Director: Rob Zombie
Cast Headliners: Bill Moseley, Sheri Moon Zombie, Richard Brake, Sid Haig, who really knows
Original Release Date: September 16th, 2019(limited)
Musician Rob
Zombie's work is hard to objectively call “good” whether its his
electro-grooving metal music or his films. His body of work can
certainly be called “aesthetically distinct” however. His dark
twisted world of murderers and monsters has manifested in multiple
forms but most famous for his early 2000's work House Of 1,000
Corpses which was a bloody niche genre piece that felt like a long
form of one his music videos. The sequel The Devil's Rejects a few
years later dropped almost all of the supernatural elements to gain a
darker and bloodier grit in new ways while still keeping that
(whether purposeful or not) shlock. Many years have passed to where
this 3 From Hell acts as both a follow-up to that offering more of
the same yet expanding the series in new (if still silly) ways.
In a retcon (understandably)
from the end of the last film this movie takes the ridiculous outcome
that the titular murderous psycho redneck anti-heroes survived their
closing “Freebird” shoot-out from the last film to become
incarcerated for a long period. This includes a barely minutes long
appearance of ringleader Cutter “Captain Spaulding”(Sid Haig who
unfortunately passed away just days after the release of this....one
can tell in this his pronounced aging since the last film although
it's good that he could make one last appearance at all with an
attempted decent delivery of lines) as well as his Firefly family
proteges Otis(Bill Moseley) and Baby(Sheri Moon Zombie). Quickly Otis
finds himself freed by the third “Three” in newly introduced
half-brother Foxy “Wolfman” Coltrane(Richard Brake).
In a matter unlike the last two
movies(where these legacy characters where occasional villians in the
first and mostly-together-dark-progtagonists in the second) they're
more seperated than ever as well as having the film divided into
multiple distinct parts varying in narrative and even vibe. For the
first half of the film or so Otis and Wolfman terrorize the backwoods
and eventually the suburban household of prison warden Harper(Jeff
Daniel Phillips in a cheesily 70s mustache token villian) in
sequences that feel almost carbon copy from The Devil's Rejects' gas
station motel and surrounding parts. Elsewhere Baby contends with
violent abuse in her prison from fellow inmates and sadistic prison
guard Greta(Dee Wallace who is far better than this material also in
her own stereotypical token way). Gratuitously violent torture and
escape sequences follow.
One wishes Captain Spaulding was
well enough to join in but the performances of the other Fireflies
make up for that. Moseley's Otis and Sheri Moon's Baby are as lovably
sickly insane as ever in their own cheesy way. Even moreso Otis is a
bit weathered this time bringing a touch of compassion and cool
leadership in with his murderous insanity. So too does Sheri Moon
bring in a slight nuance especially as she finds herself ironically
contained in a prison. Now this is “nuance” as they play maniacal
kill happy killers but its that mix of terror and even some laughs
that always drew audiences to them. Richard Brake's Wolfman is a
mostly perfect addition to the titular trio. His take is very
unrecognizable from his other roles as he mixes hillbilly
were-wolf-ish hollering (and cleanliness) between combat skill and
sly quips. This makes him especially fun when paired with Otis.
Together for the brief chunk of the film where the trio is actually
side by side it makes for a devilishy charming combination to the
extent it can be enjoyable ( “or quality).
However for its last half or
third or so the movie takes an almost drastic genre shift. However
this shift is not drastic when considering director Rob Zombie's
interests and backlog as a whole but the gang takes a trip to Mexico
to avoid the law. There they run afoul of the luchadore mask wearing
Black Satans gang who is led by Rondo(Danny Trejo who briefly shows
up again although DDP is missed!)'s son Aquarius(Emilio Rivera). They
also meet strange characters such as an eye-patch wearing little
person and innkeeper Carlos at a Day Of The Dead festival which
brings back a bit of the spookiness of the first film.
It's a genre shift because where
before the movie was torture porn / a renegade recnexploitation road
trip it becomes an action movie(with some exceptions). Rob Zombie's
never really dealth with much gun versus gun shoot-outs before but
he's able to make things enjoyable in his own way. Of course some of
the camera work is still shoddy and music(some 1970s pop songs aside)
/ sounds are ironically and unfortunately of mixed quality but it
has its fun when it does. Its fitting that if this is the end of the insane series it goes down in carnage and flames.
As a whole this movie is
recommendable only to those who know exactly what they're going for
and especially who have seen the other two prior. It's bloody,
gruesome, dark, and intense yet also cheesy, stupid, and ridiculous.
Each one has kind of upper both of those sides of its aspects but its
good it could reach this form of culmination. For its experiments one
may wonder if it should be stopped now or if Rob Zombie should build
on his experimentation even further. 7.1 out of 10
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