reviewed by f1ipmode

     Horrors and Thrillers are 2 of my favorite genres. The unfortunate fact about the genres is that there aren’t too many well done movies, most movies from these genres regrettable end up easily predictable and some almost laughable particularly in horror. It was just by chance that I came upon viewing The Devil’s Rejects. The Devil’s Rejects star Sig Haig, Bill Mosely and Sherry Moon Zombie and is about the Reject’s being on the run from the a would be possessed Sherriff (played by by the always excellent William Forsythe) bent on tracking them down and doing them in.

     I was staying in Tobermory Ontario Canada for vacation (a beautiful place if you ever think of visiting), loafting in the hotel room I was staying in channel surfing on a 20” t.v. when I stopped on a scene of the Rejects tormenting some hostages in a motel room. I was immediately hooked and a bit creeped out since the room the hostages were had the same generic Comfort Inn look. The first thing I noticed of the movie was how well the acting was in the movie. The hostages conveyed a real sense of fear reacting to there would be hostage takers, the scene involves some pretty hard watch things but if you get through it, the movie has some other charming aspects to it; It may sound weird but without spoiling to much the Reject’s end being semi likeable people because despite the things they do. There are situations arise in the movie between them where the deal with deal with each other like ‘normal’ families do. I’m sure one or two of you who have never scene the movie will be able to relate to these particular family arguements. Being directed by Rob Zombie this movie no doubt sports some great musical arrangement featuring oldies like Lynyrd Skynyrd and David Essex. Another bonus in the movie is the gratuitous female nudity. I never had a chance to see the prequel Rob Zombie’s House of 1000 corpses but I hear that it was horrible, but The Devil’s Rejects was so good that I have to at least give it a shot.

Video: This blu-ray movie has intended grain to it because of the nature of the film. You can immediately notice that Rob was trying to go for the 70’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre look. The most surprising thing is that the grain never becomes distracting, it is used skillfully and is on varied on different level’s throughout the movie for instance: during the beginning of the movie where the sheriff’s are about to raid the Reject’s home there is a fair amount of dust which is kick up by the sheriff’s cars as well as the grain is kicked up but in later scenes like the motel room the grain is almost none existent. High Definition makes it fairly easy to spot wither or not a director is intending to put grain in the movie. The crazy thing about the picture quality despite the grain is that the film still exhibits the crystal clear ‘window’ effect! There is a decent color palette in this movie consisting of drabby beiges and browns of Texas but there are also some nice contrasting neon greens and blue in later scenes. I have to say an excellent transfer by Lion’s Gate

9/10

Audio: This bd comes with a DTS High Resolution audio that plays at 1.5Mbps and a Dolby plus Audio that play’s at 640Kbps. The Dolby Audio track is a slight bit louder and I could not detect any subtle differences between the 2 tracks other then the volume level, so I’ll have to rate the Dolby track slightly better. Having said that the audio in the bd is crystal clear, voice track was great. I’ve never had to play with the centre speaker of my 5.1 audio system. There is great use of the rear channel and LFE speakers.

9/10

Special Features: People have pointed out to me that this bd is missing a segment from the DVD version. But I must say that I usually view the special features once so this missing segment is of no consequence to me. It comes with the usual making of features, trailers for other bd movies from Lionsgate and 2 audio commentaries, one from director Rob Zombie and one from the Main cast. Both are interesting giving anecdotes to the process of making this film. Rob’s commentary is very informative and intelligent and the cast commentary is fun. The actors sounded like they had a blast making this movie give great anecdotes on the more difficult scenes of the movie, great stuff.

7/10 

I loved this movie. I wouldn’t call it a horror(though there is some gore) but I wouldn’t call it a thriller. It’s a great meld between the 2 genres. The bd as a whole is awesome, the movie is a great: the acting, the cinematography, the music and the directing. This bd is in the great words of Captian Spaulding(Sid Haig) and Baby Firefly(Sherry Moon Zombie) “Tootty **** Fruity!”

Overall: 8.5/10 Highly Recommended :D