3 from Hell (2019)

Movie Info

Sig Haig is crazy…I wonder what he’ll do this time…oh…never mind

Captain Spaulding (Sid Haig), Otis Driftwood (Bill Moseley), and Vera Ellen “Baby” Firefly (Sheri Moon Zombie) managed to survive their shootout with police, but it doesn’t mean their problems are over.  With Captain Spaulding executed for his crimes, Otis and Baby remain incarcerated.  When Winslow “Foxy” Foxworth Coltrane (Richard Brake) frees Otis, the family is on the run again…and escaping the police could be easier than escaping their past.  Lots of people want Otis, Baby, and Foxy dead…and there is Hell to pay!

Directed by Rob Zombie, 3 from Hell is a horror survival film.  A sequel to The Devil’s Rejects in 2005, the film was met with mixed reviews.

I am not a huge Rob Zombie fan.  I can tell he likes horror, but he often likes the part of horror that I’m not a fan of.  I don’t like gore and I’m not a fan of gross anti-heroes.  House of a 1000 Corpses hurt to watch due to rough editing and a dull story, The Devil’s Rejects were a slight improvement, and 3 from Hell might fall somewhere in-between.

We should come to Mexico more often

There really isn’t much of a story in 3 from Hell and it is pretty much two stories butted together.  The first story is the escape from prison and the second story is the Mexican drug lord trying to get revenge for his grandfather.  It has a bit of a Virgin Spring–Last House on the Left feel with the main characters doing villainous things in the first half of the movie and having bad stuff done to them the second half of the film, but it never feels like the characters are in much danger…and they are so unlikable that you really don’t care if they are killed.

People are flawed…I get it.  The characters in most of Zombie’s movies are so flawed you (hopefully) can’t identify with them.  Even the “good guys” are flawed, but the flaws in the good guys threaten to turn the villains into heroes.  This is generally how I feel about the story and the performances in 3 from Hell.  Bill Moseley, Richard Brake, and Sheri Moon Zombie want their characters to be cool…they come off as bucking the system by law and even by societal norms, but that does leave them redeemable.  I’m all for a flawed character or even a truly vile character, but I don’t like the in-between characters that don’t even attempt to explore this in-between nature.  Something like Joker at least attempts to explore a vile character, and it is something that 3 from Hell misses with their characters.

I bet they totally edit out this scene when it is put on Disney+

Visually, the movie has smoothed out a bit from the first film.  The film still kind of feels like the good things of the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre combined with the bad aspects of a Quentin Tarantino films.  It sometimes feels like the change-up of visuals isn’t as much to propel the story or tell story as much as it is to spice up a dull scene.

3 from Hell probably won’t win Rob Zombie any new fans because it largely feels like more of the same.  If you are a Rob Zombie fan, it will please you and make you happy to see the characters again (even if Sid Haig bows out early…Haig’s role was originally bigger and Brake was brought in as a substitute).  With an open ending and demands for the movie, the “3 from Hell” might ride again.

Related Links:

House of 1000 Corpses (2003)