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‘The Devil’s Rejects (Unrated Version)’ (2005, Lions Gate Films)

Directed by Rob Zombie 

I was not a fan of Rob Zombie’s directorial debut, ‘House of 1000 Corpses’.  It showed a filmmaker who truly wanted to make a real seventies style horror flick, but was far too derivative of ‘The Texas Chain Saw Massacre’ to really be anything special.  Not so with this sequel.  You really don’t need to have seen ‘House’ to know what’s going on, so if you haven’t already, just keep it that way.  ‘The Devil’s Rejects’ is more of a violent action film than a horror flick, but I’m sure horror fans will dig it just fine.  If you’re squeamish, it won’t really matter how well done this movie is, it’ll pretty much ruin your day. 

Here’s the plot.  The Firefly family, a bunch of sadistic killers introduced in ‘House of 1000 Corpses’, barely escape a police raid led on their home by one Sherriff Wydell (William Forsythe).  The Fireflys killed Wydell’s brother in the last movie, and he’s out for more than justice.  He wants bloody, sadistic revenge.  Mother Firefly (Leslie Easterbrook) is captured, Tiny's (Matthew McGrory) whereabouts are uncertain, but Otis (Bill Mosely) and Baby (Sherri Moon Zombie) escape the opening shootout, and they soon meet up with their father, Captain Spaulding (Sid Haig), who has been living on his own and working as a clown.  There’s a whole lot of sadism and gratuitous violence in store for everyone, but also a lot of great dialogue, great shots, and honest to goodness themes to ponder.   

Really, this may just be the best movie of 2005 if you can stomach it.  It completely achieves everything it sets out to do, and does so with style.  There’s simply not a false note in this movie.  Granted, not everyone is going to want to watch a movie that so gleefully wallows in the slime as this one does, but if you like your movies dark you won’t find a better one.  Where ‘House of 1000 Corpses’ shamelessly swiped from ‘Texas Chain Saw Massacre’, ‘Devil’s Rejects’ equals it in intensity while being it’s own film.  In addition to the actors already mentioned, who do amazing work, there are also roles for such underused actors as E. G. Daily, Steve Railsback, Ken Foree, Michael Berryman, Danny Trejo, Diamond Dallas Page, and P. J. Soles.  No Hollywood pretty faces, just real actors.  What a concept.  Anyway, check this sucker out if you think you can handle it.  (Bob Ignizio)

‘High Tension’ (2005, Lions Gate Films)

Directed by Alexandre Aja 

Well, here we go again.  ‘High Tension’ is the latest in a recent string of films that have been touted as a return to the sort of grim, unrelenting horror of seventies drive-in and grindhouse fare like ‘Texas Chain Saw Massacre’, ‘Maniac’, ‘Last House on the Left’, and ‘The Hills Have Eyes’.  But what do you know, unlike ‘House of 1000 Corpses’ and all the remakes of old horror flicks we’ve been deluged with lately, ‘High Tension’ actually lives up to its hype.  This is a film of intense brutality, excessive gore, and real terror.  ‘High Tension’ pulls no punches and offers no reprieve once the carnage begins.   

Marie (Cecile De France) and Alex (Maiwenn) are a couple of college girls headed to the farmhouse where Alex’ parents live for a holiday.  A serial killer (Philippe Nahon) shows up and starts dispatching the cast in extremely horrific ways.  Marie eventually goes all Sigourney Weaver and fights back.  That’s pretty much it for plot.  This is all told in by Marie in flashback at a police station.  At first, this seems to be a detriment.  After all, the movie is titled ‘High Tension’, but how much tension can we feel for Marie when we already know she survives?  Ah, but there’s a twist.  

The twist in ‘High Tension’ has been the cause of much controversy.  For many, it ruins the film.  They don’t feel the movie “played fair”.  I disagree.  The twist makes perfect sense, and clues are given which you can catch better on a second viewing.  You just have to remember that what you’re watching is one person’s accounts of events, and not a straight forward depiction of the events themselves.  I think it would have worked better if the filmmakers had gone with their original intent of saving the reveal for the last scene, but that’s really a minor quibble.  I mean come on; many of the most vocal critics of this film’s twist are people who have enshrined films like ‘Suspiria’ and ‘Phantasm’ as horror classics.  I love those movies, too, but compared to them ‘High Tension’ is a model of coherency and straight forward storytelling.   

Sadly, Lions Gate’s DVD of the film does not treat ‘High Tension’ with the respect it deserves.  Don’t get me wrong, there are some great extras, and the film itself looks and sounds good.  But there’s one huge issue.  If you’re watching the original French language version of the film (which you should, since only a moron prefers dubbing), the English subtitles don’t entirely match up.  Instead, they go with the English dub.  Which is completely stupid since the disc already includes close-captioning of that version, as well as a second English subtitle option that only subtitles the portions of the English dub left in their original French for the U.S. release.  I don’t know French, so I can’t tell how drastic the differences are.  But there are a couple scenes where there are subtitles and no dialogue on the French track, and a couple scenes where there is dialogue on the French track but no subs.  ‘High Tension’ is not a dialogue heavy move so it probably won’t hurt your viewing experience too much, but it pisses me off that companies treat horror fans like we aren’t going to notice or care about such things.  There’s also an introduction to the film by the director and his co-writer in French, and there’s no subtitles at all for that.  Way to go, assholes.  So now if I want to buy this flick (which I do), I have to sort through all the various import versions.  Those of you who don’t have a multi region player like I do, however, are stuck with this disc, which simply can’t be considered definitive.   (Bob Ignizio)