Character Analysis: Otis B. Driftwood
By: Brian Cotnoir
Oh My. It has been ages since I’ve done a Character
Analysis. I guess I should do something
about it and do one on one of my Favorite Film Characters of All-Time. I find that when it comes to the Horror films
directed by musician Rob Zombie people either love them or they hate; there is
no middle ground. I happen to be a fan
of all things pertaining to Rob Zombie.
And I think the most creative and interesting thing he’s created was the
character Otis B. Driftwood.
CHARACTER: Otis B
Driftwood from “The House of 1000
Corpses” (2003) and “The Devil’s
Rejects” (2005).
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| Otis in "The House of 1000 Corpses" |
Otis B. Driftwood is an American
serial killer who lives in the small fictional town of Ruggsville, Texas. He is named after a character Groucho Marx
film “A Night at the Opera”
(1935). There is no confirmation as to
whether or not Otis B. Driftwood is his actual birth name or whether it is a
nickname/alias. He lives with a group of
people called “The Firefly” family (also named after characters from the Marx
Brothers Films) however Otis shares no blood relation to any members of the
Firefly family. His is a man who is
sadistic in nature and enjoys kidnapping people and submitting them to many
horrible and disgusting forms of torture.
The first time we meet Otis he is up in the attic with 5 High School cheerleaders
that he kidnapped. He is furious that he
can’t come up with a great idea of what to do with them. He later takes 4 travelers that Baby and
Rufus Firefly bait and trap. Otis turns
one of them—a man named Bill—into a half-man, half fish creation (who he
decided to name “Fish Boy”) for Captain Spaulding’s museum.
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| Otis in "The Devils Rejects" |
Since
he is an albino, it would make sense that he works best at night and in
isolation because that way he can protect his pale skin from the hot Texas sun. Otis is most handy with knives. He is a master skinner and in both films he
manages to successfully skin off the faces of a man he killed and then wears
their face as a mask. Otis also has a short temper and is constantly arguing
with all members of the Firefly family.
His temper usually turns into extreme acts of violence including
stabbings, maiming’s, beatings, burnings, rape, necrophilia, and murder. Most amazingly enough is how he overcame his
birth defect albinism (...somehow?) in the 10 months between the ending of the
first film and the beginning of the second film.
THE ACTOR:
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| Actor Bill Moseley |
Otis B. Driftwood is
played by veteran actor Bill Mosely in both films. Most today recognize Moseley since he
appeared in “The House of 1000 Corpses”
and “The Devils Rejects”. Bill Moseley just does a fantastic job in
this role; he completely makes Otis his own character. Even though he’s a supporting character in “The House of 1000 Corpses” he is without
a doubt the most recognizable and memorable supporting cast member. He was so popular and beloved in the “The House of 1000 Corpses” that he was
upgraded to a main character in “The
Devils Rejects”. You can usually see
Bill Moseley front and center in most of the advertisement and merchandise for “The Devils Rejects”. What’s great about Mosely’s portrayal is how
little he changes Otis’s personality between films. While characters like Captain Spaulding and
Baby Firefly go from being funny and ditsy to tough, angry, and ruthless,
Moseley makes no changes to Otis’s personality:
he is still angry, he is still violent, and he is still a complete
f*cking sociopath.
When I met Bill Moseley back in 2012
and he pretended to be interested in a story
that I was telling him. It was GREAT day :)
CHARACTER
IS SIMILAR TO OR INSPIRED BY:
I looked up scenes
with Otis B. Driftwood from Groucho Marx’s “A
Night at the Opera” to see if there were any similarities between Groucho’s
Otis and Bill Moseley’s Otis and in the few scenes I found on-line, the only
similarity I found between the characters was the name. Otis’s personality is clearly inspired by notorious
American Serial Killer Charles Manson.
Some of Otis’s lines in the films are direct lines taken from interviews
of Charles Manson. Otis even looks
similar to Manson. As for his fetish
with experimenting on human bodies and the necrophilia, well that sounds like
another American Serial Killer, Ed Gein, to me.
Now
as for other fictional characters in film that Otis is similar to, I’m going to
say he’s pretty much identical to Luigi Largo from “Repo! The Genetic Opera” (2008); another role done by actor Bill
Moseley. Just from watching Moseley as Luigi
in Repo you can clearly tell he brought some of Otis’s character traits to the
role like the violent temper and enjoyment of stabbing and skinning people for
the fun of it. However, Luigi leaves the
wearing of other people’s skin to his brother Pavi.
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| THIS |
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| + THIS |
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| =THIS :) |
FATE OF THE
CHARACTER:
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| Otis don't care. |
Otis along with Captain
Spaulding and Baby Firefly were captured by Sheriff John Quincey Wydell, he
takes them back to the Firefly ranch to personally torture and punish them for
their crimes and avenge the death of his brother George (who was executed by Mother
Firefly in “The House of a 1000 Corpses”). Before Wydell can finish his brutal and
savage execution the family he is killed by Baby’s brother Tiny. Tiny rescues and sets Otis, Captain
Spaulding, and Baby free. As they three
continue with they’re run away journey they run into a heavily armed police
barricade. Rather than surrender, Otis
and the others decided to go out in a blaze of glory and gun fire. The three of them race towards the police
barricade exchanging gun fire with the cops.
All though, the film does not show Otis or the others dying on screen in
the film, it is heavily suggested that all 3 were killed by the police during
the shootout. And that is the sad end to
the life of Otis B. Driftwood.
