Movies
[Discussion] How Do You Think Otis, Spaulding and Baby Have Come Back for ‘3 from Hell’?
As it turns out, maybe Hell really doesn’t want them.
This year’s 3 from Hell is set to bring Otis, Captain Spaulding and Baby Firefly back to life, but how the hell is Rob Zombie going to pull that off? Well, today’s teaser trailer gave us no real clues in that department, instead highlighting a random collection of images with no real context. Mind you, it’s only a teaser, but for now all we can really do is continue to speculate.
At the end of The Devil’s Rejects, Otis, Baby and Captain Spaulding were of course gunned down by the police, the murderous trio going out in a blaze of glory while Skynyrd’s “Freebird” played over the visuals. Zombie made sure to show us that each member of the family was indeed shot, and the suggestion was clear: all three were killed in that epic gunfight.
So if the so-called Devil’s Rejects were definitively killed off on screen fourteen years ago, how can they come back for a sequel? The key may lie in that moniker: The Devil’s Rejects.
As implied by the title 3 from Hell, Rob Zombie very easily could bring back Otis, Baby and Spaulding by simply playing on the title for the previous film. The moniker “The Devil’s Rejects” implied that even the Devil himself doesn’t want the Firefly clan, so it’s fair to speculate that Zombie will bring them back to life by simply having the Devil, well, spit them back out. “Hell doesn’t want them… Hell doesn’t need them… Hell doesn’t love them,” sings Zombie in his song The Devil’s Rejects, which really says it all.
If they’re not even accepted in Hell, maybe their wrath can continue on Earth. This would of course require Zombie to go supernatural with his sequel to the grounded-in-reality The Devil’s Rejects, but the supernatural just so happens to be something Zombie is really comfortable playing around with. Sure, he killed off his three most memorable characters back in 2005, but how cool would it be to see them walk straight out of the fiery depths of Hell and continue carrying out their murderous deeds here on Earth?
Remember that promo image (above) of the Firefly trio walking down the road, seemingly *after* the shootout on the road? It was never actually featured in The Devil’s Rejects, and certainly could be looked back on today as an early teaser image for 3 from Hell.
Another potential way to bring the Rejects back to life lies in a deleted scene from The Devil’s Rejects, featuring House of 1000 Corpses character Doctor Satan. In the deleted scene, excised because it was a bit too supernatural to fit in with the tone of the rest of the film, we see that Doctor Satan was brought to a nearby hospital after the shootout at the start of The Devil’s Rejects. There he rips out the throat of a nurse, played by Rosario Dawson, and we’re never shown what happens to Doctor Satan from there.
Perhaps Doctor Satan, known to conduct peculiar medical experiments, is the key to bringing Otis, Baby and Spaulding back to life; according to the character’s Wiki bio, “The original tale of Dr. Satan told that he used patients who were near death in experiments.”
Just imagine 3 from Hell picking up directly after the events of The Devil’s Rejects. Where would the wounded/dying/dead bodies of Otis, Baby and Spaulding be taken to after the shootout on the road? The hospital, perhaps? And who’s lying in wait at the hospital, which Zombie showed us in that aforementioned deleted scene? Yup. The good doctor.
No matter how Zombie has chosen to go about bringing the Rejects back to life, one thing is for certain: he’ll have to re-embrace the less-than-realistic aesthetic of House of 1000 Corpses, presumably going full-on supernatural with a batshit tale of murderous maniacs coming back from the dead. Then again, maybe they just survived the shootout and that’s that…
How do YOU think Zombie will bring the Firefly trio back? Let’s talk below!
Sunrise Films has announced the official North American release of William Bagley‘s horror comedy Hold the Fort, and it’s accompanied by an energetic new trailer.
Hold the Fort debuts on digital platforms on June 23.
In the film, “Lucas and Jenny think their life is finally coming together when the couple become homeowners. Little do they know that their new house comes with a big catch. Lucas and Jenny soon find themselves in a fight for their lives when they become trapped in a battle between their Homeowners Association and an onslaught of monsters from hell. The horror-comedy takes the timely concern of home-ownership and wraps this up in an entertaining action-packed thrill ride.“
Watch the new trailer below, which introduces one wild HOA gathering during an equinox. Things get bloody fast.
Chris Mayers (Adult Swim Yule Log), Haley Leary (“The Walking Dead”), Levi Burdick, and Julian Smith star.
William Bagley writes and directs, in addition to producing with Smith, Matt Dodd, Luke Williams, and Tim Reis (Adult Swim Yule Log).
Ahead of the release, Bagley said, “My goal with this film was to make a hilarious, fast-paced thrill ride while also telling a great story with heart. Hopefully, through all the blood, laughs, fights, and gags, you leave the film feeling inspired to tackle whatever life throws at you.“
Hold the Fort premiered at Fantasia last summer before going on to play FrightFest London, Toronto After Dark, and Beyond Fest.
I wrote in my review, “It’s an infectiously charming assemblage of jokes and monster vignettes bound together by a barebones plot with not much on its mind beyond delivering an entertaining time.”
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