|
|
 |
Devil's Rejects (The) (2005)
R2 - United Kingdom - Momentum Pictures Review written by and copyright: Jari Kovalainen (1st January 2006). |
|
The Film
 Musician and solo artist Rob Zombie turned into a full filmmaker (he directed most of his music videos before that, and also a few for some other artists) in 2003, when his debut film “House of 1000 Corpses” was finally released after some legal problems. Even when it took some strong influences from e.g. Tobe Hooper´s “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)” and perhaps from “The Funhouse (1981)”, it was still a unique and strong film, and was a worthy call card for Mr. Zombie. It also introduced three characters, that would be the back bone for his next film, and by now probably cult-figures of their own; clown-faced Captain Spaulding (Sid Haig), grey and long haired Otis B. Driftwood (Bill Moseley), and almost model-like Baby Firefly (Sheri Moon Zombie). These three were a part of the totally insane and ruthless serial killer-family in “House of 1000 Corpses”, and are now back in a movie with a slightly different, “road movie”-feel. “The Devil's Rejects” is basically a direct sequel to “House of 1000 Corpses”. Even while it´s recommended to watch the earlier film first, you can fully enjoy the “sequel” without seeing the first film. “The Devil's Rejects” opens with a brief intro, where we learn that the local police have finally located the ranch, which is the place for at least 75 documented, grizzly murders. Several policemen are now about to launch a “search and destroy”-mission to that farmhouse. In the meantime the naked body of a woman is dragged by a large character (“Tiny” from the earlier film, played by now late Matthew McGrory), who´s watching while the police cars are closing down to his home ranch. Even without seeing the earlier film, you know that this film isn´t going to be a pleasant ride for the viewers, when you see a hugely tall, burnt-faced man dragging a naked corpse behind him. When the front of the house is surrounded, Sheriff Wydell (William Forsythe) arrives at the scene. Straight from his opening scenes, Forsythe is pulling all the stops to create probably the most memorable character in the film; a loud and angry Texas Sheriff, who wants revenge for these people that killed his brother George (Tom Towles) (in an amazing sequence in “House Of 1000 Corpses”). He´s on a mission from God (and Elvis). If the “search” mission is done, the “destroy”-part goes into full swing soon, when the “family” inside the house is alerted, and a serious shootout is on. At the same time when the bullets are flying and people are dying, Otis and Baby escape through the swamp, hijacking the car (and killing the poor woman in the process) right after that. It won´t be long until it´s also obvious that Captain Spaulding is Baby´s father, when he gets a warning call from her and Otis. It´s also time for Captain Spaulding to move quickly, since at his family ranch Sheriff Wydell has already recognized him from the photos. A bloody and violent “road trip” is about to begin. “The Devil's Rejects” comes from the same breed of “Grindhouse films” from the 1970s, like the already mentioned “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)”, “The Last House on the Left (1972)”, and “Deranged (1974)”. It can be a vicious movie, full of violence and disturbing images, but at the same time some twisted humour is added to the mix. It´s not slick “Hollywood violence” between the “good guys” and the “bad guys”, and Rob Zombie is quite clear (when you watch the extras) that he wanted in some ways to do an “anti-Hollywood” film, where the line between the good and bad is thin, violence is realistic and shocking, and where the hero doesn´t always save the day. It´s not a huge surprise that Zombie also mentions that he wanted to do a movie that has the same feel as the ones from Sam Peckinpah (names like “Bonnie And Clyde (1967)”, and “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)” are also thrown in the air). The time also seems to be ready for more rugged and raw filmmaking, since films like “Saw (2004)” and “Hostel (2005)” are popular. Could it be that the audience is finally getting a bit tired of Hollywood blockbusters, and are seeking more low budget alternatives? At least this is a good sign for all the younger filmmakers. Not all have been happy of the direction that Rob Zombie has taken with his two films, but I have to say that to me both of his films are very solid and effective, where you can see the talent behind director. It´s of course true that both films feel sometimes “too much of an homage” to certain films, but it doesn´t take away from the freshness and impact that these films deliver. With his strong musical background, Zombie creates very powerful “musical montages”, where some important story developments happen together