Blame it on the punctuation.

"House of 1000 Corpses," released in theaters in April 2003, concluded with "The End?" (At least the DVD did, which is how I watched the movie.)

		'The Devil's Rejects' Rating: R for sadistic violence, strong sexual content, language and drug use Starring: Sid Haig, Bill Moseley, Sheri Moon Zombie Director: Rob Zombie

Turns out it wasn't the end and "The Devil's Rejects" is a follow-up -- not a sequel, insists writer-director Rob Zombie -- with even more murderous, set-to-music mayhem than the first.

Back to administer more trippy torture are the so-called Devil's Rejects: long-haired, sadistic Otis (Bill Moseley); his sick sister, Baby (Sheri Moon Zombie), who wears her blond tresses in loose curls and her jeans as low-riding as possible; and a killer clown known as Captain Spaulding (Sid Haig). Mother Firefly, the matriarch played by Karen Black in the first film, has been replaced by Leslie Easterbrook. As the movie opens, the sheriff nabs her.

Announcing it's time "to do what the good Lord calls cleansing of the wicked," Sheriff Wydell (William Forsythe) and other officers raid the Firefly family farm. Diaries and scrapbooks detail more than 75 murders, the culmination of kidnapping, torture, sexual abuse and other atrocities.

While Mother Firefly is locked up, Otis and Baby escape, find new Texans to torment and meet up with Captain Spaulding. The sheriff -- who has a personal connection to one of the many victims -- steps outside the boundaries of the law to exact revenge and seek his own brand of outlaw justice.

Once some innocents are dispensed with, the movie provides no one to root for. Sheri Moon Zombie may consider the characters likable, suggesting in the production notes, "You want to hang out with them. They're the tough kids you wanted to be in high school," but with sadistic violence, a prostitute pit stop and constant stream of f-words. Didn't want to hang out with them then; don't want to spend 101 minutes with them now.

"Devil's Rejects" is a slicker, more sophisticated movie than its predecessor, although Zombie has an annoying habit of freezing the frame and then seemingly moving over to an image on the right of the screen.

However, there is a funny bit about someone who dares to speak ill of Elvis Presley and the untimeliness of his death during the summer of 1977. That character is a movie critic who starts spitting out trivia and minutiae in a most annoying way. But then he exits and we're back to watching someone be turned into human roadkill.

The devil isn't the only one doing the rejecting.