The Devil's Rejects | |
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![]() Theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | Rob Zombie |
Written by | Rob Zombie |
Based on | List of Firefly (film series) characters by
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Produced by |
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Starring | |
Cinematography | Phil Parmet |
Edited by | Glenn Garland |
Music by | Tyler Bates |
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Distributed by |
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Release date |
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Running time | 109 minutes [2] |
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Languages | English Spanish |
Budget | $7 million |
Box office | $20.9 million |
The Devil's Rejects is a 2005 American black comedy horror film [3] written, produced and directed by Rob Zombie, and is the second film in the Firefly film series, serving as a sequel to his 2003 film House of 1000 Corpses . The film is centered on the three on the run members of the psychopathic [4] antagonist family from the previous film, now seen as villainous protagonists, with Sid Haig, Bill Moseley, and Zombie's wife Sheri Moon Zombie reprising their roles, and Leslie Easterbrook replacing Karen Black as the matriarch.
The Devil's Rejects was released on July 22, 2005, to minor commercial success, and mixed reviews, although it was generally considered an improvement over its predecessor. At the time of release and in the years since, the film has garnered a cult following. It was the final film to feature Matthew McGrory before his death the same year, although he did have a posthumous cameo in 2017's The Evil Within , which had been filmed in 2002, and the film's DVD release was dedicated to his "loving memory."
On May 18, 1978, [lower-alpha 1] Texas Sheriff John Quincey Wydell and a large posse of state troopers issue a search and destroy mission on the Firefly family, who are responsible for over 75 homicides and disappearances over the past several years. The family arm themselves and fire on the officers. Rufus is killed and Mother Firefly is taken into custody while Otis and Baby escape. They steal a car, kill the driver, and go to Kahiki Palms, a run-down motel.
At the motel, Otis and Baby take a musical group called Banjo and Sullivan hostage in their room, and Otis shoots the roadie when he returns. Meanwhile, Baby's father, Captain Spaulding, decides to rendezvous with Baby and Otis. His truck runs out of gas on the way, and he frightens a boy and assaults the boy's mother before stealing her car. Back at the motel, Otis rapes Roy Sullivan's wife Gloria and demands Adam Banjo and Roy come with him on an errand.
Otis drives his two prisoners to a place where he buried weapons. While walking to the location, the two prisoners attack Otis, but Otis bludgeons Roy and cuts Adam's face off. Back at the motel, Adam's wife Wendy tries to escape through the bathroom window. When Gloria attempts to rebel, Baby kills her. Wendy runs out of the motel but is caught by Captain Spaulding, who knocks her unconscious. Otis returns, and all three leave the motel together in the band's van.
The motel maid comes to clean the room, and she discovers the murder scene. The maid enters the bathroom where she sees "The Devil's Rejects" written on the wall in blood; she is startled by Wendy, who is accidentally killed when she runs out to the highway to seek help while she is in shock. Wydell calls a pair of amoral bounty hunters—the "Unholy Two"—Rondo and Billy Ray, to help him find the Fireflys. While investigating, they discover an associate of Spaulding's named Charlie Altamont. Wydell begins to lose his sanity when Mother Firefly reveals that she murdered his brother. After having a dream in which his brother commands him to avenge his death, Wydell stabs Mother Firefly to death. The surviving Fireflys gather at a brothel owned by Charlie, where he offers them shelter from the police.
After he leaves the brothel, Wydell threatens Charlie to give up the Fireflys. With the help of the "Unholy Two," the sheriff takes the family back to the Firefly house where Wydell tortures them, using similar methods they used on their own victims. He nails Otis' hands to his chair and staples crime-scene photographs to Otis's and Baby's stomachs, then he beats and shocks Captain Spaulding and Otis with a cattle prod and taunts Baby about the death of her mother.
