 Thanks for checking out this no spoilers movie review video. This is for the 2005 film the devil's rejects by Rob Zombie and this review is per the request of subscriber actually Long-time subscriber. I can say Uncle Pete not my actual uncle. That's his name on YouTube. It's Uncle Pete So this one's for you Uncle Pete Um Let's get to it 2005 doubles rejects So I saw this film in the theater when it originally came out I remembered really liking it, but I haven't watched it since so about 14 years now have passed and I hadn't seen it So it's always interesting to go revisit films that you remember really liking especially when you were much younger Because things change and I feel like watching this again I still like it and I still like what like it a decent amount But I don't think I like it as much as I remember liking it when it was in the theater and maybe that's I Actually don't like it as much or I was just you know over time kind of working it up more in my mind I don't know but still I enjoy it. It's a good film. So let's get into it So immediately you're hit with the fact got my notes immediately You're hit with the fact that it feels a lot and looks a lot like Texas chainsaw Massacre you really feel like Rob zombie takes a lot of his aesthetic and a lot of his Cues for how to do horror from Toby Hooper obviously who did Texas chainsaw massacre. It's a very gritty scenery It's very dirty and he leeches a lot of color out of the film as well Which I think works for the story that he's doing and for the setting he uses It's an interesting setting for that reason and all those things are very much in common with Texas chainsaw So the whole time you're watching you're kind of like this feels like Texas chainsaw, but it does its own thing I will say the plot the storyline everything. It's not complicated. It's not anything new. It's just how is it executed? so The thing with Rob zombie in general as a director like I have a lot of respect for Rob zombie as a person because he's a Very creative person and his creativity spans many many things one of the big things being you know Obviously he was very well-known for his music with what white zombie and then he ended up getting into film So the fact that someone like that has so much creative output and is so motivated and does so much I find very very inspiring and I have a lot of respect for Rob zombie for that reason as a film maker. I Like some of his stuff. I dislike most of his stuff. I will say the devil's rejects is by far his best film I don't think anything else is really come all that close didn't really like House of a Thousand Corpses. I Stopped watching the first Halloween remake he did after like 20 minutes or so. It was so Aggregiously bad. I haven't heard anything good about that one or the second one from anyone I did see Lords of Salem, which I actually kind of liked. I didn't like love it or anything But I liked it. I found it decent. So that might be my second place film of his after The devil's rejects and with three from hell coming up, which is the third film in the trilogy of House of a Thousand Corpses devils rejects This is a good time for me to be doing this review and just revisiting that film so Hopefully three from hell is good I don't know a trailer came out and you really can't tell anything from the trailer because the trailers pretty much non-existent I know part of the reason for that is Rob zombie himself really hates the fact that trailers usually give so much of the story away And I'm with him on that. I think it's terrible that trailers give up so much Sometimes you see these trailers and you're just like I already saw the film I don't even need to see it because the trailer gave me everything. So that's why his trailer for three from hell is so minimal But at the same time it doesn't really show much. So you're kind of like What's gonna happen? Also the level of involvement that Sid Hague can have in three from hell I don't know what that can be because he's obviously aging and he's not been doing Great if you've seen him at conventions which I have in the past few years. He's not looking in the best of health. So I Pretty much guarantee that his involvement in three from hell is gonna be pretty limited. That's just I guess But anyway, let me get back to the actual review got sidetracked. Although it is related. So So one of the things that kind of gets me in the beginning of this film is the fact that there are so many extreme close-ups in it I it can work at times But when you keep doing it keep doing it keep doing it it actually gets kind of annoying because you want to be able to focus on things when you're watching a film and Rob's on me just seemed to really love extreme close-ups and he went overboard with them especially in the beginning half of the film and that's one of the things in general with this is that I Feel like the beginning half of the film lacks focus. It's more of like he's playing around He just wanted to do crazy things with the script He just wanted to do crazy things with his directing and then it feels like once he you hit that halfway point There's he calms down a bunch He stops doing a lot of the more crazy Slash annoying things that he was doing in the first half in the film and he focuses He gets very focused calms down and from about the halfway point till the end It's a much different film in my opinion, and it's much better done. It's better put together. It's more compelling