10 Horror Movie Sequels That Started In Surprising Ways

What was surprising about the start of Rob Zombie's The Devil's Rejects, is how it immediately put the Firefly clan on the back foot.

In 2003's House of 1000 Corpses, the Fireflies were introduced as a family who operated under their own grizzly, grimey rules of murder and mayhem, and who were always one step ahead of the law. That motus operandi was perfectly showcased in how Mother Firefly, Otis, Baby, Captain Spaulding and Co. duped and brutally slaughtered a group of police officers who visited their abode as part of a missing persons' hunt.

Surprisingly, the opening sequence of The Devil's Rejects turns the tables on the Fireflies.

For this 2005 sequel, it opens with a hefty, armed bunch of state troopers ambushing the Firefly household while the family sleeps. Said ambush results in the death of Rufus Firefly, the incarceration of Mother Firefly, and puts Otis, Baby and Spaulding 'on the run' as they look to evade the law and plot the rescue of Leslie Easterbrook's Mother; a rescue that doesn't happen, with Easterbrook's character murdered by the vengeance-seeking Sheriff Wydell.

Of course, 3 from Hell - the third entry in this series - likewise opened in surprising fashion, killing off Sid Haig's Spaulding. Unfortunately, that was a decision made by Zombie after it became apparent that Haig's poor health would restrict his involvement - with the actor sadly passing away in September 2019 just days after 3 from Hell premiered.