Wydell sets the house on fire and leaves Otis and Spaulding to burn, but he lets Baby loose outside so he can hunt her for sport. Charlie returns to save the Firefly family, but he is killed by Wydell. Baby gets shot in the calf of her left leg, brutally horse-whipped, and then strangled by Wydell. Tiny suddenly arrives and intervenes, breaking Wydell's neck and saving the Firefly family. Otis, Baby, and Spaulding escape in Charlie's 1972 Cadillac Eldorado and leave behind Tiny, who walks back into the burning house. The trio drives, badly injured. As Otis drives down the road with Baby and Spaulding asleep in the back seat, he notices a police barricade ahead of them. Realizing that they will not make it out alive, he wakes Baby and Spaulding and hands them each a gun. They speed toward the barricade, guns blazing as the police return fire, fading to black.
When Rob Zombie wrote House of 1000 Corpses (2003), he had a "vague idea for a story" about the brother of the sheriff that the Firefly clan killed coming back for revenge. [5] After Lions Gate Entertainment made back all of their money on the first day of Corpses' theatrical release, they wanted Zombie to make another film and he started to seriously think about a new story. [5] With Rejects, Zombie has said that he wanted to make it "more horrific" and the characters less cartoonish than in Corpses, [5] and that he wanted "to make something that was almost like a violent western. Sort of like a road movie." [6] He has also cited films like Bonnie and Clyde (1967), The Wild Bunch (1969), Badlands (1973) and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) as influences on Rejects. [7] [6] When he approached William Forsythe about doing the film, he told the actor that the inspiration for how to portray his character came from actors like Lee Marvin and Robert Shaw. [6] Sheri Moon Zombie does not see the film as a sequel: "It's more like some of the characters from House of 1000 Corpses came on over, and now they're the Devil's Rejects." [8]
Zombie hired Phil Parmet, who had shot the documentary Harlan County, USA (1976), because he wanted to adopt a hand-held camera/documentary look. [6] Principal photography was emotionally draining for some of the actors. Moon Zombie remembers a scene she had to do with Forsythe that required her to cry. The scene took two to three hours to film and affected her so much that she did not come into work for two days afterward. [6]
The film went through the MPAA eight times earning an NC-17 rating every time until the last one. [9] According to Zombie, the censors had a problem with the overall tone of the film. Specifically, censors did not like the motel scene between Bill Moseley and Priscilla Barnes, forcing Zombie to cut two minutes of it for the theatrical release. However, this footage was restored in the unrated DVD release. [10]
Zombie, who is also a musician, decided to go with more southern rock to create the mood of the film. The film's soundtrack itself was notable as being one of the first to be released on DualDisc, with the DVD side featuring a making-of featurette for the film and a photo gallery. In 2019, Zombie announced that Waxwork Records would release the soundtrack on vinyl along with the two other Zombie films in the trilogy, House of 1,000 Corpses and 3 from Hell (2019). The record included an essay written by director Rob Zombie and a 12x12" booklet that contained behind the scenes photographs. [11]
The Devil's Rejects was released by Lions Gate Films on July 22, 2005, in 1,757 theaters and grossed USD$7.1 million on its opening weekend, recouping its roughly $7 million budget. It grossed $17 million in North America and $2.3 million internationally for a total of $19.4 million. [12]
The film received mixed reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 55% rating based on 139 reviews, with an average rating of 5.8/10. The site's consensus reads: "Zombie has improved as a filmmaker since House of 1000 Corpses and will please fans of the genre, but beware—the horror is nasty, relentless and sadistic". [13] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 53 out of 100 based on reviews from 32 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". [14]
