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It’s the Thelma and Louise of horror — a new breed among a litany of new breeds in this latest, greatest millennium of ours. And, like Ridley Scott’s Thelma and Louise, Rob Zombie’s The Devil’s Rejects forces you to root for the bad guys. Well… maybe Thelma and Louise aren’t bad guys like Baby, Otis and Captain Spaulding are bad guys. But, maybe you didn’t root for Thelma and Louise, anyway. Maybe you were glad to see them burn rubber off the edge of that cliff, holding hands all sappy and sentimental. Maybe you were too busy rooting for more shirtless Brad Pitt scenes to concern yourself with poor, misguided Thelma and Louise. Maybe, but I think not. Regardless, Zombie’s misfits on the run aren’t all that different from Scott’s lovely ladies in their ill-fated Thunderbird, after all. “What’s similar about Thelma and Louise, and the Firefly Gang?” you might ask. Well, aside from driving baby blue convertibles to their deaths (of course, Otis preferred a Caddy to a Thunderbird), not much. But, what that last scene in The Devil’s Rejects does is force you to grab the dude to your left’s hand and pray they make it to the other side of that police barricade to freedom! All right, so maybe that’s a bit much, but I always get choked up when movies use Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Freebird in a climactic, slow motion sequence. Although Thelma and Louise are essentially Lucy and Ethel compared to the Fireflys, they’re similar because you want them to win. Especially after his first foray with the Firefly Gang in House of 1,000 Corpses, Zombie accomplished something unique in the world of ultra-violent horror with its follow up. It’s not often you can watch a Charles Manson look-alike sexually assault a woman with a Beretta, and still pull for him to come out on top by the end of the film. What Zombie’s done here is take three utterly despicable characters and position these deviants (read: not buxom cheerleaders) as the ones on the run. And, we view them as the underdogs — heroic antiheros to get behind. What?! Truly a feat not to be scoffed at. So, how’d he do it? From scene one, when the cops play target practice with the Firefly homestead, this movie builds to the emotional crescendo of its final frames. The bad guys in the film are “real,” in a manner of speaking. What I mean is, they’re not hiding behind masks. They’re not lurking in shadows. In fact, throughout the vast majority of the film, their heinous crimes are committed right out in broad daylight — unheard of for slasher flicks of old. So, why do we think they deserve to live happily ever after? Well, probably the most important thing is that the bad
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guys actually have “real” dialogue above and beyond psychotic ramblings (though, there are plenty of ramblings, too). Think about the scene when Baby and Captain Spaulding beg Otis for ice cream, but he doesn’t want to stop. After some playful jibes back and forth, we see a cut screen and… will you look at that! They got their ice cream after all! Who are these people supposed to be, the Seaver family?! Is this Growing Pains?! What kind of Twilight Zone shenanigans is Zombie trying to pull here?! Seeing a family tease one another in a light-hearted manner isn’t uncommon in films. It’s not even that uncommon in horror films. But, think about which characters are behaving like this. Can you imagine Jason and Mrs. Voorhees having a hoot of a good time bickering over frozen treats? A playful tête-à-tête between Chucky and Andy, perhaps? Or how about Michael Meyers taking silly jabs at his sister? OK, so maybe not the Meyers family, but you get the idea. Perhaps The Devil’s Rejects makes its antagonizing protagonists a bit too real for us to get our heads around the difference — we simply don’t know any better. These aren’t characters with redeeming qualities. They’re not good guys gone bad, like Sheriff Wydell or Thelma and Louise, taking the law into their own hands. No, these three are rotten to the core. Even so, we relate to them. We see our families reflected in theirs. We see ourselves. Yikes. And, though our general inclination toward sympathy is sick in and of itself, we have a little help from Zombie’s soundtrack to push our sentimentality along. How many times have you had a few too many drinks at the local pub and found yourself all emotional during a rousing rendition of Freebird. Be honest. Nothing ends a good emotional rollercoaster of a film like a great send off soundtrack. Slow motion, flashbacks to happier times and the absence of dialogue don’t hurt either. Those opening chords strum, and we’re flying high over a long, winding road. We’re following our beaten-down, nearly defeated antiheros in their big blue Cadillac. “I’m as free as a bird now…” That’s great! They got away! A happy ending! But wait… Otis is stopping the car. He looks upset. What’s going on?! Oh no! They’re trapped! The point is, even though you know there’s no way the Fireflys are going to make it out alive, when you see them loading up their arsenal, as Freebird churns faster and faster in the background, you’re keeping your fingers crossed that they blast through that barricade and ride off into the sunset. Maybe you’re not as sentimental as I am. Maybe you were glad to see them blown away at the end. But at the very least, I think you were hoping for another sequel… I wonder if Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon are available?
paracinema / OCTOBER 2008 / issue 4
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guys actually have “real” dialogue above and beyond psychotic ramblings (though, there are plenty of ramblings, too). Think about the scene when Baby and Captain Spaulding beg Otis for ice cream, but he doesn’t want to stop. After some playful jibes back and forth, we see a cut screen and… will you look at that! They got their ice cream after all! Who are these people supposed to be, the Seaver family?! Is this Growing Pains?! What kind of Twilight Zone shenanigans is Zombie trying to pull here?! Seeing a family tease one another in a light-hearted manner isn’t uncommon in films. It’s not even that uncommon in horror films. But, think about which characters are behaving like this. Can you imagine Jason and Mrs. Voorhees having a hoot of a good time bickering over frozen treats? A playful tête-à-tête between Chucky and Andy, perhaps? Or how about Michael Meyers taking silly jabs at his sister? OK, so maybe not the Meyers family, but you get the idea. Perhaps The Devil’s Rejects makes its antagonizing protagonists a bit too real for us to get our heads around the difference — we simply don’t know any better. These aren’t characters with redeeming qualities. They’re not good guys gone bad, like Sheriff Wydell or Thelma and Louise, taking the law into their own hands. No, these three are rotten to the core. Even so, we relate to them. We see our families reflected in theirs. We see ourselves. Yikes. And, though our general inclination toward sympathy is sick in and of itself, we have a little help from Zombie’s soundtrack to push our sentimentality along. How many times have you had a few too many drinks at the local pub and found yourself all emotional during a rousing rendition of Freebird. Be honest. Nothing ends a good emotional rollercoaster of a film like a great send off soundtrack. Slow motion, flashbacks to happier times and the absence of dialogue don’t hurt either. Those opening chords strum, and we’re flying high over a long, winding road. We’re following our beaten-down, nearly defeated antiheros in their big blue Cadillac. “I’m as free as a bird now…” That’s great! They got away! A happy ending! But wait… Otis is stopping the car. He looks upset. What’s going on?! Oh no! They’re trapped! The point is, even though you know there’s no way the Fireflys are going to make it out alive, when you see them loading up their arsenal, as Freebird churns faster and faster in the background, you’re keeping your fingers crossed that they blast through that barricade and ride off into the sunset. Maybe you’re not as sentimental as I am. Maybe you were glad to see them blown away at the end. But at the very least, I think you were hoping for another sequel… I wonder if Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon are available?
paracinema / OCTOBER 2008 / issue 4
