The highly anticipated (among horror fans, that is) follow up to Rob Zombie’s “House of 1,000 Corpses” is one of the biggest stinkers to be released upon us in a while. The film is one elongated, helluva mess with lots of violence, female nudity and gratuitous dialogue. Now, you gotta understand that “House” isn’t a great movie either, but it had this warped fun-house vibe to it that made the movie pretty enjoyable. “Rejects” just plods along with scenes that last too long, scenes that have no point (let’s buy chickens!) and violence that never creates any tension or thrills. Honestly, who wants to see Priscilla Barnes being torture while in her undies? I sure didn’t. A lot of reviews have been comparing “Rejects” to the likes of horror masterpieces “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and “Last House on the Left.” These are very flawed comparisons. None of the great 70’s films told the story with the killers as the sympathetic main characters. And, that is what Zombie wants. He wants us to feel sorry for the Firefly family. He even goes so far as to put some “warm and fuzzy” home movie footage near the end to try and make us go “awwwww, look they love each other so they don’t deserve to die.” Bah. It’s a bad mess of a movie that can be skipped. Rent “House of 1,000 Corpses” instead.~

“Pic is a brutal, punishing yet mordantly amusing work that far outpaces its predecessor in its grisly single-mindedness of vision.” — Justin Chang, VARIETY

“Captures the visual texture, spontaneity, and mania of 1970s shock cinema classics like Last House on the Left and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.” — Jeremiah Kipp, FLIPSIDE MOVIE EMPORIUM

“A wild, grittily authentic, nihilistic jaw-dropper of a film!” — Staci Layne Wilson, HORROR.COM

“Fans of 70’s exploitation horror get ready to get jazzed – “The Devil’s Rejects” is the real deal – a gritty, nasty, stylish piece of work ” — Laura Clifford, REELING REVIEWS

I am looking so forward to seeing “The Devil’s Rejects” this coming weekend (even if it is being released by those bastards at Lions Gate Films).

After having seen the un-cut version of “High Tension” last night (thanks to a Korean Special Edition dvd) all I can say is … Lions Gates, ya really dropped the ball on the one. I know, I know. Some of you out there are still asking “what’s the big deal over one minute of missing footage.” The big deal is that the movie does loose impact with the trims that were made. The whole point of “High Tension” is to make you squirm, turn your head and close your eyes at various points. Subtlety is not on the menu here.

So, if you don’t mind spoilers (I know that I mind them), here my observations on what was cut.

“High Tension” U.S. Version … What’s Missing (Contains Spoliers): Father’s Death: The overhead shot of him being decapitated has been shortened so there is less blood and such. Also another overhead shot of the body spouting blood has been cut. Mother’s Death: The throat slitting has been trimmed down so there is not quite so much blood gushing. I honestly don’t remember there being a reference to the killer having sawed her hand off. There are a couple of shots where you see the bloody stump come up into the frame. Also, there’s a shot of the severed hand laying next to the portable phone. I am fairly certain these are gone. Gas Station Attendant’s Death: The “axe to the chest” has quite a few more shots making the death scene last a little longer. Killer’s “Death”: Lots of shots are missing here. I really didn’t think Marie was ever gonna stop smacking him with her barbwire wrapped club. In the U.S. version she hits him maybe three times and that’s it. Innocent Bystander’s Death: There is a lot missing from this fun little scene. The U.S. version really just shows the concrete saw going into the front window of the car and the blood splattering on Alex. Un-cut you get some really grusome shots of the saw cutting in the driver’s abdomen and shoulder. Yow!