Critic Roger Ebert enjoyed the film and gave it three out of four stars. He wrote, "There is actually some good writing and acting going on here, if you can step back from the [violent] material enough to see it". [15] Later, in his 2006 review for the horror film The Hills Have Eyes , Ebert referenced The Devil's Rejects, writing, "I received some appalled feedback when I praised Rob Zombie's The Devil's Rejects, but I admired two things about it [that were absent from The Hills Have Eyes]: (1) It desired to entertain and not merely to sicken, and (2) its depraved killers were individuals with personalities, histories and motives". [16] In his review for Rolling Stone , Peter Travers gave The Devil's Rejects three out of four stars and wrote, "Let's hear it for the Southern-fried soundtrack, from Buck Owens' 'Satan's Got to Get Along Without Me' to Lynyrd Skynyrd's 'Free Bird', playing over the blood-soaked finale, which manages to wed The Wild Bunch to Thelma & Louise ". [17] Richard Roeper gave the film "thumbs up" for being successful at its goal to be the "sickest, the most twisted, the most deranged movie" at that point of the year (2005). [18]
In her review for The New York Times , Dana Stevens wrote that the film "is a trompe-l'œil experiment in deliberately retro film-making. It looks sensational, but there is a curious emptiness at its core". [19] Entertainment Weekly gave the film a "C+" rating and wrote, "Zombie's characters are, to put it mildly, undeveloped". [20] Robert K. Elder, of the Chicago Tribune , disliked the film, writing "[D]espite decades of soaking in bloody classics such as the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre and I Spit on Your Grave , Zombie didn't absorb any of the underlying social tension or heart in those films. He's no collage artist of influences, like Quentin Tarantino, crafting his movie from childhood influences. Rejects plays more like a junkyard of homages, strewn together and lost among inept cops, gaping plot holes and buzzard-ready dialog". [21]
Horror author Stephen King rated The Devil's Rejects the 9th best film of 2005 and wrote, "No redeeming social merit, perfect '70s C-grade picture cheesy glow; this must be what Quentin Tarantino meant when he did those silly Kill Bill pictures". [22]
James Berardinelli was very negative giving The Devil's Rejects half a star (out of a possible four stars) and called it a "vile, reprehensible movie," saying the action was "more formula than plot." He described the dialogue as "a pastiche (at least I think that's the intention) of the kind of bloodthirsty, overripe lines found" in a genre of films from the 1970s about "outcasts who defy society by destroying it." He was extremely critical of the acting, directing, and the production values, with an ending that was "a cataclysmic misfire", and overall was not "engaging cinema." [23]
Award | Category | Nominee | Result |
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Fangoria Chainsaw Awards | Best Wide-Release Film | Won | |
Killer Movie (Scariest Film) | Rob Zombie | Won | |
Best Screenplay | Won | ||
Best Actor | Sid Haig | Won | |
Best Supporting Actor | William Forsythe | Won | |
Best Supporting Actress | Leslie Easterbrook | Won | |
Best Score | Tyler Bates | Won | |
Best Villain | Sid Haig | Nominated | |
Relationship from Hell | Bill Moseley and Sheri Moon Zombie | Won | |
Line That Killed (Best One-Liner) | Bill Moseley | Nominated | |
Satellite Awards | Outstanding Classic DVD | Unrated Widescreen Edition | Nominated |
Scream Awards | The Ultimate Scream | Nominated | |
Best Horror Movie | Won | ||
Most Vile Villain | Leslie Easterbrook, Sid Haig, Bill Moseley and Sheri Moon Zombie as the Firefly family | Won | |
Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards | Best Film | Rob Zombie | Nominated |
Golden Schmoes Awards | Best Horror Movie of the Year | Nominated |
In January 2018, it was rumoured that a sequel, 3 from Hell, was in production. [24] Rob Zombie confirmed this via Instagram in March 2018, sharing a photo from the director's seat. [25] [26] A teaser trailer for 3 from Hell was released in June 2019, and the film opened on September 16, 2019.
House of 1000 Corpses is a 2003 American black comedy horror film written, co-scored, and directed by Rob Zombie in his directorial debut, and the first film in the Firefly film series. It stars Sid Haig, Bill Moseley, Sheri Moon, Karen Black, Rainn Wilson, Chris Hardwick, Tom Towles, Erin Daniels, Jennifer Jostyn, Walton Goggins, and Dennis Fimple in his final role. The plot centers on a group of teenagers who are kidnapped and tortured by a psychotic family during Halloween after traveling across the country to write a book.
