{"id":285278,"date":"2024-03-28T00:00:20","date_gmt":"2024-03-28T04:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/25yearslatersite.com\/?p=285278"},"modified":"2024-03-20T13:41:36","modified_gmt":"2024-03-20T17:41:36","slug":"the-devils-rejects-my-most-watched-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/25yearslatersite.com\/2024\/03\/28\/the-devils-rejects-my-most-watched-film\/","title":{"rendered":"The Devil’s Rejects: My Most Watched Film"},"content":{"rendered":"
What\u2019s the movie you\u2019ve watched more than any other? For me, it\u2019s <\/span>The Devil\u2019s Rejects<\/span><\/i>. On the surface, that may seem odd to pick due to its graphic nature and pleasantly unpleasant leads (who weave the line of protagonist and antagonist). When I was growing up, we would take one family vacation a year, and while I looked forward to a few days of mini-golf and sand rash, the trip itself was always my favorite part. I had a handheld DVD player with a 10\u201d screen and would only take one DVD: <\/span>The Devil\u2019s Rejects <\/span><\/i>(Two-Disc Director\u2019s Cut). Twelve year old me maybe shouldn\u2019t have been watching <\/span>The Devil\u2019s Rejects<\/span><\/i>, but we live and learn. I\u2019d start the trip by watching the unrated director\u2019s cut, followed by the 2-hour long <\/span>30 Days In Hell: The Making of The Devil\u2019s Rejects<\/span><\/i>. Then, after one more viewing of the film, we\u2019d be at our destination!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Unlike most people, my love for <\/span>The Devil\u2019s Rejects<\/span><\/i> didn\u2019t come from <\/span>House of 1000 Corpses<\/span><\/i>, rather, I had no clue there had been a film before this. I just kind of assumed we were led to believe this crazy ass family was on the run for some reason or another. By the age of fourteen or fifteen I finally learned of <\/span>House <\/span><\/i>and picked it up as soon as I could. Now talk about TONAL shift! The somber and dark tone, trickled with black humor, wasn\u2019t there; muted yellows and oranges were now vibrant and garish. I\u2019ve come to appreciate <\/span>House<\/span><\/i>, and even <\/span>Three From Hell<\/span><\/i>, but <\/span>The Devil\u2019s Rejects<\/span><\/i> holds a nostalgic spot in my heart.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The opening chaos unfolds faster than a jackrabbit, giving audiences no time to acclimate with the Fireflies. Writer\/director Rob Zombie takes no prisoners from the start and doesn\u2019t let go once for the hour and 50-minute runtime. One of the biggest questions (and critiques) I\u2019ve seen raised is how the house at the beginning of <\/span>Rejects<\/span><\/i> isn\u2019t the same house from <\/span>House<\/span><\/i>. But if you think about it, why would it be? There\u2019s obviously a passage of time with Otis Driftwood\u2019s (Bill Mosely) beard, meaning it would have been AT least a few months. And why would they stay at the house? At the end of <\/span>House<\/span><\/i> the family kills Sheriff George Wydell (Tom Towles) and Deputy Steve Naish (Walton Goggins), so they would have to vacate the premises. Do you think the Firefly family would stop their murderous bullsh*t just because they\u2019re on the lamb? Of course not!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Compared to <\/span>House<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>The Devil\u2019s Rejects<\/span><\/i> is unquestionably meaner and nastier. Fairly often the violence in <\/span>House <\/span><\/i>is overlaid with various amounts of film grain and degradation, which hides a solid bit of the true atrocities. It\u2019s effective for that film, but Zombie\u2019s abandonment of the colorful aesthetic and embrace of the serious takes <\/span>Rejects<\/span><\/i> to a whole new level. <\/span>House<\/span><\/i> works for what it is, though it doesn\u2019t feel grander than that. <\/span>Rejects<\/span><\/i> is a harsh look at reality, reveling in the post 9\/11 anger of America. Part of the reason the Firefly family feels like they were horror icons even before modern audiences became aware of <\/span>House<\/span><\/i> is because Zombie course-corrected, removed almost all comedic elements, and told a brutal and insanely bloody tale.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The soundtrack for <\/span>House<\/span><\/i> isn\u2019t awful, but it\u2019s not <\/span>great<\/span><\/i>. Sure, it did give us some solid concert jams like \u201cHouse of 1000 Corpses\u201d and \u201cPussy Liquor”. <\/span>The Devil\u2019s Rejects <\/span><\/i>starts us off with the slow melodic musings of Blind Willie Johnson with \u201cDark was the Night, Cold was the Ground\u201d before throwing us into a chase\/getaway sequence set to the upbeat and twangy Allman Brothers Band bop \u201cMidnight Rider”. Two diametrically different songs give the audience an aural whiplash and sets up a tone of uncertainty. Now there is one moment in the film that I could wager 90% of genre fans know, even if they haven\u2019t seen the film. You know we\u2019re talking about the final shoot-out set to Lynyrd Skynyrd\u2019s \u201cFree Bird”. Zombie finds ways to humanize the Firefly family throughout the film by trying to set up Sheriff Wydell (William Forsythe) as a secondary villain. By the finale, the Fireflies are in bad sorts. They soon arrive at a blockade, as \u201cFree Bird\u201d has been playing for the majority of this car scene. As the music kicks off, so do the Fireflies as they go out in a blaze of glory. It\u2019s hard to not feel deep emotions for the Firefly family. Even on your hundredth rewatch.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Effects-wise, <\/span>The Devil\u2019s Rejects <\/span><\/i>looks and feels bigger and badder. There are a few moments of digital enhancements that stick out like a sore thumb, mainly a few blood effects, but the overwhelming majority of effects for <\/span>Rejects <\/span><\/i>are practical. This is no different from <\/span>House<\/span><\/i> but for me, the practicals in <\/span>Rejects<\/span><\/i> feel more brutal. The perceived enhanced brutality could be attributed to smarter editing, longer shots, and better all-around acting from everyone involved.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Rob Zombie learned some tough lessons on <\/span>House<\/span><\/i>, and thankfully he took them to heart. There\u2019s no purpose to make a film if you go in thinking you know everything already. Filmmaking is a craft and the best filmmakers understand that. <\/span>House<\/span><\/i> was a force to be reckoned with in the genre, and Zombie knew it could be better. His writing became HIS writing and he really started to find his voice with <\/span>Rejects<\/span><\/i>. There\u2019s no question, to me, that Rob Zombie is an auteur. You can tell a movie is a Rob Zombie movie just by watching 30 seconds of it, and that\u2019s what I like about him. Even when he switches up subgenres or story types, he effectively amalgamates his style into whatever story is telling and never leaves the audience bored.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What\u2019s the movie you\u2019ve watched more than any other? For me, it\u2019s The Devil\u2019s Rejects. On the surface, that may seem odd to pick due to its graphic nature and pleasantly unpleasant leads (who weave the line of protagonist and antagonist). When I was growing up, we would take one family vacation a year, and […] More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":482,"featured_media":285282,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[89104],"tags":[89468,89444,89464,89463],"adace-sponsor":[],"yoast_head":"\n