The Look: 70s grunge and grime

Rob Zombie proves your DI doesn't have to be pretty. Blown up from 16
to 35mm in the digital domain at FotoKem, these pictures are so
evocative of low-budget 1970s filmmaking, it's spooky. Going digital
gives Zombie the chance to prove his cred as a film buff with easy
access to the kind of visual effects – including split-screen sequences
and fancy wipes – that used to require some quality time with an
optical printer. Any longtime bandleader has to be a little bit of a
control freak, and it's clear that Zombie was able to get exactly the
look he wanted from footage shot by veteran docu DP Phil Parmet. And,
unlike the exploitation flicks of decades ago, the sadistic
Devil's
Rejects" is playing in snappy new
auditoriums with stadium seating, where audiences can fully appreciate
the visual style. And that's one way the business of B-movies has
changed: In the 1970s, Zombie's audience would have been catc hing this
film in cheap grindhouses or at the drive-in, and it would hardly have
mattered one way or another whether the prints matched the movie he
made in his head.