“The Devil's Rejects”, written and directed by Rob Zombie. I recently watched this movie along with “30 Days in Hell: The Making of The Devil's Rejects”, which is a 2 hour and 20 minute behind the scenes documentary of the feature. The documentary included everything from pre-production until the last day of shooting; it goes through each day of production which spanned over the course of 30 days, hence the title. “The Devil's Rejects” is a sequel to “House of 1,000 Corpses”, Rob Zombie's first film. “The Devil's Rejects” is a perfect example of a film in which each department comes together successfully because of its' elaborate sets, cutting-edge costume design, realistic makeup application, and innovative cinematography.
The set design on “The Devil's Rejects” accurately depicts a gritty, 1970s Southern “white-trash” ambience conducive to Rob Zombie's vision. “The Devil's Rejects” is an homage to films from that time period such as “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and “The Last House on the Left” in the way it was stylized. For example, in one of the early establishing shots the camera cranes up, revealing the Firefly house and the surrounding farm. The entire property is littered with garbage, including broken-down cars, barrels, and battered furniture among other things, and there are various trinkets hanging from the main gate consisting of glass bottles, hubcaps, and even dead animals. The house itself is very ominous; it is completely dilapidated and appears unfit to be lived in by any human being. Attention is paid to every minute detail on each set in order to achieve a realistic feel of the era.
The gritty Southern atmosphere of “The Devil's Rejects” is reinforced by the aesthetic of the costume design. Costume designer Yasmine Abraham dressed the cast in a wide variety of clothing which fit their characters to a T. Sherriff Wydel, played by William Forsythe, was outfitted in a cliché beige police uniform topped off with aviator sunglasses and a cowboy hat. One of the main villains Otis B. Driftwood was clad in a white cutoff t-shirt completely covered in stains, along with tattered and sullied canvas pants. Even the pimp Charlie Altamont, who is played by Ken Foree, was given a subtle Western flair with earth-toned clothing. These costume design of these characters, along with the rest of the cast, was fitting to the stereotypical Southern fashion of the 1970s.
The makeup department on “The Devil's Rejects” is essential to this film in that it provided the actual dirt and grime that makes the characters appear completely unkempt. The realism of the makeup was also important. For instance, in order to make his character's hair look convincing, actor Bill Moseley had to shave his head and have the greasy blonde wig applied directly to his scalp using spirit gum by instruction of Rob Zombie himself. Otis's hair was extremely long but noticeably balding; details such as this show the commitment to the visual cohesiveness of the film
The cinematography of “The Devil's Rejects” is original to the horror genre in that it is shot in a very intrusive manner; the idea is to make the viewers feel as though they are watching live action footage. It's almost as though you are watching an episode of "Cops". There is a whole lot of ENG going on here. And if you pay close attention to the action sequences you'll notice that you never see the same shot twice between cuts. This gives the impression that what we're seeing is live. To get the right look out of his crew Rob Zombie did a few things. He hired Phil Parmet who's a longtime documentary cinematography and had him shoot the entire movie handheld on Super 16 cameras, which was followed by a digital blow-up to 35mm. This decision really emphasizes the other departments take on Zombie's vision. It reinforces the disheveled unkempt look of the picture.
All of this tied in with the script makes for a great film. The dialogue is a kind of black comedy which has become synonymous with the post-'Scream' American horror film. Overall it was a great film.
