THE DEVIL'S REJECTS (2005)

Three things will happen when you watch Rob Zombies latest horror creation. First and foremost your stomach will churn as you become increasingly unsettled by the barbaric onslaught of violence and brutality dished out at random by the sadistic Firefly clan. Secondly you will almost unnoticeably begin to warm to the twisted killers as their odd personalities begin to shine through their evil exteriors. And finally, you will thank god that this isn't House of 1000 Corpses 2. Consider Zombie's debut feature as a warm-up for the main event. The shocking but admirable, The Devil's Rejects.
House of 1000 Corpses had a rough ride, but this doesn’t ease the disappointment felt by many hardcore horror fans that looked at Zombie to supply the same uncompromising horror that they were used to him delivering via his music. This never happened, and instead we ended up with a chaotic funhouse of horror which showed promise but failed to get under the skin. However, this all changed when Zombie moved ahead with his second feature, The Devil’s Rejects, which draws its inspiration from the many gritty grind-house films of the 1970’s. Like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Hills Have Eyes, the camera work becomes a character in its own right as it forcibly squeezes the viewer close to the violence in the same way a documentary would. Bleached-out desert settings give way to ramshackle buildings as the oddly charming Baby, Captain Spaulding and Otis leave a trail of corpses behind them.

Momentum Pictures double DVD package is enough to stave the horror hunger of most genre enthusiasts way after the films final credits role. Thanks to the thoughtful inclusion of some excellent special features, fans of the film will have enough footage to flick through to outstrip the complete running time of the main feature. The first disk holds the main presentation along with an insightful commentary with writer/producer/director Rob Zombie and Reject’s stars Sheri Moon, Sid Haig and Bill Moseley. This alone would be enough for any ‘normal’ horror DVD but Zombie, like many other upcoming genre filmmakers, knows the importance of giving their fans that little bit extra, so we move on to the killer second disk. The main extra here is a whopping 145 minute ‘Making of The Devil’s Rejects’ segment titled ‘30 Day’s in Hell’. This has to be one of the most meticulous features I have seen on DVD to date, taking you on an in-depth look behind just about every single aspect of the films production. First we get a chance to see some of the pre-production decision process including scripting, casting, location scouting and, my personal favourite, picking the wardrobe! Then we move on to the actual business of the 30 day shoot which slowly reveals itself across the rest of the remaining running time. It’s great to see Zombie having a hand in every aspect of this film, and this say’s heaps about the trust that production company Lions Gate Films has in their creative staff.
After all these behind-the-camera escapades are complete and you have the whole meaty 2.5 hours viewing under your belt, its time to move on to yet more features of varying quality (hey they can’t all be this great!). The next notable feature has to be the ‘Tribute to Matthew McGrory’ who sadly died shortly after this film was complete. It’s a suitably touching 2 minute piece which unmasks the towering actor behind the character Tiny. Next in line of honours are the 11 deleted scenes, comprising mostly of justifiably cut segments, but with the odd juicy surprise. Brian Posehn does a pretty funny turn in full bloody make-up as he adlibs to the camera for a 2 minute segment. A bit of light hearted fun can be experience from the 5 minute ‘Bloopers’ section, demonstrating that even sadistic killers have a sense of comedy timing The rest of the disk includes some pretty pointless items including a 13 minute make-up test, an odd music video by a spoof (I think?) group called ‘Buck Owen’ and various other segments shot for use as part of the feature proper and thrown in to pad out the disk.