ABSTRACT
Post-9/11 Heartland Horror laments on the limits of freedom by articulating how dissent was dealt with in early twenty-first-century United States, what oppositional attitudes looked like and how they were or were not articulated. Zombie's characterisation of lawmaker launching a pre-emptive war on vilified Firefly family, in order to promote his own aggressive form of governance, does instantly echo of Bush's contentious advancing of democracy on foreign soil after 9/11. Granted, the Firefly's deaths could work off the premise that sacrificing their lives is essential for fight to preserve their sacred way of life, thus allegorising the archaic and savage human sacrifices of suicide bombers in post-9/11 era. On the contrary, the text does not so much awe at the bravery of predatory martyrdom as it does exhibit shock at the unrightness of the righteous. In The Devil's Rejects, Zombie locates the empathy for the devil when their compassion for the sheriff's righteous pursuit is blighted by unrighteousness.
