3 From Hell
by Rob Zombie
Back in 2003 Rob Zombie released his movie House of 1000 Corpses. I was in the first couple years of high school at the time and obsessed with seeing this movie. I was a huge Rob Zombie fan. I knew some of his White Zombie material, but his first solo album, Hellbilly Deluxe, really cemented my fandom. The idea of watching a movie written and directed by one of my favorite musicians sounded awesome. So, I eventually watched it with a handful of friends and it was good - it was fine - I didn't particularly love it or hate it at the time. It has since grown on me, but I remember it not quite living up to my shock-hopeful expectations. I remember recalling that although I liked it, I preferred Dee Snider's film Strangeland, and part of me still does. However, I grew to really like House of 1000 Corpses over the years and now I think of it fondly and like it much more than I initially did.
So, fast forward to 2005. After some time and reflection, I had become an official fan of House of 1000 Corpses and was eager to see the sequel. As soon as it was released I went to the theater with my brother Mike and by the end of the movie I had known that I had just watched what would always be one of my favorites. I loved it! It was so engaging and thrilling and nasty in all the right places. Rather than take the expected route and just make another House of 1000 Corpses, Zombie went in a different direction and made a violent exploitation road movie. It had clever, biting dialogue, fascinating family dynamics, and a surprising amount of heart all mixed together along with many other amazing qualities. When I started attending horror conventions, I made it a point to meet Ken Foree, Sid Haig, and Bill Moseley, largely because of this movie (but admittedly others they've been in as well). So, suffice it to say, I was pumped when over a decade later I learned about a new movie coming. I was a little unsure considering the time that had passed and curious how it would work given the powerful, seemingly finite, ending of Rejects. But I was hopeful and I watched it once it was available. In the end I found 3 From Hell to be a mixture of good and bad that's best covered separately. First, let me get the plot out of the way. I'll do my best not to spoil anything, but any references to the first two flicks are bound to be spoiler-ridden so beware of that.
The film follows the Firefly Family after the shootings in which they have miraculously survived. They are all imprisoned with only baby not winding up slated for death. They have also all become quite the celebrities with a large handful of differing opinions of the trio swirling around society. Long story short - it is in actuality pretty drawn out, but understandably so - Otis (Bill Moseley) and Baby (Sherri Moon Zombie) make it out of prison along with the help of their brother Winslow Foxworth "Foxy" Coltrane (Richard Brake). Reunited, they hit the road once again to figure out a plan and slash their way towards freedom and excitement.
To end on a positive note, let's start with the bad. First of all, some background is needed. The ending of Devil's Rejects is one of my favorite endings in movie history. One thing I liked about it was that while the family are (seemingly at the time) killed by the cops, it isn't presented as "bad guys getting killed" with the cops on the other end of the spectrum. The film makes it clear that the "law" side of things really isn't any more ethical than the family themselves and managed to make the Firefly's demise bittersweet. Even though they are horrendous and bloodthirsty, we care about them. So, it's nice that they at least went out blazing, got some rounds fired off at the offending cops in their path, and most of all, went down together. I'm not the only one who loves this ending, so the idea of going "Kidding! They're still alive!" and risking that awesomeness on a new movie was risky. And honestly, it never feels authentic and is quite obvious Zombie was scrambling to put another movie together.
Another piece of background that's needed for the next part is the fact that Sid Haig was seriously ill when he filmed his scenes and sadly passed away just a few days after the film's release. Because of his state, Zombie had to drastically cut down his role. This is totally understandable. Still, I don't like how Haig was written out of the movie. It's convenient, it's an easy, obvious way of doing it to the point where it's actually surprising, but I didn't like it. It felt wrong to take away Spaulding's glorious demise in a hail of gunfire and defiance to lead to what happens in 3 From Hell. As wrong as it sounds to prefer Sid Haig be left out of anything, it would have been better to have left him killed off in Rejects after all and had Otis and Baby deal with the fallout as the initial setup. But that leads to reason two of why it isn't entirely Rob Zombie's fault. I've read that the Powers That Be wouldn't allow the film to continue if Haig wasn't involved. I don't know if that's entirely true or not, at least not enough to state it as fact, but it's something to consider.
The film also feels less authentic than the previous movie. It feels at times more like a fan made his idea for a new film rather than the original talent still at the helm. The dialogue isn't as sharp and the performances, while still good at times, feel more like fan-service. Moseley does as good a job as ever, even with lesser dialogue, but Sherri Moon Zombie chews the scenery way too much. When she's interacting with the other main characters it's all good, but when she has her moment to shine as the character on her own, she's so over the top it's an unfortunate mixture of silly and annoying. However, I can only fault her so much because not only is her dialogue itself written just as obnoxiously, but in the movie, Otis even references her all of a sudden seeming different and weirder. So, it wasn't just a performance choice, it was how the character was supposed to be after ten years of lockup. However, unless a character is supposed to be irritating, the character shouldn't be hard to watch, so I'm still putting it in the negative category. Once she's back to interacting with Otis, it all goes away for the most part anyway and it ends up feeling like a dropped character trait once the dust settles.
The last thing I'll mention about the negatives is that the film has a tendency of repeating the beats of Devil's Rejects.. While it does add its own flair to it at times, the movie does more or less refer back to the previous entry as if it was a cheat sheet. Instead of making the film feel pleasantly familiar, it makes it feel all the more unnecessary.
Now, the good. The film does have some great moments with a few grisly scenes that are at least entertaining to watch for their nastiness, although it still feels more improved than the tightly honed Rejects in this regard. When the film reaches it's third act things start feeling fun and I was finally able to get lost in the film for a little while. The third act is actually more like how I would have liked the whole film to be. Although not entirely, it felt new and interesting. We saw more of the character's personalities - just a little - and the new characters were fun to watch.
While in a perfect world Haig would have been able to stick around for a full film, Richard Brake does a competent enough job of picking up the slack of being a "third" to the remaining Fireflies. Honestly, it would have been fine to just have Otis and Baby on their own, but having the addition of the "Foxy" Coltrane character did fill in some gaps and make certain essential aspects possible. I would have liked to have gotten more of his character's inner workings and family history, but there was a lot of ground to cover in the movie so I get it.
The film also has some great cameos from familiar faces such as Dee Wallace, Clint Howard, Emilio Rivera, Sean Whalen and the return of Danny Trejo. It's wonderful to see them all and they all do their thing well.
All in all, I have mixed feelings about 3 From Hell and that's all there is to it. Whereas House of 1000 Corpses was an oddball love letter to some of Zombie's favorite horror movies and Rejects was a rough and tumble 70's style exploitation movie, 3 From Hell never fully escapes from mostly being a lesser Rejects. Rejects was the sequel fans didn't know we needed, Hell is the film Zombie thought the fans wanted. I'm in no way suggesting skipping it, mind you, there's some good stuff in there and it's absolutely work checking out. And since the perfection of Devil's Rejects has already been disturbed, I'm down for another one. I probably would have preferred they left it alone, but now that there's a third, I suppose some cool things could be done with a fourth.
P.J. Griffin, HMS