Editorials
Free as a Bird – Rob Zombie’s ‘The Devil’s Rejects’ Turns 20
Rob Zombie has been one of the most polarizing figures in the horror community since making the leap from musician to filmmaker. He made his feature writing and directorial debut with House of 1000 Corpses in 2003 — after being purchased by Lionsgate when its original studio, Universal, shelved it three years prior due to fears of it receiving a dreaded NC-17 rating.
Corpses fell victim to many issues faced by first-time directors — Zombie was seemingly unsure if he’d ever get the opportunity to make another movie, resulting in an anarchic mélange of ideas and influences — but the end result remains potent all these years later. Despite the troubled production and a largely unfavorable critical response, the film turned a healthy profit, giving Zombie the sinister urge to make a sequel as his sophomore effort.
Released 20 years ago today, The Devil’s Rejects is decidedly more grounded in reality than its heightened predecessor. The follow-up shares more in common with 1970s exploitation cinema than horror, although the genre is still present along with elements of western, road movies, and even comedy. Zombie’s refined approach allows him to blend the tones more smoothly this time around.
The Devil’s Rejects kicks off with a literal bang. Set in 1978, the savage Firefly clan — collectively responsible for more than 75 deaths — have been tracked down by vindictive Sheriff Wydell (William Forsythe, The Rock), whose brother fell victim to the merciless killers in Corpses.
A shootout between the family and state troopers ensues, with Baby (Sheri Moon Zombie) and Otis (Bill Moseley) narrowly escaping. They meet up with Baby’s estranged father, local celebrity Captain Spaulding (Sid Haig), who helps them flee from the law. The fugitives’ ruthless reign of terror continues on the lam.
Zombie creates a fascinating dichotomy with his characters, challenging the notion of protagonist and antagonist. Although the Fireflys’ actions are reprehensible and Wydell’s vengeance is justified, the former villains are presented as antiheroes for whom the audience is encouraged to root. It comes to a poetic climax with a shootout boldly set to Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Free Bird” — one of the most effective uses of a popular song in cinema.
Captain Spaulding is still a vulgar curmudgeon but spends most of the movie sans his iconic clown makeup, as the desperate times have forced him to assume the role of patriarch. No longer the gangling albino introduced in Corpses, Moseley delivers a career-best performance as Otis, a bearded madman in the mold of Charles Manson. Baby’s sweetly sadistic tendencies are also presented in a more grounded manner. Tiny (Matthew McGrory, who passed away shortly after the film’s release) doesn’t have much screen time but plays an important role in the story.
In addition to the characters evolving, several changes were made on the casting side between the two films. Most notably, Leslie Easterbrook (Police Academy) replaces cult favorite Karen Black as Mama Firefly after the former reportedly wanted too much money to reprise the role. While Black’s unhinged magnetism is impossible to match, Easterbrook admirably sinks her teeth into the deranged matriarch.
The hulking Rufus was recast from one former professional wrestler to another, as Tyler Mane (who went on to play Michael Myers in Zombie’s Halloween films) took over the role originated by Robert Mukes. Grandpa Hugo was written out of the script following the death of actor Dennis Fimple prior to production. Walter Phelan returned as the mad Dr. Satan in a gory scene that was deleted because Zombie astutely recognized that the character was incongruous to Rejects‘ tone.
As he’s become known to do, Zombie populated the cast with cult actors in roles both large and small, including such recognizable faces as Ken Foree (Dawn of the Dead), Michael Berryman (The Hills Have Eyes), Elizabeth Daily (Pee-wee’s Big Adventure), Priscilla Barnes (Three’s Company), Geoffrey Lewis (Double Impact), comedian Brian Posehn, Danny Trejo (From Dusk Till Dawn), wrestling legend Diamond Dallas Page, Dave Sheridan (Scary Movie), P.J. Soles (Halloween), Mary Woronov (Chopping Mall), and adult film star Ginger Lynn.
Rejects embraces a gritty realism that makes the violence cut deeper. Cinematographer Phil Parmet’s (Zombie’s Halloween) documentary background proved useful for emulating the cinéma vérité aesthetic. Zombie is careful to balance the brutality — such as the intensely uncomfortable motel scene, which initially earned the picture an NC-17 rating — with levity. Supporting characters are the primary sources of comedic relief, but even the Firefly family members earn a few laughs (“Tutti fucking fruity!”).
Zombie has continued to make interesting, if divisive, choices as a filmmaker, but The Devil’s Rejects remains his strongest work on the whole. It’s a relentless and emotionally draining yet entertaining and endlessly quotable experience. In striking that unique tonal balance, its characters were cemented as bona fide horror icons.
While Rob Zombie undermined his own efforts with 2019’s superfluous sequel 3 from Hell, The Devil’s Rejects showcased a filmmaker as free as a bird on this day twenty years ago.
