List of Rob Zombie characters

These are some of the characters from Rob Zombie's House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects.

In House of 1000 Corpses, Captain Spaulding was introduced as a vulgar clown and the proprietor of a gas station that doubled as a museum/haunted house ride with a focus on serial killers, madmen and freaks of nature. His main purpose in the first film was to redirect a group of young adults looking for the local legend of "Dr. Satan" to the tree where he was supposedly hanged, where they instead end up running into the murderous Firefly family.

Rob Zombie described Spaulding on the commentary for House of 1000 Corpses as a "lovable asshole" and wanted to make the character's motivations and connection to the Firefly family ambiguous. Because Spaulding never interacts or talks to any members of the murderous Firefly family, it is never fully explained in the movie at just how much Spaulding knows about the family; if he is in league with them, or if he is just a murderous vigilante unconnected to the Firefly clan (in the film's opening scene, he shoots and kills two burglars attempting to rob his store). Although, in one of the final scenes in the film, Spaulding is shown driving a car in which Otis Driftwood is hiding in the backseat ready to claim another victim. He is described in the script for Corpses as a "crusty looking old man in a filthy clown suit and smeared make-up". He has the words "LOVE" and "HATE" tattooed on his knuckles, a reference to the character Reverend Harry Powell from Night of the Hunter. Just as several characters from the series are named after characters from the Marx Brothers films, Spaulding is named for Groucho Marx's character from Animal Crackers.

The second film gave Spaulding a much more significant role, establishing him as the patriarch of the Firefly family. For The Devil's Rejects, Captain Spaulding's character was changed slightly; the director wanted him to be less cartoonish in the more realistic and gritty sequel. As such, Spaulding only has his clown makeup during the first half of the film. He is known by his nickname 'Cutter' as mentioned by Otis Driftwood at more than one occasion during the second film.

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