House of 1000 Corpses (2003)

Director Rob Zombie's debut film was the first in a so-called "Firefly Trilogy," including the sequel The Devil's Rejects (2005) and 3 From Hell (2019). Its themes were similar to previous cult horror films of the 70s including The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) and The Hills Have Eyes (1977). The garish and campy film's tagline boasted: "THE MOST SHOCKING TALE OF CARNAGE EVER SEEN."

The low-budget ($7 million), hard-core exploitational film was often accused of being a derivative rip-off of the 1974 classic 'chain-saw massacre' film, in its tale of backwoods brutality, gore, vulgarities and violence. The Firefly family tortured and mutilated a group of teenagers who were traveling across the country and had fatefully stopped at an unusual and offbeat roadside venue. [Trivia note: The character names of Captain Spaulding, Otis Driftwood, and Rufus Firefly were derived from Groucho Marx's character names.]

Originally before its theatrical release, Zombie's film was threatened with an NC-17 rating for its grisly violence and brutality, including controversial scenes of masturbation and necrophilia - with a skeleton - (toned down for release).

Controversial Images - Necrophilia with Decayed Skeleton

After being rejected by two major studios, Universal and MGM, the film was finally released and distributed by Lions Gate Entertainment (already a notorious studio for releasing Lolita (1997), Dogma (1999), American Psycho (2000), Bully (2001) and Irreversible (2002)).

Before the title credits, the colorful film opened with excerpts from a B/W horror TV show - a Halloween movie-marathon hosted by Dr. Wolfenstein. One of its advertisements was for a carnival freak-show or fun-house museum (of Monsters and Madmen) in a remote area of Texas, run by Captain Spaulding (Sid Haig), a crazed-looking clown. It was October 30, 1977, Halloween-time.

The hybrid road-side attraction consisted of a gas station, a museum of curiosities, collectibles, strange memorabilia and other oddities, a haunted house ride-attraction, and a restaurant with fried chicken wings, as memorably described by Spaulding:

Howdy Folks! You like blood? Violence? Freaks of nature? Well then, come on down to Captain Spaulding's Museum of Monsters and Mad-Men. See the Alligator Boy. Ride my famous Murder Ride. Most of all, don't forget to take home some of my tasty fried chicken! Ha ha! It just tastes so damn good! .

Dr. Wolfenstein	Captain Spaulding	Spaulding's Museum

Two mask-wearing criminals, Killer Karl and Richard Wick (Chad Bannon and David Reynolds), suddenly robbed the store at gunpoint, with Killer Karl exclaiming: "I don't like chicken and I hate clowns." A local customer in the store named Stucky (Michael J. Pollard) recognized the second thief as local hardware store worker Richard Wick, a simpleton. Suddenly, a third man, Spaulding's overalls-wearing, deformed assistant Ravelli (Irwin Keyes) with a large clown helmet on his head, burst through the front door with a mallet - used to injure and incapacitate Killer Karl. Wick wildly fired his gun and hit a local customer named Stucky (Michael J. Pollard). Spaulding retaliated by shooting Wick in the head. He then approached the wounded Killer Karl on the floor and executed him (firing into the camera) - with an obscenity: "But MOST of all... F--k YOU!" Then, he complained: "Goddamn, motherf--ker got blood all over my best clown suit."

The title credits then began to play over a montage of mostly strange and old video footage of surgical operations and Halloween-related images.

Four teens were on a cross-country road trip enroute to Denise's home in Ruggsville, Texas. Almost out of gas, they stopped at Spaulding's Museum and gas pump. It was perfect for them, due to the group's interest in writing a guidebook about strange tourist attractions:

• Jerry Goldsmith (Chris Hardwick), wisecracking
• Denise Willis (Erin Daniels), Jerry's girlfriend
• Bill Hudley (Rainn Wilson), nerdy and geeky
• Mary Knowles (Jennifer Jostyn), Bill's girlfriend, snobby

Just after mopping up bloodstains on the floor, Spaulding convinced the arriving group to take the famous "Murder Ride" (featuring monster props and serial killers, such as Albert Fish, Lizzie Borden, and Ed Gein), introduced as a "world of darkness, a world where life and death are meaningless and pain is God." They also listened to Spaulding's spiel about local legendary figure (and serial killer) S. Quentin Quale, also known as Doctor Satan (Walter Phelan) - a notoriously-deranged master surgeon at the nearby Willows County Mental Hospital ("Weeping Willows") who abused his patients with primitive brain surgeries.

