However,Rob ZombiesFireflyTrilogy might have one of the smoothest genre shifts in recent memory.
This is only further accentuated in the opening credits.
By the 2000s, credits at the beginning of movies were brief, if not entirely absent.
Image via Lions Gate Films
ButThe Devil’s Rejectsused these credits to its advantage.
Rob Zombie was making a horror version of a late 60s/early 70sNew Hollywood crime moviein the mid-2000s.
Zombie’s directorial debut released over two decades ago.
The murderous, backwoods Firefly family take to the road to escape the vengeful Sheriff Wydell, who is not afraid of being as ruthless as his target.
The film may not make them redeemable characters.
This film turns up the Manson family influences to the highest degree.
Otis even quotes one of the Tate-Labianca killers, Tex Watson.
The murderous, backwoods Firefly family take to the road to escape the vengeful Sheriff Wydell, who is not afraid of being as ruthless as his target.
This real-life parallel is another shift towards a complicated film.
As much as the film revels in mindless mayhem, there is still an incisive criticism at its core.
Sheriff Wydel isn’t going after the Firefly family because they are evil.
For him,it is all about revengefor them killing his brother.
Somehow, it came from a series that startedwithRainn WilsonfromThe Officegetting kidnapped by sideshow freaks.
One film later, viewers are rooting for the freaks.
The Devil’s Rejectsis available to stream on Tubi in the U.S.
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