The Devil's Rejects

Bomb Rating: 

Maybe Rob Zombie will get to reflect on his choices in the pits of hell.

Christians everywhere should be outraged at this movie's portrayal of the Jesus-worshipping Sheriff Wydell (William Forsythe). Wydell is after a group of mass murderers. According to the film, these murderers are the worst in the history of the United States, so obviously Wydell has good cause to want them arrested. To make matters worse, Wydell's own brother was killed at the hands of these fiends, so it's not like he's lacking motivation.

Unfortunately, Jesus-hating director Rob Zombie is more interested in celebrating evil than he is in celebrating decency. His film is a mass of disgusting, vile sequences all in reverence to his three anti-heroes: Captain Spaulding (Sid Haig), Otis (Bill Moseley), and Baby (Sheri Moon Zombie).

The film opens with a disgusting mutant pulling a naked dead girl along in the woods by her feet. From there, it heads straight downhill. Otis and Baby brutalize two couples at a hotel. Spaulding shows up and the three of them make their way to Charlie's, where they drink and partake of whores.

Meanwhile, we get to watch Wydell, claiming to be the arm of God, go over the edge into madness. Instead of taking any sort of righteous path, Wydell becomes a killer himself, offing the mother of Baby and Otis in her prison cell, and tracking down the threesome using two killers (Danny Trejo, Diamond Dallas Page). When he finally captures the three, he treats Otis to a partial crucifixion. Obviously, this is Zombie's juvenile criticism of Christianity. When confronted with evil, the Christian turns evil himself. For Zombie, Christianity is actually the worse evil because Wydell is the hunter and the mass murderers are the hunted. The audience is forced to identify with them and not Wydell.

Maybe Rob Zombie will get to reflect on his choices in the pits of hell.

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