Horror icon Rob Zombie pens and helms The Devil's Rejects, the follow-up to his 2003 directorial debut House of 1,000 Corpses. But don't expect much headway in the gloomy gut-gusher--it's just as dismally hollow.

Story

Last we visited Ruggsville, Texas, some naive teens had fallen prey to the Firefly family's underground living-dead chamber, only to be slaughtered in dreadfully diverse ways while attempting to escape. Now, after finally catching wind of the Firefly's goings-on, authorities, led…

Indefensible on a moral level, Rob Zombie's perversely watchable follow-up to his much-reviled cult hit House of 1000 Corpses is loaded with filmmaking energy. Don't get me wrong. The Academy won't be rushing to reward the heavy-metalist for the scenes of psycho clown Captain Spaulding (Sid Haig) and his satanic, serial-killing family -- son Otis Firefly (Bill Moseley) and daughter Baby (Sheri Moon Zombie, the auteur's wife) -- on their torture/killing spree through the backroads of Alabama. The…