Rob Zombie’s Firefly family is coming back in 3 From Hell, but who are they? Zombie made his directorial debut back in 2003 with House of 1000 Corpses, an exploitation horror film that introduced a family of serial killers known as the “Firefly family”, who were also the protagonists of the sequel, The Devil’s Rejects.
More than a decade after the events in The Devil’s Rejects, the surviving members of the Firefly clan are coming back to continue their reign of horror in newer and bloodier ways in 3 From Hell. And who exactly are the members of this group of killers? Are they related by blood or just by their love for torture and murder? Turns out that the Firefly family has a dark backstory, as you would imagine.
The Firefly family is led by Johnny Lee Johns, aka Captain Spaulding (played by Sig Haig), a vulgar clown who owns a gas station that doubles as Captain Spaulding’s Museum of Monsters and Madmen, which serves as a trap for curious tourists who are later tortured by the clan. Spaulding has an extensive criminal record, even earning the nickname “Cutter” after stabbing a man to death. Spaulding met Eve Wilson, aka Mother Firefly, in 1947 and they had a daughter, Vera-Ellen (Baby Firefly). Years later he met Otis B. Driftwood and invited him to be part of the family.
Mother Firefly was also the mother of Rufus (Robert Allen Mukes and Tyler Mane) and Tiny (Matthew McGrory). Like Spaulding, she had a long criminal record, including prostitution and theft. As seen in House of 1000 Corpses, she mostly helped get rid of the bodies, but she defended her family when needed. She was taken into custody in The Devil’s Rejects, after Rufus was shot to death and the rest escaped. She was killed in prison by Sheriff Wydell.
Otis Driftwood is the most savage Firefly family member, with aggressive outbursts and constantly clashing with Spaulding. He was the “artist” behind the “freaks” in Spaulding’s museum, which he made out of the corpses of their victims. Baby Firefly (Sheri Moon Zombie) has a sadistic nature, having stabbed a schoolmate in the eye with a homemade knife when she was seven years old. Otis and Baby went on a murder spree across the country before going back home and continuing at the Firefly Farmhouse and the museum.
Rufus had a minor role in House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil’s Rejects, but he was the one in charge of hiding their victims’ vehicles as he owned and operated a tow truck. He died at the beginning of The Devil’s Rejects when defending the house from the police, allowing the rest to escape. Tiny suffered from gigantism and was disfigured due to an incident where his father tried to burn him alive. He saved Baby from being killed by Wydell and Spaulding and Otis from being burned alive in a house, and is presumed to have died there.
By the end of The Devil’s Rejects, the surviving members of the Firefly family were Otis, Baby, and Spaulding, who were shot multiple times by the police – but evil never dies, and they somehow survived, being referred to in the trailer for 3 From Hell as a “satanic recovery”. It will take a lot to get rid of them, as they can’t clearly be contained in a prison cell either.
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