The director talks about making Devil's Rejects, preparing the DVD and The Haunted World of El Superbeasto!

Rob Zombie may be many things but typical certainly isn’t one of them. Creating a stir with 2003’s House of 1000 Corpses, Zombie served notice to everyone in Hollywood that a distinctively new voice had arrived on the horror movie scene. Universal Pictures, who originally made the film and was supposed to distribute it, created a media frenzy when they jettisoned the movie and it was subsequently picked up by Lions Gate. Chillingly recalling such revolutionary tales as 1974’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, as well as a host of other early horror films, Zombie turned things up with his sequel, The Devil's Rejects.

The film picks up shortly after the first with Captain Spaulding(Sid Haig), Otis (Bill Moseley) and Baby (Sheri Moon) going on the road after their house is burned to the ground, and a few family members have been gunned down during a police raid led by the vengeful Sheriff Wydell (William Forsythe). Taking us into the darkest parts of the American underbelly, Zombie continues to show the same fearlessness with The Devil's Rejects that he displayed with his first directorial effort.

Was the whole process of making and releasing The Devil's Rejects much easier than House of 1000 Corpses?

Rob Zombie: Yes, it was exactly the opposite experience. 100%. There were several things. The main being, at the end of the day with House of 1000 Corpses it was released through Lions Gate. It was released through Lions Gate, it was successful for Lions Gate and by the time it came time to do Rejects, I had a good relationship with them. They knew me, they knew what to expect and when I start working with people it’s always good, we always find a good level to work on and that was what happened. We went off to make the movie, they were very supportive, they never got in the way which makes my life so much easier. It makes it much more possible to make a good movie when people aren’t in the way all the time. And, it just continues on that way.

What is it that attracts you to these kinds of movies? With characters like Baby, Otis and Captain Spaulding?

Rob Zombie: I’ve always been a fan of just extreme things. Whether it be in movies, books, TV or real life. I don’t know why? I don’t know why things like that..., even as a little kid, I remember when the book Helter Skelter came out. I was probably about 5 and I remember, not from reading the book, but looking at the pictures I found it just totally fascinating. I don’t know, I’ve just been fascinated by things like that. I guess I get enough real life, in real life, so that’s why I like things that are more extreme.

What’s your favorite part about this DVD release? Can you talk about what your part was in the creation of it?

Rob Zombie: The creation of the DVD was pretty different this time. I was completely involved the whole time because what I did, as opposed to last time, where you finish the movie and then years later we had to create a DVD. What I did with this was I knew the DVD was coming, so simultaneously I did an R rated cut and an Unrated cut, which made my life much easier. And I kept my editor, Glen Garland, who edited the movie, on to edit all the DVD features. So we would be doing that. As soon as we finished the movie, we jumped right in to editing the documentary and all the other extra stuff. So, I just kept it as an extension of the regular film rather than as a separate project to be completed later. That made it much easier because movies are weird in the sense that for 2 years my whole life was nothing but The Devil's Rejects, and you really get sucked into the world of it. So it was nice to segue right into the DVD, not have to go away from it and come back and sort of get re-excited. I was still totally excited about it at that point.

What would be a dream project for you to work on?

Rob Zombie: I don’t really have one. It’s funny... what would have been a dream project are sort of things that are in production. On of my favorite books growing up was I Am Legend. And that would be a dream project but that project, I don’t know who’s doing it now, but it’s been bouncing around forever. Something like that.

Is there any chance we’ll ever see any of the characters from House of 1000 Corpses or The Devil's Rejects again? Maybe in a prequel?

Rob Zombie: I mean, never say never because you never know what’s going to happen, but as of right now there’s no plans for it. It’s a tough thing to walk away from but you gotta know when to walk away from things. I really liked the characters and I would love to do more with them, as I am sure the actors would, but at the same time I think they all ended up in a good place in this movie, in the way that they came across. I wouldn’t want to make another movie and then sort of just ruin it.

Do you think you ever won’t work in the horror genre? Are there other kinds of films that maybe you’d like to make?

Rob Zombie: Yeah, there’s all kinds of movies that I’d like to make, I mean I’m sure the next movie that I do will be in that world though. Just because that’s where my head’s at at the moment or maybe it won’t be? It’s hard to say. I get scripts all the time and I’m always writing my own, you never know, something could across my desk where I just feel like, “Oh, I have to do this right now.”

What’s next for you?

Rob Zombie: The next thing for me is The Haunted World of El Superbeasto. Which as an animated movie and that’s been in production for awhile. And we’ll start recording all the voice tracks for that next month and start animating immediately. That’s slated to be finished toward the backend of summer 2006. I don’t know if that’s a schedule we’ll stick to at this point but that’s the next project.

Have you ever worked in animation at all?

Rob Zombie: The only other animation I ever worked on was Beavis and Butt-Head Do America with the one hallucination sequence that I designed.

The Devil's Rejects is currently available in DVD stores everywhere.

Dont't forget to also check out: Devil's Rejects [2 Discs]