with certain songs, and where the possible dialogue might be completely removed. Occasionally it feels that Zombie uses them too many times, but most of them work really well, making the music an essential part of his movies. His style also to shoot a lot of coverage during the production helps to create some fast-paced edited scenes, which still never feels like a “MTV music video”. Story wise (he also did a screenplay for both of his films) Zombie uses clever and witty “in your face” dialogue, with plenty of F-words and other profanities (lines like “Business is business, baby!” and “Bitch that motherf***er” are just the tip of the iceberg). The story itself on “The Devil's Rejects” is quite straightforward, picking up the pace all the way through to its dramatic finale. Zombie intentionally confuses his audience by creating characters that you can hate and love, and which are sane and insane - sometimes at the same time. You don´t always really know how you should feel towards certain events and characters; all you know is that you feel disturbed. In the world of Zombie, things are not very “black and white”, and you might end up cheering for the “bad guy”. Or was it “good guy”, I just got confused… The film is also shot in 16 mm and many times in handheld to achieve the certain gritty and documentary-look. It´s not as rough looking as some other films shot in 16 mm, but it gives a nice grainy and “edgy” look for the film. Generally the cinematographer Phil Parmet has done a great job, creating a similar look to the exploitation movies from the 1970s, which often turned the low production values in the end to their advantage. The film´s most disturbing scene happens in the motel, where Otis and Baby are having their strange fun with the singing group “Banjo And Sullivan”, holding them as hostages before Captain Spaulding can join them. This is one of those scenes, which makes you feel somewhat disturbed and uneasy, and which stays in your head after the film. It also has to be said that Zombie doesn´t take the scene too far, fortunately. It goes deep into the dark and violent world of Otis and Baby, but letting it go totally overboard with mayhem and e.g. rape would´ve hurt the film. Like in the films like “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre”, you can create very tense moments, without showing everything. “The Devil's Rejects” is well balanced when it comes to its shock values; pushing that envelope, but doesn´t go to the same route that some notorious films like “August Underground's Mordum (2003)” did (not that it would be possible in the film distributed by the bigger studios). To me it was also surprising, that some effects are getting help from the CGI-department (most obvious is the “knife-scene”), but they actually worked pretty smoothly. On this road trip we also meet some familiar faces when it comes to horror and other cult-films (even when Rob Zombie didn´t necessarily do this on purpose). Captain Spaulding´s pimp brother (“from another mother”) Charlie is played by Ken Foree (e.g. “Dawn of the Dead (1978)”) and Charlie´s right hand man Clevon is played by Michael Berryman (e.g. “The Hills Have Eyes (1977)”). We also meet porn actress Ginger Lynn Allen in a brief “dream sequence”, and actress P.J. Soles from “Halloween (1978)”, makes an appearance. In great roles as bounty hunters (“The Unholy Two”) are Danny Trejo (familiar supporting actor from numerous film, e.g. “Heat (1995)”) and Diamond Dallas Page (pro wrestler, who still is semi-active today I believe). In one of the deleted scenes, Rosario Dawson (from e.g. “Sin City (2005)”) meets her bloody end, and as a stunt coordinator for the film is Kane Hodder, who played Jason four times in “Friday the 13th”-films (hopefully he´ll be back for that role). Very good in their roles are also Leslie Easterbrook (busty woman police from several “Police Academy”-movies) as “Mother Firefly” (she inherited the role from Karen Black from the first movie), and Geoffrey Lewis (almost 200 appearances in movies and TV, and still counting), in the role of Roy Sullivan (“I used to play with Johnny Cash”). Already mentioned Tom Towles is well remembered from e.g. “Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986)”. Actors are generally very good in the film, and especially Sid Haig (he was already great in the first film), with his face expressions, and William Forsythe can both be very proud of their work. Bill Moseley is not far behind, but Sheri Moon Zombie is a bit disappointing in “The Devil's Rejects”. She´s not bad, but a certain inexperience as a professional actress shows in some scenes, making the role of Baby too one-dimensional. Still, Rob Zombie has his way with actors, and his respect also for the supporting roles clearly shows in a positive way in this film, which is full of memorable character and actors playing them.
