Ace Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin turned 33 today, 17th September, as he gets ready to weave his web of spin around the South African batsmen ahead of the home Test series against the Proteas.Little is known about Jason Reitman’s 2020 follow-up to the original Ghostbusters films. It was announced earlier this year with a cryptic teaser that set the internet ablaze with excitement, but since that time, everyone’s been pretty mum on the subject.
There isn’t even confirmation yet on how the story will continue from the first two movies, which were released over 30 years ago. We know the action is moving out of the big city though and will be situated in a small town. And some of the new cast members have been revealed, too, with actors like Paul Rudd and Finn Wolfhard snagging roles.
However, no one’s really spoken about which of the original stars will return. Until now, that is. Comedy icon and franchise co-creator Dan Aykroyd recently sat down with Joe Rogan and confirmed that he’d be reprising the role of Ray Stantz in the threequel, saying:
I’m not in the pictures so much anymore. We’ve got the Ghostbusters movie that we’re working on now and I will have to be performing in that. Ivan Reitman’s son Jason has written a new movie… the third movie. It will be all… most of the original people and then young stars.
The only apparent hold out is Bill Murray, with Aykroyd stating that he’s still “hoping” his old friend will come around and join in the festivities. We can only hope so, too.
It’s been a shame the way Ghostbusters has been viewed these last few years. The 2016 reboot, while not an out and out disaster, was certainly not what Sony and the creative team behind the picture were hoping for. The negative buzz that movie rode, combined with reports of on-set friction between the director and Aykroyd himself, have left something of a sour taste for fans. Fingers crossed then that this new iteration will wash away that misfire and have viewers eager for more spooky shenanigans.
3 From Hell confirms what 31 suggests: Rob Zombie “The Horror Experimentalist” has become Rob Zombie “The Blind Provocateur.” His Firefly threequel is just an excuse to splatter more blood, slaughter more innocents, and neglect plotting in favor of anarchistic gluttony. How, original? False, considering the ways bleakness and damnation have carried many a cinematic societal reflection before.
I get it. The world is full of monsters who can strike at any moment. That’s not an excuse worthy of almost two hours of “gettin’ f*cked up and f*cking shit up” though, steeped in narcissistic hatred rarely given a passing thought. Chaos for the sake of catharsis; evil for evil’s payoff. Too bad you need more than a stoner rambling “the world is just messed up, man” narrative to keep a Manson-adjacent road trip from derailing.
Picking up after The Devil’s Rejects, we visit an incarcerated Baby (Sheri Moon Zombie), Otis (Bill Moseley), and Captain Spaulding (Sid Haig). They’re now infamous media sensations congesting news waves, encouraged by fan-made signs reading “Free The Three.” Onlookers praise their “sticking” it to “the man” but fail to sway parole hearings. That’s where Winslow Foxworth Coltrane (Richard Brake) steps in, as he springs Otis during work duty and joins the Fireflys down another trail to ruin. It’s not like you can stop the devil in his tracks, after all.
Zombie’s going for mad-dog exploitation on a level that’d rattle El Superbeasto here. You could argue 3 From Hell further comments on how you can squash the nastiest cockroaches, but they’ll keep on living. How the world’s vilest underbelly creatures are lying in wait. Me? I’d say Zombie adds zero cultural relevance to a string of music video moments pumped with bullet holes. A movie like Assassination Nation spits venom with just cause and vocal thematics. 3 From Hell is a pornographic celebration of violence that hasn’t evolved past Cro Magnon simplicity in terms of morally abhorrent mutilation.
Victims are ushered into frame and eviscerated without any care for storytelling. Clint Howard, playing children’s clown Mr. Baggy Britches, knocks on the wrong cul-de-sac door for the sole purpose of interrupting Otis’ hogtied hostage dinner. Sean Whalen’s Halloween costumed motel patron is just another notch on Baby’s belt, despite the wild Firefly child being instructed to avoid drawing attention. Bodies pile up as flimsy excuses to keep the new and enraged Firefly gang marching onward. It’s a repetitive cycle of boozing, fornicating, and degradation that treats Zombie’s villains as lighthearted amusement despite atrocities on screen.
This displeasure’s coming from a professed gorehound, too.
I understand. Let the wicked rule every now and then. Embrace the darkness we can’t escape. Zombie has plenty of just cause, but objectifying Mexican “whores” and then massacring them doesn’t count as grindhouse entertainment with such flaccid intent. Characters are *mean* to one another. Criminality, slurs, and hateful inhumanity is the love language of 3 From Hell. Again, something I’m all for when properly enacted by filmmakers who layer retaliations and extreme satire under performative brutality. Zombie raises hillbilly hell and punches “The Man” through his big-government teeth, but nothing else. 31 is still his most out-of-touch release to date, but 3 From Hell ain’t far off.
The thing is, Zombie’s style-over-substance offers rampages that only Dr. Satan or Captain Spaulding can orchestrate. Luchador hitmen in suits corner Baby, Otis and “Foxy” in a quaint over-the-border town plucked from Robert Rodriguez’s Desperado. Nowhere to run or hide, which highlights claustrophobia. Snitches are shot up, throats slashed to reveal cascading blood waterfalls – all while no one reacts.
