"I'm gonna have to be taking your car today. See I have some top secret clown business that supersedes any plans that you might have for this here vehicle."
~Captain J.T. Spaulding

John and I are going to watch The Devil's Rejects again tonight, which got me thinking about the film and everything that I so love about it.

Sheri Moon Zombie's acting dramatically improved between House Of 1000 Corpses and the sequel. So dramatically, in fact, that Baby almost comes across as a different character. She's still a complete and utter lunatic (as in, demented raving freak), but Sheri Zombie's performance is less over the top this time and far more natural. Liked her muchly. Sid Haig and Bill Mosely can absolutely do no wrong in my humble opinion. Spaulding and Otis are utter psychopaths. Otis reminds me of Robert Mitchum's character in Night Of the Hunter and I think there's even a bit of Hannibal Lecter in him; in between the times of frantic bloodletting he has periods of intense calculation. The audience can see something brewing under the surface and it's most likely going to be nasty. Spaulding is just as brutal and extremely intelligent, with an almost juvenile undercurrent that manifests itself in frequent moments of hilarity. What most people need pages of snappy dialog to accomplish, Sid Haig can do with a smile and a head tilt. It's truly a joy to watch these three diverse individuals interact on screen. It's bizarre and thoroughly disturbing and it it works beautifully.

I truly love Rob Zombie's directing. His vision is every bit as hardcore as one would expect, and then some. He creates some unique camera angles as well, and his use of sepia-toned sequences between action sequences in the first film were just beautiful and gave the film an organic, classic horror feel. His love of the genre genuinely shows in his work, as does his love of classic horror, elements of which can be detected underneath the voracious gore. That's another thing I love about his films; I never go away dissatisfied with the bloodletting. I love a good gory splatter film, and while Rob Zombie's creations are more than mere splatter, he doesn't hold back on the blood and entrails. While all of these terrifying images are being projected and the buckets of blood tossed about, there's an intense dark humor in the mix and we genuinely grow to care what Happens to Baby, Otis and Spaulding, which creates a dark sense of irony in the viewer. These are probably some of the most vicious, disgusting characters ever filmed, devoid of empathy or warmth, and yet when the cops are closing in I found that I wanted them to get away. That in itself is unsettling.

Michael Berryman (Yay!!) has a small part in 'Rejects', and as always is great fun to watch. Why has this man not had more starring roles (like in 'The Hills Have Eyes', and I'm still disappointed that he wasn't offered a role in the sequel)? He has serious talent and his acting is so natural. To cop an overused phrase, he's so real. I don't get that. He's brilliant.

P.S. - The music is amazing too.

Looking pretty forward to hanging out with John later. Just gotta get the babies to sleep first. Don't wanna warp their fragile little minds.

Dammit, I've been interrupted so many times I have no idea if this entry is even going to make sense. Ah well...