It’s been 16 years since Rob Zombie made his feature directorial debut with the film “House of 1000 Corpses.” While that film might not have been the revolutionary horror film that many expected, borrowing heavily from “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and Zombie’s clear reverence for the genre, ‘Corpses’ did introduce the world to the three characters Captain Spaulding, Otis, and Baby. Now, years later, the three return yet again in the new film “3 From Hell.”
As seen in the new teaser for “3 From Hell,” it’s been quite a while since we’ve seen the three characters made famous from their appearance in ‘Corpses,’ as well as the far superior “The Devil’s Rejects.” Almost 15 years since the latter film, to be exact. Unfortunately, the teaser doesn’t do much to give fans of the characters an update on where we might find Spaulding, Otis, and Baby now, but does let us know that the film is coming sometime this year.
For those that haven’t seen ‘Corpses’ or ‘Rejects,’ the three characters debuted as fairly straightforward inspirations from “Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” with Baby being a hitchhiker that lures some unsuspecting innocent folks to her crazy family’s house in 1977. Once there, with the aid of her adopted brother Otis, the family dispatches of the young folks one by one. The twist at the end reveals that the creepy business owner Captain Spaulding, who met the kids at the beginning of the film, is in fact one of the deranged killers.
“The Devil’s Rejects” ditches the theatrics of ‘Corpses’ and presents a much more gritty, almost Western take on the three main characters, as they’re on the run after the events of the first film. However, they’re just as evil as before and begin to accumulate more kills, as they attempt to evade capture. What’s interesting about this film is how it ends, with the three ‘Rejects’ being portrayed almost as antiheroes, speeding towards a police barricade, guns blazing, in an apparent suicide-by-cop scenario.
Now, it would appear that the three aren’t dead and are very much the same psychopaths that we met over a decade ago. Now, we’ll have to see how Zombie plans on ending his trilogy with “3 From Hell,” which is set to be released later this year.