It’s been 75 years since The Thing From Another World first warned us to “watch the skies”, and filmgoers have done just that by showing up to multiple instances of extraterrestrial contact on the big screen. This makes sense, as a recent CBS news poll estimated that 63% of Americans believe in intelligent life on other planets, and the ongoing disclosure movement aims to raise that number with each passing day.
With Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day leaving many genre fans hungry for more alien footage (preferably of the spooky variety), today I’d like to share a list recommending six underrated alien invasion thrillers for your viewing pleasure. After all, regardless of whether or not you believe that we’re alone in the universe, it can be fun to dream about the worst-case scenario if our cosmic neighbors ever decide to visit.
For the purposes of this list, we’ll be focusing on lesser-known invasion stories rather than the popular extraterrestrials of franchises like Alien and Close Encounters of the Third (or even Fourth) Kind. That being said, don’t forget to comment below with your own alien favorites if you think we missed a particularly thrilling movie.
While it won’t be featured in this article, I’d highly recommend checking out Dean Alioto’s UFO Abduction/The McPherson Tape if you’re up for some ufology-inspired found footage thrills.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
6. The Arrival (1996)
Not to be confused with Denis Villeneuve’s Academy Award-winning Amy Adams vehicle about learning to communicate peacefully with extraterrestrial life, David Twohy’s The Arrival is a much more straightforward (but no less entertaining) genre romp where Charlie Sheen faces a global conspiracy involving hostile alien invaders.
It’s not exactly up there with Close Encounters or even Independence Day, but Twohy’s conspiratorial thriller plays out like an exceptionally fun episode of The X-Files that I’d recommend to sci-fi/horror fans who don’t mind a little bit of wonky CGI and 90s excess alongside their alien thrills.
5. Extraterrestrial (2014)
The Vicious Brothers made a name for themselves with the success of 2011’s Grave Encounters, but that was far from the Canadian duo’s only collaboration. And while it’s not exactly a fan favorite, I always point out 2014’s Extraterrestrial as one of their most underrated projects simply because I agree with the filmmakers’ opinion that there aren’t enough ‘cool alien abduction movies’ out there.
Admittedly, the majority of the picture functions like a run-of-the-mill creature feature with paper-thin characters and familiar horror tropes, but I’d argue that the cosmically-terrifying final act elevates the experience to new and memorable heights. The movie also boasts great performances by both Michael Ironside and Emily Perkins – a combination that more than makes up for the occasionally janky CGI.
4. Alien Raiders (2008)
Director Ben Rock has gone on record lamenting how his John-Carpenter-inspired creature feature was forcefully renamed from Supermarket to the painfully obvious Alien Raiders (a change which likely resulted in many potential viewers skipping out on the experience), but the new title doesn’t change the fact that this single-location thriller is something of a hidden gem.
Taking place entirely within a supermarket, Alien Raiders tells the story of an ensemble of customers and employees who are taken hostage by a group of armed men looking for something far more dangerous than an easy payout. I won’t get into details in order to avoid spoiling the experience, but I’d highly recommend this criminally underseen flick to fans of John Carpenter and the Resident Evil games.
3. Phoenix Forgotten (2017)
You’d think that a Ridley-Scott-produced retelling of one of the most infamous real-life UFO sightings of all time would have a bigger following, but I rarely see Justin Barber’s Found Footage period piece brought up during discussions about extraterrestrial-focused horror movies.
This is a huge shame, as Phoenix Forgotten is just as spooky as it is convincing, with this well-researched dive into the Phoenix Lights incident benefiting from surprisingly believable special effects as well as an appropriately horrific finale.
2. Communion (1989)
I wouldn’t blame you for disregarding Whitley Strieber’s controversial book about his alleged close encounter as sensationalist slop, but I’d argue that Phillipe Mora’s 1989 adaptation of these events is much better than the source material. After all, the movie works as a standalone piece of speculative fiction while also benefiting from an incredible performance by the one and only Christopher Walken!
Mora’s take on Communion may not be particularly scary, but the film is still an unforgettable character study regardless of whether or not the abduction really happened. Not only that, but the flick also paved the way for plenty of future sci-fi stories where the extraterrestrial invaders aren’t as evil as they initially appear.
1. Altered (2006)
Originally envisioned as a Sam Raimi-style horror-comedy titled Probed, Eduardo Sánchez (of The Blair Witch Project fame) eventually realized that it would be much more interesting to turn the film into a serious exploration of the emotional aftermath of a traumatic abduction incident.
That’s how we got Altered, a clever inversion of the standard abduction narrative that follows a group of troubled friends as they capture and experiment on an alien in order to enact revenge for their own abduction years prior.
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