Later this year, The Lords of Salem and 31 writer-director Rob Zombie will unleash an all-new tale of terror on the masses in the form of his new Firefly Family flick 3 from Hell starring Sid Haig as Captain Spaulding, Bill Moseley as Otis B Driftwood, and Sheri Moon Zombie as Vera-Ellen "Baby" Firefly. The film promises to be a bloody and brutal good time at the movies and today we have confirmation that Zombie isn't going soft on us in his old age as Three From Hell has officially been slapped with an R-rating via the MPAA for "strong sadistic violence, language throughout, sexual content, graphic nudity, and drug use."
Holy hell, right? I mean I guess this rating should surprise precisely no one as this is Rob Zombie we are talking about here and the man sure does love his ultraviolence. But still, this is - no pun intended - one hell of a rating. The drug use and "language throughout" are to be expected from this follow-up to House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects but the strong sadistic violence? I mean, we all knew the movie was going to be violent, but sadistic? Well, actually now that I say it out loud, that makes sense too. Nevermind. Moving on.
But what about that bit about the flick including sexual content and graphic nudity? That's what is really grabbing this here horror fan's attention. And not for the reasons you might suspect. Sure Zombie's remake of John Carpenter's Halloween and Halloween II featured what you might call sexual content and graphic nudity, but both House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects tended to stay clear of these things. Sure Sid Haig's Captain Spaulding got some from Ginger Lynn along the dream highway, but for the most part, these films don't slow down enough for sex scenes. That all looks to change this time around the Firefly Family campfire though. Interesting...
3 From Hell will obviously be both written and directed by Rob Zombie who will also take on producing duties this time around along with Mike Elliott. David Daniels is the flick's cinematographer, and Glenn Garland has been the one tasked with editing it all together. On top of the above-mentioned return of Haig as Spaulding, Moseley as Otis, and Sheri Moon Zombie as Baby, Rob Zombie's Three From Hell will also star the likes of Danny Trejo as Rondo, Dee Wallace as Greta, Daniel Roebuck as Morris Green, and Jeff Daniel Phillips as Warden Virgil Dallas Harper. They will be joined in all the murder and mayhem by Richard Brake as Winslow Foxworth Coltrane, Pancho Moler as Sebastian, Bill Oberst Jr. as Tony Commando and Clint Howard as Mr. Baggy Britches. Wade Williams, Austin Stoker, Emilio Rivera, David Ury, and Tom Papa also star.
Zombie has teased that this new American nightmare will be slaughtering screens near you this September, but this release date has not been confirmed at this time. We'll let you know when we hear more specifically. Meanwhile, this MPAA rating update comes to us via the MPAA themselves.