly we are to root for or what the message is, if any. Are we to sympathize with the serial killers who are loyal to their own kind or the cop whose lust for vengeance causes him to move outside the law? There’s a bit of tension here or there in the film but it’s not as slick as it could be. However, if compared to other of Zombie’s films this is probably the most well-acted and well-written of his films.
I must also note that no matter how many times I see Sheri Moon Zombie in a film, I am still not convinced that she’s very good at all at acting. She’s always very one note.