Video
The UK-release by “Momentum Pictures” is presented in Anamorphic 1.78:1, and looks great. Since the film was shot in 16 mm, you have a certain amount of grain and the look of the film is intentionally desaturated and gritty, but all this is presented very nicely. The bitrate is also in a respected level, which helps to keep the transfer free from compression artifacts. Some minor softness and unnatural colours are present in some scenes, but to me they just helped to get into the mood of the film. The disc runs 106:21 min (PAL), and includes the “Unrated”-version of the film. “Dual layer” disc is coded “R2”, and there are 12 chapters.
Audio
The disc includes two powerful audio-tracks: English DTS ES 6.1 Discrete (which is flagged), and English Dolby Digital 5.1. Optional English HoH subtitles are also included. The DTS is the slightly more dynamic and effective of the two, although both of them are basically flawless in every way. Directional sound effects (like the shootout at the opening scenes) and crystal clear music (I have a feeling that many people will seek the soundtrack-CD after the film) sound almost perfect, and dialogue comes nicely from the centre channel. There are a few scenes (at least one in the van), where the dialogue is not very clear, but this is due to the fact that Rob Zombie didn´t want to dub the dialogue in post-production in some scenes, and they used the inferior production sound. Fine audio presentation in every way, and I´m happy that the DTS-track is included.
Extras
When it comes to extras, this 2-disc SE-release is packed. Along with 2 audio commentaries, there´s one 145 minute documentary, along with deleted scenes and some other smaller extras. Kudos to “Momentum Pictures” for including basically all the extras from the R1-release, since only additional trailer/TV-spots and Photo gallery are missing (it seems to be including one brief featurette (“Bloody Stand Up”) not found from the R1); a thing that is so many times lacking when you compare the other regions to R1. The extras have no subtitles. Disc 1 First disc includes the film, and also two audio commentaries, but before the “Main menu” there are two bonus trailers for “Lord of War” (1:44 min) and “The Dark (2005)” (2:20 min). Both discs have also that extremely annoying forced “Piracy promo”-ad. You can´t fully skip the “bonus trailers” by pressing “Menu”, but you can use “Next”-button to skip them. -First audio commentary is from director/screenwriter/co-producer Rob Zombie. He gives an highly detailed commentary about pretty much everything that you see on the screen, so you´ll learn about the sets, locations, actors, camera movements, music, screenplay, CGI; you name it. The interesting thing is that he´s a bit “too detailed”, so he has no time to go that deep into the scenes itself, since the story is moving quite fast. He often points out the actors on the screen, and where they shot the particular scene in question, and points out a few continuity errors along the way. He also tells how some scenes were shortened and some scenes (like the “Dr.Satan”) were cut altogether. He doesn´t give any special information about the differences with “R-rated” and “Unrated”-versions (based on the back cover the difference is only 2 minutes). It´s obvious that the production was hard for everyone, since the schedule was tight (30 days of shooting), and Zombie wanted to shoot a lot of coverage. It didn´t help that often it was really hot in the day (along with wind and dust), and freezing at night, so he gives a genuine “thank you” to all the actors and the crew. He also points out the scenes where the CGI is used, and also reveals that he did constant re-writes on the screenplay during the shoot. -Second audio commentary is from the lead actors Sid Haig, Bill Moseley, and Sheri Moon Zombie. This commentary is more relaxed, and jokes are going back and forth along the way. They give some info about the scenes from the actor point of view, and Sheri Moon Zombie is giving some more detailed bits (which are many times very similar to what her husband Rob Zombie says in his commentary). She also tells that she had maybe around 3 days off from the whole 30 days shoot, and this has pretty much been the case with the other lead actors. They also tell how they got a few bruises during the production, so things haven´t always been that easy for them (based on Sherry Moon, the bare butt on one scene is from a body double, so cool down fans). They still have plenty of nice things to say about the other actors and crew, and after two films together they have some good chemistry together. This commentary is not as detailed as the one from Rob Zombie, but in some ways more easy to listen to. Disc 2 - Second disc starts with a long documentary “30 Days In Hell - The Making of The Devil's