31 Days of Hallowe'en Challenges: Day 17

It's Day 290 of the year and main project, this brings us to Day 17 of the 31 Days of Hallowe'en Challenge, as well as the #31DayHorrorChallenge being hosted by Nightmare On Film Street.

My own 31 Days of Hallowe'en mini theme for today is A Rob Zombie Film. I picked The Devil's Rejects.

We pick up right after the events of the first movie House of 1000 Corpses, with the Firefly family in a shoot out with the police. Mother gets caught while Otis and Baby manage to get away. While on the run, they arrive at a motel and kidnap a group of country singers, before calling Captain Spalding. He arrives later that day to find they have already killed the group. The three then continue on to a rundown western theme park owned by their uncle. The sheriff that is after them learns from Mother Firefly that his own brother was one of their victims. This causes him to go after them all for revenge.

You could see where Rob Zombie was already improving with this only being his second movie. I think one of the reasons I like this film is that it reminds me of something Quentin Tarantino has done, namely From Dusk Till Dawn.

The prompt today for the 31 Day Horror Challenge from Nightmare on Film Street is Killer Kids. I picked Damien Omen 2.

Now 12 years old, Damien is sent to military school along with his adopted cousin. Shortly after arriving, he gets into a fight with one of his schoolmates. One after another, strange deaths seem to be happening around Damien, and as one teacher decides to tell him he needs to pay close attention the certain parts of the bible, Damien begins to piece together his actual heritage.

This movie feels almost like it's got a split personality as it spends way too long following one of the business men who are working for Damien's family, and not enough time on Damien himself. He almost becomes a lost character, even though he's still talked about throughout the film. There are moments in this where it feels rushed as we jump from the one teacher hinting at what he knows Damien could be, to suddenly Damien having full knowledge of his past life. It makes it feel almost as if there are a few scenes missing.

I'm posting everyday this month for the two challenges, so come back tomorrow and see what's on the slab. If you'd like to follow along with my daily Letterboxd lists you can do so here and here.