Interviews
Rob Zombie on Why We Likely Won’t Ever Be Seeing Dr. Satan Again [Interview]
As of this month, Rob Zombie has turned his 2003 horror hit House of 1,000 Corpses into a full-fledged horror trilogy. The story of the homicidally maniacal Firefly Family, first introduced as the purveyor of roadside attractions, mutated into an ultraviolent neo-western with The Devil’s Rejects, and into a prison break thriller with next week’s 3 From Hell.
But although Zombie has continued telling the stories of Baby (Sheri Moon Zombie), Otis (Bill Mosley) and Captain Spaulding (Sid Haig), there’s one major character from House of 1,000 Corpses that the filmmaker has never resurrected: Dr. Satan, the subterranean cyborg mad scientist who appeared at the end of the original movie and *almost* made it into The Devil’s Rejects.
In a recent interview with Bloody-Disgusting, we asked why Dr. Satan still hasn’t resurfaced after two sequels. According to Zombie, the franchise’s shift to realism made the once-important character look “stupid.”
“Yeah, I got rid of him on The Devil’s Rejects. I brought in the character with the idea that I would incorporate him into the [sequel] and try to bring him into the more realistic world that the films had evolved into, but it just looked stupid. So I just abandoned it,” Zombie explained.
“Like, House of 1,000 Corpses was so cartoony and psychedelic and weird you could kind of do anything,” Zombie added, noting the dramatic shift in tone between his first Firefly movie and his second. “But when I shot the scenes for Devil’s Rejects with Dr. Satan, almost instantly I was like, ‘This is stupid. This is not going to work.'”
Which raises the question, of course, of whether Dr. Satan’s appearance in House of 1,000 Corpses was ever real at all. We asked Rob Zombie where he stood on an ending that seemed straightforward, but which now, after a retcon, looks like it may all have been a dream.
“I left it so that it could be whatever,” Zombie said. “Is it real? Is it probably just the girl, that Denise, after a long night of being tortured and watching all of her friends killed, maybe she just went cuckoo and was imagining all these crazy things? You know, I thought for that film it’s best just leave it as however people want to interpret it.”
“But to try to go, ‘Okay, we’re going to go out into the sunlight with Sheriff Wydell and the Rejects on the run, and hey! There’s Dr. Satan in the back of the van!’ You go, ‘Okay that’s just so dumb I can’t even think about it,'” Zombie laughed.
You won’t see Dr. Satan, but you will see the last surviving members of the Firefly Family in Zombie’s 3 From Hell, in theaters next week from September 16-18, via Fathom Events!
As the inaugural season of Apple TV+’s stellar new series “Widow’s Bay” barrels toward its finale in two weeks, the latest episode gives Kate O’Flynn the spotlight as her character revisits her trauma with the Boogeyman.
“Your Baggage“, directed by Andrew DeYoung (Friendship), sees O’Flynn’s scene-stealing Patricia once again renew her fight with the Michael Myers-like stalker that slaughtered her peers during her adolescence. Thrillingly, it makes for one extended chase sequence that sees Patricia trying to warn others, while evading the undead killer.
In short, this episode’s incredible riff on Halloween and the slasher subgenre transformed Patricia into a fierce Final Girl.
“Well, that felt like a bucket list that I didn’t know was on my bucket list until I did it, but when I did it, I just lapped up every minute,” O’Flynn tells Bloody Disgusting of her triumphant turn this episode. “It felt fantastic for her to get that moment where she is becoming a badass. That was amazing.”
The actress turned to a few notable references for her performance. “Horror-wise, I go back to my youth, which was referenced in some of the episodes: Wicker Man, Carrie, and Rosemary’s Baby, that sort of thing is my kind of vibe.”
O’Flynn also notes how the series’ unique tone allows for so much creative freedom to make bold swings. “There’s something very freeing about it. Every moment is up for grabs, so it’s like we don’t have to totally land in one direction or another. It keeps it alive.“
Patricia is the eccentric assistant to Matthew Rhys‘ Mayor Tom Loftis, who’s at the forefront of trying to solve the island’s pesky curse predicament. Rhys felt the same about “Widow’s Bay” and its rare ability to make you laugh and scream in equal measure, stemming from series creator Katie Dippold.
“The mandate was, ‘It’s a real world with real people. You play for real.’ There’s no playing for comedy or horror,” Rhys echoes O’Flynn’s sentiments on how freeing the series’ tone has been.
New episodes will release every Wednesday through June 17 only on Apple TV+.
Kate O’Flynn in “Widow’s Bay,” now streaming on Apple TV.
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