Captain Jeffrey T. Spaulding is a fictional character in the Broadway musical Animal Crackers and the film of the same name. He was originally played by actor Groucho Marx, one of the Marx Brothers, in both productions. Despite his middle name being Edgar, he is known as Jeffrey T. Spaulding; his first name is also spelled as "Geoffrey" in parts of the film.
Rob Zombie is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, filmmaker, and actor. His music and lyrics are notable for their horror and sci-fi themes, and his live shows have been praised for their elaborate shock rock theatricality. He has sold an estimated 15 million albums worldwide. He's the former singer of White Zombie.
Michael Myers is a character from the slasher film series Halloween. He first appears in 1978 in John Carpenter's Halloween as a young boy who murders his elder sister, Judith Myers. Fifteen years later, he returns home to Haddonfield, Illinois, to murder more teenagers. In the original Halloween, the adult Michael Myers, referred to as The Shape in the closing credits, was portrayed by Nick Castle for most of the film and substituted by Tony Moran in the final scene where Michael's face is revealed. The character was created by John Carpenter and has been featured in twelve films, as well as novels, video games, and comic books.
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer is a 1986 American independent crime film directed and co-written by John McNaughton about the random crime spree of a serial killer who seemingly operates with impunity. It stars Michael Rooker in his film debut as the nomadic killer Henry, Tom Towles as Otis, a prison buddy with whom Henry is living, and Tracy Arnold as Becky, Otis's sister. The characters of Henry and Otis are loosely based on convicted real life serial killers Henry Lee Lucas and Ottis Toole.
Matthew McGrory was an American actor. At 7 ft 6 in (2.29 m), he was recognized as the tallest actor by Guinness World Records. He portrayed physically imposing characters throughout his career, including Tiny Firefly in the horror films House of 1000 Corpses (2003) and The Devil's Rejects (2005) and Karl the Giant in the fantasy comedy-drama Big Fish (2003). McGrory also held the Guinness World Records for biggest feet and longest toe.
Sheri Moon Zombie is an American actress, model, dancer, and fashion designer.
Sidney Eddie Mosesian, known professionally as Sid Haig, was an American actor. He was known for his appearances in horror films, most notably his role as Captain Spaulding in the Rob Zombie films House of 1000 Corpses, The Devil's Rejects and 3 from Hell. Haig's Captain Spaulding, and Haig himself, have been called icons of horror cinema. Haig had a leading role on the television series Jason of Star Command as the villain Dragos. He appeared in many television programs, including The Untouchables, Batman, Gunsmoke, Mission: Impossible, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, Star Trek, Get Smart, The Rockford Files, Charlie's Angels, Fantasy Island, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, The Dukes of Hazzard, The A-Team, MacGyver, and Emergency!. Haig also had roles in several of Jack Hill's blaxploitation films from the 1970s.
William Moseley is an American actor, primarily known for his performances in horror films. His best-known roles include Chop Top in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986), Otis B. Driftwood in Rob Zombie's Firefly trilogy, Luigi Largo in Repo! The Genetic Opera (2008), and The Magician in Alleluia! The Devil's Carnival (2015). He had a recurring role as camp cook Possum on the HBO TV series Carnivàle (2003–05). He has also released records with guitarist Buckethead in the band Cornbugs, as well as featuring on the guitarist's solo work.
Halloween is a 2007 American slasher film written, directed, and produced by Rob Zombie. It is a remake of John Carpenter's 1978 horror film of the same name and the ninth installment in the Halloween franchise. The film stars Malcolm McDowell, Sheri Moon Zombie, Tyler Mane, Scout Taylor-Compton, Brad Dourif, Danielle Harris, and William Forsythe. The "reimagining" follows Michael Myers who murdered his family as a child and becomes institutionalized at an asylum, before breaking out and stalking Laurie Strode and her friends on Halloween night.
