From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman’s Daughter (1999)

Movie Info

There isn’t enough tongue licking in this movie

Ambrose Bierce (Michael Parks) has gone to Mexico to join the revolution of Pancho Villa (Peter Butler).  When he finds himself travelling with newlywed missionaries John and Mary Newlie (Lennie Loftin and Rebecca Gayheart), the trip is interrupted by a robbery named Johnny Madrid (Marco Leonardi) who has recently escaped the noose of the hangman (Temuera Morrison) with the hangman’s daughter Esmeralda (Ara Celi).  With night falling, the group finds themselves at a strange desert bar seeking shelter.  The hangman and the military are close behind Madrid, and the bar is about to become busier than normal…but the bar has secrets of its own that could reveal to Esmeralda her true past.

Directed by P.J. Pesce, From Dusk Till Dawn 3:  The Hangman’s Daughter is a direct-to-video vampire Western.  The prequel was preceded by From Dusk Till Dawn 2:  Texas Blood Money which was also released in 1999.  The film was met average to positive reviews.

A vampire cobra…

I enjoyed From Dusk Till Dawn but had to power through the groanworthy From Dusk Till Dawn 2:  Texas Blood Money.  With little hope that From Dusk Till Dawn 3 would even be worth the time, I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t a complete stinker…but it still was not great.

I admire that the movie tried to do a historical story within the vampire story.  Ambrose Bierce the famous American writer did go to Mexico and did disappear there.  This could have been a movie itself, but the story is woven into the vampire story of the pre-Titty Twister bar.  Ambrose story largely gets bogged down by the melodrama between Esmeralda, Quixtla (Sônia Braga), Madrid, and the hangman and then you add the missionaries on top of that, the movie feels pretty full.

The cast is decent and the acting is better than the previous entry.  Michael Parks could have carried the movie himself, and I like Temuera Morrison as the angry hangman.  Danny Trejo returns as Razor Charlie (he is the only actor that appeared in all three films).  Ara Celi, Marco Leonardi, and Sônia Braga feel a bit shafted by the number of stories flowing through the movie and Orlando Jones, Rebecca Gayheart, and Lennie Loftin just feel like unneeded extra.

Love meeting family

The movie looks slightly better than the second entry which did not have the strongest special effects.  The limiting of the movie to the desert and the bar allowed for nice vistas in the desert but a solid set once night falls.  The movie still makes some weird vampire choices like the king cobra vampire head part…it feels like that movie has vampires and could be scary enough without adding more weirdness to them.

From Dusk Till Dawn 3:  The Hangman’s Daughter is mildly entertaining.  I admire a movie where the jerk characters (aka Ambrose Bierce, the hangman, and John Newlie) become the “heroes” while the good characters get struck down despite their admirable traits.  From Dusk Till Dawn wasn’t finished with this film.  From Dusk Till Dawn:  The Series aired from 2014 to 2016 on El Rey.

Related Links:

From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)

From Dusk Till Dawn 2:  Texas Blood Money (1999)

Full Tilt Boogie (1997)