Rejects”, which runs 144:54 minutes. This is really raising the bar when it comes to “Making of”-documentaries, since it goes through almost the whole film from pre-production (audition, casting, script-meetings, etc) to the actually shoot (every day is covered). It ends on the last day of the shoot, so post-production is not included. This is an in-depth look at the really effective and fast filmmaking, and Zombie seems to be the director who can handle this type of production (based on him, the budget with this film is actually lower than in the first film). Other than focusing on the actors, the documentary covers art direction and locations, as well as special make-up and CGI-effects. It also gives a good look at the stunt-work on the film (a thing that is often a bit forgotten), as well as pyrotechnic effects. All in all it´s like a visual production diary, giving some great “behind the scenes”-footage and interviews. The documentary is presented in non-Anamorphic 1.85:1. - "Satan's Going to Have to Get Along Without Me" -music video from “Buck Owens” (country singer, who just recently passed away) runs 1:53 minutes. Few bits from this vintage video can be seeing in the “motel scene” during the film, and it seems to be taken from a tape source. The sound is not very good. - “Bloody Stand Up” -featurette runs 2:17 minutes, and shows a brief stand-up comedy moment from actor Brian Posehn (who plays “Jimmy” in the film) in his bloody make-up. - "Mary the Monkey Girl" -commercial runs 1:10 minutes, and is the full version of the Captain Spaulding-commercial seen in the film. - "Tribute to Matthew McGrory" -featurette runs 2:07 minutes, and is a small tribute to the actor who died last year, and played the “Tiny”-character in the film. This extremely tall actor gets a chance to say a few words, and we also see some “behind the scenes”-footage from him at the make-up chair and on location. -11 deleted scenes are next, and you can use “Play All”-option to watch them all: 1) “Swamp Escape” (0:50 sec) Additional footage of Otis and Baby, when they escape through the swamp at the beginning of the film. 2) “Family Argument” (0:25 sec) Otis and Baby arguing at the car. 3) “Keep Your Cool” (0:25 sec) Sheriff Wydell gives some advice to Officer Dobson. 4) “Dr. Satan Attacks” (1:51 min) Completely deleted scene, where “Dr. Satan” rips the throat open from one of the nurses (Rosario Dawson) at the hospital. This scene has some nice blood and gore. 5) “Snake Bite” (0:31 sec) One of the deputies is telling how he was once bitten by the snake. 6) “French Tickler” (0:47 sec) Clevon (Michael Berryman) is telling a story. 7) “Pork Rind” (0:44 sec) Charlie (Ken Foree) and his hookers. 8 ) “Marshmallow Ass” (1:37 min) Deleted scene that happens before Captain Spaulding (and the rest) meets his brother. In this sequence his car is stopped by Clevon and his partner, before going to the ranch. 9) “Keep Your Mouth Shut” (0:48 sec) Charlie speaks to Clevon. 10) “Otis and Candy Make Funky Music” (3:40 min) Otis and Candy are having fun in a deleted music montage. 11) “Personal Escort into Hell” (1:46 min) Sheriff Wydell is laying down his law. - Blooper Reel runs 5:22 min, and includes a few funny moments, but in the end is not as hilarious as expected. Often these “bloopers” ends up being a bit disappointing. - "Spaulding Xmas" -commercial runs 1:08 minutes, and is not included in the actual film. - "Otis´ Home Movie” -segment runs 0:51 seconds, and shows some “home video” footage between Otis and one of his victims. Grim segment, and I´m not sure of its purpose (maybe it was shot, but never used in the film). - "Make-up Test" -segment runs 13:10 minutes, and includes some test footage from various actors. There´s no sound. - “The Morris Green Show” -segment runs 13:18 minutes, and it´s the whole show created for the film, where Morris Green is interviewing Dr. Robert Bankhead. A few moments from this interview are seen in the film as TV-footage (again the “motel scene”). - Theatrical trailer (1:12 minutes) rounds up the extras. - Note, that the keep case includes a reversible cover, with alternate cover art.
Overall
Rob Zombie´s follow-up to his “House of 1000 Corpses” is not a complete success, but is close enough. He did a wise move by not making the same film again, and this time he has many aspects in better control, and he probably has clearer views to the filmmaking and his goals as a director. I always liked his debut film, but with “The Devil's Rejects” he proves that he can take his visions a few steps further, and bring more originality into the play. SE-release from “Momentum Pictures” delivers a great transfer and audio, and is simply loaded with extras. Fans of Rob Zombie have happy times, it seems. For more info, please visit the homepage of Momentum Pictures.
|
|||||
|