story Just that first half seems like all over the place. You're like, I don't even know what's going on It's like everything in the kitchen sink type deal So it's weird because this is kind of like two Two filmmakers made this in a sense like a very unrestrained wild filmmaker for the first half And then someone who like got it together and is focused and it's like I know how to make film boom boom boom This is how we do it for the second half So the second half is where my enjoyment really kicks in with the film the first half. I'm kind of like I don't know so that's just my feeling on it But it's better to have it that way than to have it the reverse where the end the end is like all messed up Because then people finish on a down note and used to be like, oh that sucked. So just saying that Let's state one of the obvious things. Sherry moon zombie is awful as an actress. She is terrible He Rob zombie puts her in every film because that's his wife. I think it's idiotic when directors Well filmmakers in general do that stuff Get the best person for the job And I think he did with a lot of the roles in this film and I think that There's some weak dialogue in this film There's some weak writing with the script But I think a lot of the times that's overcome by the actors because the actors seem to be having a really good time And they nailed their parts for the most part except Sherry moon zombie who like I said is a terrible actress So had that role been cast differently, I think this film could be even better than it is And I know there are a lot of people who say the same thing like Sherry moon zombie. She's terrible I know a lot of people who say she's a bad actress, but I like looking at her Well, I don't care about the looking at her thing because I want to see a good movie. So get her out of these films It's terrible. She she's not good. She doesn't have the chops You can make a much better film if you put someone in there who has the ability to do the role So just went nuts. So some of my favorite performances some of my favorite actors in this film and they do Wonderful jobs. Bill Mosley does a very nice job. Sid Hagg does one of the best jobs in this He is a joy to watch on screen Also Ken Foree Ken Foree's character is so well played by him You can tell he's just chewing it up He is loving it and William Forsythe is probably the strongest actor in this film I've seen William Forsythe in a few things and I kind of feel like this might be his best role He really brought a lot to it and he he's awesome on the screen So all those people I just named did a really good job and the supporting cast is fine, too They did decent jobs everyone but Sherry moon zombie did a good to great job and I feel like that's where This film if these certain actors were not in this film and it was lesser people This film really would have fallen apart in my opinion because like I said There's some weak writing in this and I feel like the actors overcome that with their great performances Just saying the soundtrack. This is one of the best things about this film The soundtrack is ridiculously good It matches up so well with the environment the scenery the shots the characters the overall story the soundtrack is Pretty much perfection in my opinion as far as far as this film goes I was thinking about it at and as the film was was wrapping up at the end with the credits going I was thinking in my opinion. This may be one of the best soundtracks for a film Not like soundtrack on its own like soundtrack with the film like whole experience Just saying great Rob zombie is a type of guy who writes over the top and you really see that in this film Especially in the first half of it where he's just like he's trying to throw everything out there He's like over the top over the top his premises are usually over the top the violence is over the top the sexuality is over the top and The way he writes dialogue is over the top which takes me to one of my other issues with him Is that he writes the dialogue for all the characters the same? He writes almost all the characters kind of very similar So he doesn't have a lot of range when it comes to ability to create different characters They all speak the same. They all say the same type of stuff. They're all hypersexual and very violent Everyone in this film is a terrible person pretty much and they all talk about sex constantly Which to me gets tiresome. I know there's some people out there who are like, well, I love it There's some really good parts where it fits but for the most part I think it's distracting and it's it detracts from the actual story and the film itself I view things like that as well as profanity like the over the overuse of profanity as crutches for writers I feel like a lot of the times you're putting in profanity and you're putting in like all this sexuality like over the top Because you don't know what else to do because you can't come up with something else or because you're lazy And you don't want to it is bad writing in my opinion when when it's done this way and It's just something that bothers me personally I can take a certain amount of profanity, especially if it fits the character But the fact that in this film every character uses profanity to the nth degree Just takes away from it and it makes me think it's lazy writing. It's like you don't know You can't write dialogue effectively So you do that and I actually think that in a lot of instances