Character Analysis: Otis B. Driftwood

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).

    

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.     

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:

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.

THIS

+ THIS

=THIS :)

FATE OF THE CHARACTER:

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.