In what has to be some of the least surprising news of the year, Rob Zombie’s follow-up to House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil’s Rejects, Three From Hell, has been rated R by the MPAA. Considering that those films featured necrophilia, torture, scalping, people getting their faces cut off and various other instances of extreme and disturbing violence, this was not unexpected. And, according to the ratings board, we can look forward to “strong sadistic violence, language throughout, sexual content, graphic nudity, and drug use.” Honestly, I would expect nothing less from Rob Zombie.
Right now, we don’t know a huge amount about the plot of the movie, save that it’s been confirmed that the returning cast includes Sid Haig as Captain Spaulding, Bill Moseley as Otis B Driftwood and Sheri Moon Zombie as Vera-Ellen “Baby” Firefly. Also, it seems that a large portion of the film was shot in a decommissioned women’s prison, which is very Rob Zombie and might hint at some penitentiary-based shenanigans.
Depending on your opinion of Zombie’s output since The Devil’s Rejects, you may be hoping this will be a return to form. Opinion is still very much split on his reboot of Halloween, but while it’s not a patch on the original (or on last year’s franchise entry), I still enjoy it for what it is. Similarly, his last two projects, 31 and The Lords of Salem have tickled genre fans but failed to do much beyond that.
Critics have never warmed to Zombie’s horror style, so I don’t expect Three From Hell to pick up rave reviews, but I’ll definitely be closely watching for the opinions of various horror connoisseurs to see what they make of it once it drops into theaters later this year.