In the midst of an oncoming storm, the group decided to visit the tree where the man was hanged by a murderous, vigilante lynch mob. Spaulding described how "no trace of Dr. Satan has ever been discovered." While Denise called her father about their trip's progress, a 7 o'clock TV report in his home announced recent disappearances of five local cheerleaders: "Investigators still have no leads to the strange disappearance of the five cheerleaders from Ruggsville High School...last seen four days ago leaving a football game."

On the way to the hanging tree in Deadwood, the group picked up a pretty, free-spirited, friendly but eccentric hitchhiker named Baby (Sheri Moon Zombie), aka Vera-Ellen Firefly. [Note: In a later film, she was identified as Captain Spaulding's daughter.]

There was an unexplained intercut sequence of a crazed, long stringy -haired man - Otis Driftwood (Bill Moseley), Baby's adopted brother, preaching to a group of gagged and bound teen girls - presumably the missing cheerleaders in a TV (and additional radio) report:

"How could I, being born of such, uh, conventional stock, arrive a leader of the rebellion? An escapist from a conformist world, destined to find happiness only in that which cannot be explained. I brought you here for a reason. But unfortunately, you and your sentimental minds are doing me no good. My brain is frozen, locked. I have to break free from this culture of mechanical reproductions and the thick incrustations dying on the surface."

Otis Driftwood's Crazed Rant Toward Kidnapped Cheerleaders

After a mysterious blown tire (from a shotgun blast - from Rufus!) and assistance from Baby's half-brother Rufus (who also drove a tow truck), the group ended up at the Firefly family's deserted farmhouse, decorated at the front door with mangled, decapitated and armless baby dolls, and scarecrows in the front yard. Baby's murderous and sadistic clan family consisted of:

• Gloria "Mama" or Mother Firefly (Karen Black), an ugly old blonde hag with horrible teeth, dressed in a gaudy feathery pink outfit, and very protective of her family
• Rufus "RJ" Firefly Jr. (Robert Allen Mukes), Baby's older half-brother, the eldest Firefly son, a brutish hulk wearing bearskin
• Tiny Firefly (Matthew McGrory), Baby's seven foot-tall and deaf-mute giant half-brother, who wore a mask to cover his deformed, burned face
• Grampa Hugo Firefly (Dennis Fimple), a crude, surly, foul-mouthed, dirty-old-man, presumably "Mama's" father

The family forced the uneasy and bewildered group to share a meal with some of the family members and then to wear Halloween masks.

Halloween Dinner with the Fireflys
(l to r): Jerry and Denise	(l to r): Mary and Bill	Foursome

Mama Firefly told a gruesome tale about her mentally-psychotic, ex-husband Earl who had tried to immolate Tiny and burn down the Firefly home: ("One day he just up and went devil on us all...He tried to burn down the house. He said it was possessed by the spirits. And Tiny was sleepin' in the basement where the fire started. But I don't think Earl ever meant to harm us. Tiny was badly burnt, his ears were destroyed and most of his skin....My baby boy gets shy around new people, but he'll warm up to you, especially the girls. He's a real lady-killer").

After the meal, the demented family put on a burlesque-vaudeville styled stage show for the guests ("It's SHOWTIME!") - viewed often in split-screen - the highlight was Baby's song "I Wanna Be Loved By You." Baby's attempt to sexually flirt with Mary's boyfriend Bill by sitting on his lap during her performance caused Mary to lose her temper and confront her ("...get the f--k off him, you stupid f--king whore!"). Baby counter-attacked her with a pocket-knife and threatened: "I'll f--kin' cut your tits off and shove them down your throat."

Fortunately, Rufus announced that their car was repaired and the foursome was asked to leave. As they made their getaway, two figures disguised as scarecrows (Otis and Tiny) attacked them in the driveway at the closed gate. In the backseat, Denise and Mary helplessly watched their boyfriends being violently beaten. Although they locked themselves in their car, Tiny smashed through the side car window, and Otis broke through the front windshield. The two dragged the women inside - all four were taken hostage.

