The Devil’s Rejects

Rob Zombie, USA/Germany, 2005, 35mm, 1.85, colour, 109′

SAT September 20 / 16.45 / Slovenian cinematheque

In the opening showdown a posse of armed-to-their-teeth State Troopers descends upon the rundown shack of the crazed homicidal rednecks, the Firefly family. Rufus is killed and Mother Firefly is taken into custody, while Otis (Bill Moseley) and Baby (Sheri Moon Zombie), who look like Bonnie and Clyde if they had grown up at The Texas Chain Saw slaughter-farm, escape. Reunited with their father, Captain Spaulding (Sid Haig), they hit the road for a retributional rampage in a sequel to Rob Zombie’s House of 1000 Corpses (2003), swapping night for day and the gloomy Firefly family dungeons for the red hot asphalt.

“Here is a gaudy vomitorium of a movie, violent, nauseating and really a pretty good example of its genre. … How can I possibly give The Devil’s Rejects a favorable review? A kind of heedless zeal transforms its horrors. The movie is not merely disgusting, but has an attitude and a subversive sense of humor. Its actors venture into camp satire, but never seem to know it’s funny; their sincerity gives the jokes a kind of solemn gallows cackle. Consider the fact that it’s about a depraved family of mass murderers who name themselves after Groucho Marx characters (Otis P. Driftwood, Rufus T. Firefly, Captain Spaulding) and that the sheriff calls in a film critic to give him insights into their pathology.”
– Roger Ebert, www.rogerebert.com