if you strip a lot of the profanity out of this film and Just condense that dialogue. I think people would Find it better like it would be more impactful What's being said because there really are some nice moments of of dialogue writing in it But then they get drowned out by profanity like before it and after it They it's like they get sandwiched and they it gets lost in a sense. So I just wish that He would you know Rain it in a little bit with the profanity just rain it in like better writing is not using it. It's totally a crotch It's totally a crotch Anyway And one of the things I was talking about the sexuality the over sexuality of this film also makes me kind of Roll my eyes like I'm good with it to a certain point But when you just feel like you have to keep doing it and keep doing it and keep doing it It's just like okay Can we do something else at this point and the fact that the over sexualization of women in it? You know, it might not bother people out there It's something that kind of bothers me because when you're using Women as just sex objects, which is basically what this film does and a lot of Rob Zombie's films It's just like oh here's female characters, you know, they're gonna be in there just for the sex appeal It's it gets tiresome like I want good characters for every character in it. I want all the characters to matter I want them all to be worth something in the context of the story So when he has a lot of these characters in there that it's just like oh, they're gonna get naked They're gonna talk about sex and be sexy and it's it It just it gets old for me It gets old really really fast and with this film in particular unless the character is old or fat They're and they're female. They're sex appeal like it's purely sex appeal So it's it's lazy once again. It's lazy writing in my opinion, which you find that a lot with Rob Zombie to be honest Do Shaky cam there's a lot of shaky cam used in this film I think a lot of the times it works because it gives kind of this The there's there's moments where it's like it's very intense. It's gritty things are confusing So it adds to that with the film but there are times where it just goes on a little too long or it's done a little too much and Then you're just kind of like I I'm losing track of some of the stuff that's going on here But also I'm starting to get a little nauseous You have to be careful with with the use of shaky cam Which is why I don't like a lot of found footage films because they tend to go over the top With a lot of that shaky cam work and it can make me nauseous the original cloverfield film made me very very Nauseous and I will never watch that movie again for that reason so the shaky cam get on that What's very interesting about this film to me is that everyone is terrible in it and it just Puts you in a weird situation as an audience member because you naturally Want to root for somebody and when you're looking when you're critically thinking and you're like well Like all these characters are not good like they're all terrible to different degrees But they're all terrible and who do I root for like you feel conflicted. So That's cool. Like that's actually a good thing I think in writing is make people feel conflicted make them feel weird about the situation they're in I like that. So it works Yeah, like I was saying like the movie starts and it seems to kind of like just me and or not really have a focus That halfway point and out. It's very focused things calm down It looks like a much different film and I like that portion of it The very end is really good. I really enjoy the very end, especially with the musical accompaniment But the one thing is this is another instance of too many super close-up shots being used that I Understand that that there are issues where directors will kind of like fall in love with a certain thing They like to do or like this is a fun shot to do I really like this and then they just go overboard with it restraint get some restraint Rob zombies not really known for it But get some restraint Anyway, um, I feel like that's all I have to say about the film. I did enjoy rewatching it I really did for the first half of it. I was like Yeah, I don't know And then the last half happened and I was like, ah, this is the good portion of it This is what I like about it So I can't go crazy on a good rating for this to be honest because it's it's half and half really So out of five stars with halves in play. I'm gonna give it a three and a half stars I do recommend it if nobody's ever seen it. You should definitely see it if you haven't seen it I think it's good. Like I said, it's definitely rob zombies best film I don't know if he'll ever get back there to be honest and I hope so for three from hell But I have this feeling that it's not going to be the case But let's keep our fingers crossed people. We'll we'll check it out Uh, uncle Pete, hopefully you enjoyed this review I know you said this is like your favorite film or one of your favorite films So I know that you would do probably like five star four and a half or four star or something like that So Sorry, I know part of this at least part of this review is probably a little bit of a letdown to you I'm sure you wanted me to really love this film and I love portions of it, but Overall, it's it's kind of a mixed bag. So but three and a half stars pretty good Anyway, thank you everyone for checking this out until next time. Keep it brutal