The next day, the four teens were brutally abused (one was murdered):

• Bill - he was tortured (by both Baby and Otis) and then killed by Otis; his body was mutilated (for art's sake) via bisection; Otis sewed his upper corpse into a fish's body and tail, labeled the monstrous exhibit "Fishboy" (for a future museum display?), and showed it off to a horrified Mary
• Mary - she was bound to a chair in Otis' room with a dunce cap on her head; she was forced to see the results of Otis' handiwork on Bill, before Otis also abused her; later, she was tied to the ceiling and surrounded by dead and mangled cheerleaders
• Denise - in the basement, she was dressed up as a Halloween-costumed doll, tied to a bed, and abused by Tiny; at one point, he tried to serve her "Agatha Crispies" breakfast cereal; when she attempted to leave, Otis threw her into a caged area in the basement with other captives
• Jerry - he was tied up and partially scalped with scissors for failing to win Baby's guessing game ("Who's my favorite movie star?") - when he answered wrongly (Marilyn Monroe), she replied Bette Davis, and began cutting away

Meanwhile, the case of the four missing teens had been reported by Denise's worried ex-cop father Don Willis (Harrison Young) in Ruggsville, to two officers, Lt. George Wydell (Tom Towles) and Deputy Steve Naish (Walton Goggins). During their investigation, they soon found the abandoned, destroyed car with naked and dead cheerleader Karen Murphy in the trunk. Lt. Wydell interrogated Mama Firefly in the house to distract her, while Willis and Naish investigated outside (and discovered more corpses of dead cheerleaders in the Firefly barn).

More murders would then occur:

• Wydell was shot in the neck by Mama in the house
• Willis was also shot twice in the back by Otis, and fell face first into a mud puddle
• Deputy Naish was shot in the forehead, point-blank and execution-style by Otis (during a lengthy long-held shot viewed from above)
• Willis' body was later skinned during a Firefly Halloween-night ritual and worn as a facial and torso costume by Otis; he taunted Denise as the other family members hideously chanted: "Who's Your Daddy?"

The three surviving teens, Jerry, Mary and Denise, were dressed in bunny rabbit outfits, and were about to be placed in a coffin and lowered into an abandoned well. Seeing an opportunity to escape, Mary took flight as Otis commanded her to "RUN, RABBIT, RUN!" She fled into a graveyard-cemetery where hundreds of Firefly victims (marked by crosses) had been buried over the years. She was chased by Baby and repeatedly and bloodily stabbed in the chest. Baby laughed hysterically and then licked the blood off her knife. The Firefly family conducted a ritualistic burning of all the new corpses at the gravesite.

After descending into an underground series of caverns and catacombs (of rotting bodies), Jerry and Denise's coffin was ripped open by crazed and insane-looking, freakish mental patients. Jerry was dragged off to an operating room, where Denise witnessed Doctor Satan (a demonic cyborg) performing a vivisection open-brain operation on him - he died on the operating table. Doctor Satan's mutated, masked assistant entered - the monstrous figure was revealed to be Mother Firefly's ex-husband Earl (The Professor).

Doctor Satan and His Operating Room - Witnessed by Denise Who Was Assaulted by Earl With an Axe

Denise escaped from pursuit by Earl (with a large axe) to the surface (while Earl was crushed by a falling support beam and rock in the tunnel), where she was offered a ride by Captain Spaulding, who happened to be driving by in a pink Cadillac convertible. She sat back and fell asleep in the passenger seat and wasn't aware that Otis was in the back-seat. He raised his knife to stab her.

Dream Ending or Not - Had She Escaped ?
Denise Rescued by Captain Spaulding?	Otis in Backseat	Screaming on Doctor Satan's Operating Table

The film abruptly cut to Denise who had been returned to the underground lab and strapped onto Doctor Satan's operating table for further torture. She awakened with Dr. Satan above her, and The Professor in the room - she screamed! Had the Professor survived, and/or was Denise hallucinating?

[Note: At the beginning of the sequel, The Devil's Rejects, it was reported that more than 75 murders had occurred before, during and after this film.]