Contents 1 Overview 2 Characters 3 Groups 4 Locations 5 Plot 6 Deaths 7 Alias Tie-in's 8 Trivia

Overview Edit

House of 1000 Corpses begins with the tale of four youths: nerdy Bill Hudley, his hyper and wise-cracking friend, Jerry Goldsmith, Bill's snotty girlfriend, Mary Knowles, and Jerry's level-headed girlfriend, Denise Willis. On the night before Halloween of 1977, the four of them are driving in the middle of nowhere to Denise's house in a town called Ruggsville. Running out of gas, the group stops at Captain Spaulding's Museum of Monsters and Madmen, an unusual establishment that serves as a gas station, museum of oddities, haunted house attraction, and chicken wing fry. Inside, the group (whose male members are enthusiasts of offbeat roadside attractions) meet Captain Spaulding, a foul-mouthed, slobbish, and somewhat psychotic clown. After riding his "famous" murder ride, a cheap dark-ride full of monster props and serial killer exhibits, Jerry becomes infatuated with the local legend of a surgeon known as Doctor Satan for his cruel treatment of mental patients. Obsessed with finding the tree where a mob allegedly lynched the mass murderer, Jerry begs Spaulding for hand-drawn directions and coerces the group to drive out in search of it in an oncoming storm. On the way, the foursome picks up a beautiful, but eccentric hitchhiker who later calls herself Baby. She offers to lend shelter to the four when their tire flattens under mysterious circumstances. Inside the isolated farmhouse, the couples meet Baby's equally eccentric family consisting of Otis Driftwood, a Charles Manson-esque sadist with a God complex, Mother Firefly, a flirtatious old hag who dresses in burlesque outfits, Rufus Jr., a hulking brute in bearskin who has a knack for repairing things, Tiny, a silent and deformed freak with a nonviolent nature, and Grandpa Hugo, a crude and dirty old man of banal aesthetic. While the Firefly family tries to entertain the four bewildered guests, it soon becomes apparent to the youths that the family intends to hold them captive for a series of grisly Halloween rituals. While the Ruggsville police and Denise's father begin a vain search attempt, the couples learn more about the legend of Doctor Satan than they would have ever cared to know.

Characters Edit

• Otis B. Driftwood

• Baby Firefly

• Captain Spaulding (Cutter)

• Tiny

• Rufus T. Firefly

• Adrienne 'Mama' Firefly

• Grandpa Hugo Firefly

• Denise Willis

• Mary Knowles

• Bill Hudley

• Jerry Goldsmith

• Deputy Steve Naish

• Lieutenant George Wydell

• Killer Karl and Richard Wick

• Stucky

• Earl Firefly (The Professor)

• Dr. Satan (S. Quentin Quale)

Groups Edit

• The Firefly Family
• Ruggsville Police Dept.

Locations Edit

• Captain Spaulding's Museum of Monsters and Madmen
• Captain Spaulding's Murder Ride
• Ruggsville
• Firefly Farmhouse
• Dr Satan's Catacombs
• Deadwood
• Willows County Mental Hospital
• Red Hot Pussy Liquors

PlotEdit

Deaths Edit

• Killer Karl and Richard Wick are killed by Spaulding and Ravelli while attempting to steal money from the Museum.
• Bill Hudley is totured by both Otis and Baby and is eventually disected and mutilated. He is then sewn to a fish's body by Otis and dubbed "Fishboy." It is presumed this would be an exhibit in Spaulding's Museum.
• Lieutenant George Wydell is shot by Mama Firefly while asking her questions of the teens whereabouts.
• Deputy Steve Naish is shot in the forehead by Otis in execution style.
• Don Willis, Denise's father, is shot by Otis. His carcass was later skinned and worn as a costume by Otis.
• Mary is stabbed to death in a cemetery when Baby releases her to run.
• Jerry is presumed to be dead from an experiment Dr. Satan conducted on him.
• The Professor may have died when he knocked a support beam down in a tunnel and the ceiling collapsed. It is not known if he died from the incident.
• Denise either died from Otis stabbing her in Spaulding's car when she hitches a ride at the film's end or by the hand's of Dr. Satan. It is for the viewer to conclude.
• More than 75 murders occured before, during and after this film. It is reported at the beginning of The Devil's Rejects.

Alias Tie-in's Edit

Trivia Edit

• The film was originally given an NC-17 rating, and several minutes of footage had to be cut to earn an R-rating. Contrary to popular belief, the running time of the footage that had to be deleted was not 17 minutes.
• The film spent several years shelved, trying to find distribution after Universal balked at the rough cut, which they feared would get an NC-17. It was reportedly completed in 2000, but was not released in cinemas until 2003.
• The film's opening weekend in the United States was $3,460,666
• Total box office revenues are $16,829,545 worldwide ($4,194,583 of that amount foreign box office), and the final production costs totalled $7 million.
• The names of the villains, such as Captain Spaulding, Otis Driftwood, and Rufus Firefly, were taken from the names of Groucho Marx characters. While this was left as a subtle allusion in the first movie, the sequel The Devil's Rejects brought it out into the open, with the names becoming integral to the plot.
• Various portions of the film were lifted from "Faces of Death", the famous pseudo-documentary on death.
• Rob Zombie composed the score himself (together with Scott Humphrey), being his first film music. It is isolated on the DVD as a separate audio track.