In Zombie’s world, pleading and praying gets you nowhere. Baby and Otis are ready to die at a trigger’s pull, and the excitement derived from unsightly deeds promotes this hyper-stylized universe that’s destructive beyond sane realms. Zombie’s brand of “action” is ferocious horror, but values death as the finality we’re all hurdling towards anyway. Guns pointed into the sky, pistol smoke filling our lungs after Otis flays another woman’s face clean off for no other reason than boredom.
Zombie can incite riots and rain rapturous rampages down like no other, which is *precisely* why he should try his hand at directing someone else’s script in the future.
As is – even more than Lords Of Salem – 3 From Hell is a choppy “highlight” reel of bastards living up to their name and grinning through the whole process. There’s no denying Sheri Moon Zombie was born to play a 70s-era pixie Manson minion, same for Moseley’s commital to Otis’ “savior” complex. Moon’s juvenile giggles coupled with schoolyard emphatics when chasing a naked, bruised, bleeding woman My Bloody Valentine 3D style is a remarkable sight. Less impressive is Otis’ dialogue punctuating “motherf*cker” at every line’s end, even when Richard Brake howls alongside like the psychopathic deviant that he’s played to a science at this point.
Everyone is a programmed level of evil – Jeff Daniel Phillips’ sexually devious warden included – which screams corruption on high. Why? For the sake of burning the world down with devalued outspoken emphasis.
It’s no shock that 3 From Hell is an ugly movie. Not in cinematography or production value, actually. Kaleidoscope-swirly barroom blackouts and “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” marijuana-trippy interludes are a hypnotizing brand of debauchery. It’s more that Rob Zombie is out of structural f*cks to give, which translates into repugnant world-burning injustice. The Fireflys have exhausted warnings worth repeating, but that won’t stop ‘em from blabbering or killing. Alas, maybe it’s time to put these ol’ devil dogs down for good.
While never critical darlings, the Resident Evil film series ran for an impressive six outings, spanning 14 years. Milla Jovovich led every single one of them, kicking both normal and undead ass along the way. However, action stars don’t do all that work on their own, they rely heavily on stunt doubles for complicated shots that require danger, and sometimes that danger comes to fruition.
As you may have heard, stuntwoman Olivia Jackson is now suing producers after they stopped providing medical support for her, post-accident. In 2015, in the middle of the shoot for the last film in the series, Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, Jackson was preparing for a fight scene. Moments before, though, she was told they would be switching to a dangerous motorcycle stunt instead. A camera impeded her motion after missing its cue, resulting in a serious accident in which Jackson lost her arm. She had to be put into a medically-induced coma while doctors performed emergency surgery to save her life.
Even worse, the producers on the film had misled the stuntwoman about their insurance, as it turned out to be subpar compared to what would actually be required to come back from injuries like these. Medical expenses were – and I wish I was kidding – close to $1 million for Jackson and the production company only gave her $33,000, with another $990 in lost wages.
Olivia admits to feeling abandoned by all involved and basically being stuck on her own after the incident, saying:
“They admitted they had very limited insurance, but they promised they would take care of me and make sure I came back to health. When they stopped paying for the medical bills, I think I was just really hurt and really scared because I was stuck. I was really hurt and really scared because now I was stuck on my own.”
The most unfortunate thing about all of this? She was a back-up. Jackson was actually scheduled to be a stuntwoman on Wonder Woman instead of the final Resident Evil picture but was replacing a different stuntwoman who was, ugh, also injured on set.
All of this maiming for such a mediocre franchise. Stunt workers are integral parts to the escapism films can provide and we really need to make sure they’re taken care of. Or, at the very least, remembered.
Otis B. Driftwood and the rest of the Firefly family are some of the most depraved characters depicted on film in recent memory. In both House of 1,000 Corpses and The Devil’s Rejects, they did unimaginably horrible things to mostly innocent victims. It was somewhat of a relief then when they were seemingly killed at the end of the latter movie. Half a decade later, however, we find out that the murderers didn’t actually meet their end, thanks to some poor shooting by the Sheriff’s Department.
Now, the Firefly family is back in Rob Zombie’s upcoming flick 3 From Hell and according to Bill Moseley, the actor who plays Otis, they’re more evil than ever. Speaking to WGTC recently, here’s what he shared:
“You can also expect more of the same in terms of that the Fireflies and Otis have not really been rehabilitated by long prison stretches. If anything, we’ve gotten stronger and more evil and are ready to do more chaos.”
As you no doubt know, 3 From Hell takes place right after the events of its predecessor. Otis, Baby (Sheri Moon Zombie) and Captain Spaulding (Sid Haig) survive the aforementioned shootout with the cops and are quickly thrown behind bars. The psychotic trio immediately begin to plan their escape, though, which will inevitably end in lots of violence and bloodshed. Along the way, they’ll team up with Richard Brake’s new character Foxy and resume terrorizing the world with vile acts that could only come from the mind of Rob Zombie.
Be sure to check out the rest of our interview with the supremely talented Bill Moseley right here as he ramps up for the premiere of 3 From Hell tonight. The flick is only staying in theaters for three days before hitting Blu-Ray a month later, so you’re definitely going to want to reserve your tickets as soon as possible, if you haven’t done so already.
