Rob Zombie Might Make A Third Film About The Firefly Clan
It's getting tougher and tougher to defend Rob Zombie as a filmmaker. While the shock rocker initially gave us the beautiful glorified director's reel that is House of 1000 Corpses, and then followed it with arguably his best film in The Devil's Rejects (a movie that perfectly emulates the nasty vibe of 42nd Street style exploitation), there've been some major swings in quality ever since.
Halloween is a travesty; a movie that starts off doing its own thing, but then remembers it's a remake about halfway through and subsequently speed reads through John Carpenter's classic original. However, Halloween II is a wacko masterwork, totally operating in its own artistic psychosphere, whether you like it or not (this writer loves it).
The Lords of Salem is an admirable attempt to stretch his "hillbilly from hell" aesthetic addiction into a Roman Polanski/Ken Russell arena of psychedelia, but doesn't quite become a bona fide acid head freak out. The less said about 31, the better. That movie is the very definition of "creative backslide" - an ugly mash-up of The Running Man and Zombie's grease paint fetishism (call it House of 2000 Murder Clowns for short), it'd be unwatchable if it weren't for Richard Brake's demented performance as a committed sleazeball brutality addict.
After 31 barely made it to the big screen (via a "one night event" at your local Regal), most caught it on one of their multiple streaming platforms (heads up: if you absolutely must see it for completionist purposes, the film's currently on Shudder). Now, Zombie sounds like he's going to continue to return to creative wells he's already tapped, as Bloody Disgusting has confirmed that he's helming a sequel to The Devil's Rejects, which would make it the third film to follow the infamous Firefly clan (as Devil's was, of course, a continuation of Corpses).
There aren't any details beyond that, but the simple notion of The Devil's Rejects II (or whatever unused song title Zombie decides to go with as its name) makes no sense. SPOILERS: At the end of the last film, Captain Spaulding (Sid Haig), Otis (Bill Moseley), and Baby (Sheri Moon Zombie) are cut down in a hail of slow motion gunfire, all while Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Freebird" blares over the soundtrack. It's a great end to the only filmic icons Zombie's minted thus far. Why the weirdo auteur would ever want to undo that tragic climax is somewhat baffling.
Granted, fucking with continuity would be completely in line with Zombie's admiration for the Texas Chain Saw series, which has had its own issues trying to keep multiple rebooted timelines straight (for a hilariously in-depth look, just take a gander at this week's Collins Crypt). Would it be cool to see Haig, Moseley and Zombie bring these characters back? Sure. But it still feels like the grimy horror director tucking his tail between his legs and writing what's easy instead of taking a risk for his next project.
There's this great story this writer's been told about Zombie's earliest days as a filmmaker, pitching a take on The Blob that would've been a direct sequel to Chuck Russell's '88 remake (where an entire religion has been built around the hungry pink mass). The studio sessions involved Zombie constructing dioramas and having a fully fleshed world in mind to bring a new iteration of an old monster to audiences. That's where this writer's disappointment over a third Firefly film mainly stems from. Zombie's a passionate dude, who obviously has a reservoir of neat ideas stashed away. It's a bummer to watch him play it safe, even if I love the characters he wants to resurrect.