Psycho is an American horror franchise consisting of six films loosely based on the Psycho novels by Robert Bloch: Psycho, Psycho II, Psycho III, Bates Motel, Psycho IV: The Beginning, the 1998 remake of the original film, and additional merchandise spanning various media. The first film, Psycho, was directed by filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock. Subsequently, another film related to the series was made: an Alfred Hitchcock biopic, and two new novels, by Takekuni Kitayama and Chet Williamson, were released. Also, an independent documentary called The Psycho Legacy was released on October 19, 2010, mostly focusing on Psycho II, Psycho III and Psycho IV: The Beginning, while covering the impact and legacy of the original film.
Tom Towles was an American character actor of film, theatre, and television, known for his portraying villains and intimidating supporting characters. His breakthrough role as Otis in Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986) earned him an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Supporting Male. He appeared in numerous films and television series including Night of the Living Dead, Blood In Blood Out, The Rock, NYPD Blue, Dr. Dolittle, The Devil's Rejects, Miami Vice, and Malcolm in the Middle.
Tombs of the Blind Dead is a 1972 Spanish-Portuguese horror film written and directed by Amando de Ossorio. Its original Spanish title is La noche del terror ciego.
The Devil's Rejects is the soundtrack for Rob Zombie's film The Devil's Rejects. It was released as a standard CD and as a DualDisc. While both feature the same songs, the DualDisc also includes sound clips from the film, as well as including the album in high-resolution stereo, a behind-the-scenes documentary about the film and a photogallery on the DVD side.
The Haunted World of El Superbeasto is a 2009 American adult animated superhero comedy film directed, co-written and co-produced by Rob Zombie. The film was written by Zombie and Tom Papa from Zombie's comic book series of the same name. The film was also produced by Starz Media and Film Roman, with animation provided by Carbunkle Cartoons and Big Star Productions.
Banjo & Sullivan: The Ultimate Collection is an album by Jesse Dayton and Lew Temple, recording as the fictional characters Banjo and Sullivan from Rob Zombie's 2005 American horror film The Devil's Rejects.
The Lords of Salem is a 2012 supernatural horror film written, produced, and directed by Rob Zombie. It stars Sheri Moon Zombie, Bruce Davison, Jeff Daniel Phillips, Ken Foree, Patricia Quinn, Dee Wallace, María Conchita Alonso, Judy Geeson, and Meg Foster. The plot focuses on a troubled female disc jockey in Salem, Massachusetts, whose life becomes entangled with a coven of ancient Satan-worshipping women.
31 is a 2016 American horror film written, directed, and produced by Rob Zombie, and starring an ensemble cast featuring Sheri Moon Zombie, Jeff Daniel Phillips, Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, Meg Foster, Richard Brake, Jane Carr, Judy Geeson, E.G. Daily, and Malcolm McDowell.
3 from Hell is a 2019 American horror film written, co-produced, and directed by Rob Zombie. It is the third and final installment in the Firefly trilogy, which began with House of 1000 Corpses (2003), and stars Sheri Moon Zombie, Bill Moseley, Richard Brake and Sid Haig. Ten years have passed since the events of The Devil's Rejects (2005). The plot follows an incarcerated Otis Driftwood and Baby Firefly being freed by Otis's half-brother, after barely surviving a police shootout a decade ago.
Captain Spaulding is a fictional character created by Rob Zombie. The character first appeared in Zombie's 2003 horror film House of 1000 Corpses, portrayed by Sid Haig. Haig reprised his role as Spaulding in the sequels The Devil's Rejects (2005) and 3 from Hell (2019). Haig also voiced Spaulding in the 2009 animated film The Haunted World of El Superbeasto. The character is depicted as a vulgar and murderous clown.