The Devil's Rejects 2005

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: It is possible to be repulsed by The Devil's Rejects while acknowledging it as an effective, high-quality piece of work. Read more

Peter Debruge, Miami Herald: Beyond the sheer creativity of Zombie's sick imagination, there's little pleasure to be found in a movie of this nature. Read more

Jeff Shannon, Seattle Times: Despite some giddy humor and a soundtrack of '70s Top-40 hits, this is 'entertainment' for sociopaths, occasionally effective but impossible to recommend with a clear conscience. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: This is a perfect B-movie, full of wicked dread. Read more

Robert K. Elder, Chicago Tribune: Offensively inhuman, uninspired and cruelly unoriginal. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: It has to be the sickest, the most twisted, the most deranged movie so far this year. And I'm giving it thumbs up because it's very good at what it wants to be. Read more

Keith Phipps, AV Club: It's an audacious piece of filmmaking, but after a while it grows exhausting to watch, particularly when it becomes clear that violence is going to lead to more violence without much story or conscience surfacing. Read more

Bill Muller, Arizona Republic: Irredeemable trash, plain and simple, gratuitously violent and sadistic and aimed at people who derive entertainment from watching other human beings suffer. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Rob Zombie proves he's a filmmaker to be taken seriously -- or at least not to be considered a total joke -- but he still hasn't figured out how to fashion something more than the sum of his enthusiasms. Read more

Kevin Crust, Los Angeles Times: Crass, vacuous exercise in grind-house stylistics. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: Zombie's characters are, to put it mildly, undeveloped. Read more

Chuck Wilson, L.A. Weekly: While, to be fair, there's no sense that Zombie finds creating carnage to be zippy fun, it's also true that he's made his victims more vapid than their antihero executioners. Read more

Gene Seymour, Newsday: The salt-baked, smoke-cured dialogue makes up for a lot, especially as it's delivered by such canny veterans as Lewis, Haig and Forsythe, who's savoring his meaty caricature of a bent lawman. Read more

Lisa Rose, Newark Star-Ledger: Zombie looks beyond the horror genre for influence and creates a film that doesn't exactly shatter expectations but at least sidesteps them with some degree of verve. Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: The movie features some of the ugliest people and most disgusting behavior this side of I Spit on Your Grave. Read more

Dana Stevens, New York Times: Despite its nearly nonstop torrent of gore, The Devil's Rejects is not really a horror film. It's a compendium of tributes and references to horror films of the past. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: Hear this futile plea: Look in the mirror, Zombie. Show some class. Making people sick is no way to make a name for yourself. Even a fake name. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: The Devil's Rejects doesn't just deserve to be rejected, but to be buried in a hole so dank that no one will discover it. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: A kind of heedless zeal transforms its horrors. The movie is not merely disgusting, but has an attitude and a subversive sense of humor. Read more

Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle: The first 15 minutes and last half hour are terrific, and the stunningly violent middle part is only a partial waste. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: It is grim, unrelenting and savage, and it is destined to become a genre classic. After seeing this one, you won't just lock your doors, you'll nail planks over your windows. Read more

Jennie Punter, Globe and Mail: If we're supposed to hang out with these creeps in order, eventually, to like them, well, we don't. Read more

Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star: If one is hip to the references (and, proudly or not, I am), it's amazing to see how precisely the metal-punk- turned-moviemaker Zombie channels the gleefully nihilistic tone and even the low-budget bleached-out quality of his disreputable inspirations. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: The look and feel of this film is a total nightmare, and some of the most effective American mood-making in years. Read more

Mike Clark, USA Today: A little of this will go a long way, and besides, who wants to see someone torturing Three's Company's Priscilla Barnes in a roach motel? Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: Pic is a brutal, punishing yet mordantly amusing work that far outpaces its predecessor in its grisly single-mindedness of vision. Read more

Benjamin Strong, Village Voice: By rubbing your nose in this hillbilly mayhem, Zombie all but dares you to acknowledge your liberal elitism. Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: For the right audience, this movie is the butt-kicking, dirt-talking, blood-spurting equivalent of beautiful music. Read more

Stephen Hunter, Washington Post: The movie turns quickly into a somewhat clumsily handled chase structure, with no clear point or end. Read more