Movie Review #4 and 5

Movie Review #4/5: House of 1,000 Corpses, The Devils Rejects

So, this is a double feature, Rob Zombie`s first two films, The Devils Rejects is a sequel to the first movie. Because this is a double review, it will probably be longer than usual. So, let’s get started with the first one, House of 1,000 Corpses.

House of 1,000 Corpses was Rob Zombie`s first film, released in 2003.
It basically is about four young people who are touring around America writing a book about strange attractions. They stumble upon a place owned by Captain Spaulding, a very scary clown. He takes them on a tour of his museum of horrors and tells about the local legend of Dr. Satan, a surgeon who horrifically tortures his victims. When they leave, their tire is shot by a man, but they don`t that. They end up at house with a few very strange people (the Firefly family). Without spoiling anything, the family kidnaps them and tortures them, eventually leading them to Dr. Satan.

This film was pretty good. When I was watching it I was into it, it was scary, and it was disturbing and all around pretty good. After I watched it, the thrill sort of faded a bit. It was still good but I not everything I think it could`ve been. I did like the style of filmmaking Rob Zombie used, it was pretty good quality but it would cut to really grainy scenes, sometimes random, sometimes not. But still very cool.
All in all, not a bad start to his career, which is still pretty young, he only has four released films.

And now for, The Devils Rejects.
Now, just to start off with, House of 1,000 Corpses has nothing on Devils Rejects.
This film picks up a few months after the first one. The police have issued a search and destroy on the Firefly family and they have committed over 75 homicides.
Its starts with the police arriving at the Firefly house and telling them to come out. They of course won`t go out without a fight so they gear up with guns and armor and start fighting. One of them is killed and Mama Firefly is captured, Baby and Otis escape. They head to a motel and call Captain Spaulding (Baby`s dad). Once there they take two couples under hostage and sexually abuse the women. Otis then takes the men with him to dig up some guns he buried. They attack him but he quickly gets the upper hand and kills them both. One of the women tries to escape from baby but she is stopped and the other woman is killed. A maid enters the room later and finds the grisly mess and one woman alive with her husband’s skinned face on her as a mask. When she runs for help she is killed by a passing truck. Otis and Baby meet with Captain Spaulding and they go to a friend named Charlie. This is one of my favorite scenes, they are partying at Charlie`s with no sound heard except Rocky Mountain Way by Joe Walsh. It`s a really fun and cool scene, with cuts to the Sheriff talking to himself getting ready to get them. Charlie sells them out to the cops and they are caught. Now, up to this point, we have looked as the sheriff as the good guy, he is an asshole, but the good guy. This is where that changes. When he catches them, he goes crazy. He killed Mama Firefly and taunts Baby with that. The Firefly also killed his brother and he goes all out on them for that. He staples pictures of victims to their stomachs, nails Otis`s hands to the chair. He then lets Baby go outside and then hunts her. When he is about to kill her, Tiny shows up (Baby`s brother who is giant and deformed with burns)
and kills the sheriff. He saves Otis and Spaulding and walks back into the burning house to die. Later, the three are driving and meet a police road block. With no sound but Free Bird by Lynyrd Skynyrd (which is the best use this has ever been put to). They drive to the cops shooting their guns; in the end they are killed.

Sorry for the spoilers on that one, I couldn`t resist.
So, as I said before, this film is much better than the first, and probably one of my favorite films of all time now. It is scary, disturbing (beautifully), chaotic and brilliant. As far as I`m concerned, Rob Zombie peeked in this film and I don`t know if he will ever beat that, but I have high hopes with him. I saw this film on Netflix, but I saw it in a store a week earlier, on a double feature with the first one, I wasn`t going to buy it but if I see it, I`m getting it. Amazing.