{"id":2638,"date":"2024-08-21T16:09:55","date_gmt":"2024-08-21T16:09:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=2638"},"modified":"2024-10-14T14:46:15","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T18:46:15","slug":"3-from-hell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/08\/21\/3-from-hell\/","title":{"rendered":"3 from Hell"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"3 from Hell <\/strong>(2019)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lionsgate\/Horror-Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 115 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No MPAA rating (strong sadistic violence, language throughout, sexual content, graphic nudity, drug use)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Rob Zombie\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Rob Zombie\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Zeuss\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: David Daniels\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: September 16, 2019 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Sheri Moon Zombie, Bill Moseley, Richard Brake, Sid Haig, Jeff Daniel Phillips, Dee Wallace, Kevin Jackson, Tracey A. Leigh, Sylvia Jeffries, Emilio Rivera, Richard Edson, Pancho Moler, Stacie Greenwell, Anny Rosario, Matthew Willig, David Ury, Clint Howard, Daniel Roebuck, Wade Williams, Sean Whalen, Steven Michael Quezeda, Lucinda Jenney, Bill Oberst Jr., Jan Hoag, Dot-Marie Jones, Nancy Linehan Charles, Austin Stoker, Emiliano Diez, Richard Riehle, Tomas Boykin, Alexandra Ella, Rob Welsh, Jackie S. Garcia, Flor de Maria Chahua, Danny Trejo, Barry Bostwick (narrator).\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $2.2M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: *** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0Rob Zombie\u2019s latest piece of cinematic art 3 from Hell<\/strong> is the completion of his \u201cFirefly Trilogy\u201d that began with his debut film House of 1000 Corpses (2003) and continued with The Devil\u2019s Rejects (2005). Over the years, I\u2019ve seen a lot of hate directed towards him and his cinematic output. I\u2019ve heard his movies described as sick, vile, sadistic and detestable. Some of the comments I\u2019ve heard or read remind me of the knee-jerk reviews that critics used to give slasher movies back in the early 80s. I have to admit I wasn\u2019t always sold on the White Zombie frontman as a legit filmmaker. My opinion changed when I rewatched Corpses and Rejects a few weeks back. I took a good look at them and realized I was looking at the work of a madman artist and deranged genius. He\u2019s also a guy who loves movies, a fact that can be seen in every frame of 3 from Hell<\/strong>. He takes his inspiration from so many different sources that it ends up being several movies rolled into one crazy f***ing ride.<\/p>\n

\u00a03 from Hell<\/strong> opens with a faux news documentary catching us up on what happened to Baby (Sheri Moon), Otis (Moseley, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2) and Captain Spaulding (Haig, Jackie Brown) after their shoot-out with police at the end of the previous film. Despite being shot about 20 times each, they miraculously survive. Their subsequent trial, a long affair that became a cause c\u00e9l\u00e8bre, ends with guilty verdicts on all counts. Spaulding is executed by lethal injection while the others pull life sentences. The documentary abruptly ends when Otis escapes a work detail with the help of his half-brother \u201cThe Midnight Wolfman\u201d (Brake, 31).<\/p>\n

\u00a0At this point, 3 from Hell<\/strong> becomes a combination women-in-prison flick and hostage thriller a la Desperate Hours. Ten years of being locked up have taken a toll on Baby\u2019s mental state. She appears to have lost her grip on reality entirely. Also, she\u2019s the target of a butch guard, Greta (Wallace, The Howling), determined to break her. Otis and Wolfman have a plan to break her out. They show up at the home of the sleazy warden (Phillips, The Lords of Salem) and take his family and friends hostage. They threaten to kill everybody unless he helps their sister sneak out of jail. I\u2019ll only say that this section ends with a Firefly family reunion and a bloodbath.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The final act of 3 from Hell<\/strong> is a south-of-the-border action-western with Baby, Otis and Wolfman crossing into Mexico where they hole up in a sleazy rundown hotel run by Carlos (Edson, Strange Days), the guy-to-know in town. The trio may have escaped American justice but not Mexican retribution. They\u2019re soon targeted by a cartel leader, Aquarius (Rivera, El Chicano), with a personal grudge. Any similarities to The Wild Bunch and Extreme Prejudice are purely intentional I\u2019m sure.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It goes without saying that 3 from Hell<\/strong> is extremely violent and bloody. Hey, it\u2019s Rob Zombie, what did you expect? While I\u2019m always down for a great abundance of bloody violence, I\u2019m NEVER down for CGI gore which we get a great deal of here. Given Zombie\u2019s affection for old school movies, I\u2019m surprised and disappointed he didn\u2019t go with squibs and fake blood. It\u2019s the only thing I don\u2019t like about 3 from Hell<\/strong>. The rest of it is pretty awesome!<\/p>\n

\u00a0The term \u201csubversive\u201d gets thrown around so freely these days, it\u2019s lost its meaning. However, I can\u2019t think of a better way to describe 3 from Hell<\/strong> especially as it pertains to its three lead characters. In most movies, they\u2019d be the villains. They\u2019re sadistic, cruel and immoral. They kill with reckless glee. Viewers\u2019 sympathies would lie with their victims who, in most movies, are depicted as innocents who don\u2019t deserve to die grisly deaths. It\u2019s the other way around in 3 from Hell<\/strong>. Zombie paints Baby, Otis and Wolfman as anti-heroes. They\u2019re bad, but everybody else is worse. They\u2019re constantly surrounded by scumbags- e.g. opportunistic a**holes, greedy prison officials, sadistic guards, trigger-happy hillbillies, horny perverts and masked gunmen- who make the Rejects look better by comparison. All they want to do is be together as a family, a desire understood and shared by most folks. In essence, Zombie resets our moral compasses in making us root for a trio of mass murderers for two hours.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Sid Haig died shortly after 3 from Hell<\/strong> was released last month. You can tell by his frail, haggard appearance that he was in ill health while filming. It doesn\u2019t stop him from delivering an amazing performance. The monologue he delivers while being interviewed is some of Zombie\u2019s best writing. In fact, the whole opening sequence is brilliant. It brings to mind both Natural Born Killers and Geraldo Rivera\u2019s infamous 1988 interview with Charles Manson. In any event, it\u2019s cool to see Haig one last time playing what\u2019s become his signature role. I admit I\u2019ve been pretty hard on Sheri Moon in the past but I\u2019ve come to appreciate her skills as an actress. I know it\u2019s nepotism that got her in, but it\u2019s the unique way she plays Baby that keeps her in. I can\u2019t imagine anybody else in the role. Moseley is still great as Otis while Brake makes a nice\/nasty addition to the clan. He plays it to the hilt. And what a cool supporting cast! Clint Howard (Evilspeak) stands out as party clown\/hostage Mr. Baggy Britches. Also, Austin Stoker of the original 1976 Assault on Precinct 13 cameos as a newscaster.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I don\u2019t know what else I can say about 3 from Hell<\/strong> except that it\u2019s brilliant in its own twisted way. It\u2019s a fun, violent movie about three people who don\u2019t give a f*** made by a filmmaker who doesn\u2019t give a f*** about what people think of him or his movies. I really have to admire and respect that attitude; a lot of great art springs from such a mindset. Do you think Picasso or Van Gogh gave a f***? F*** NO! Notice that I put it in terms befitting a Rob Zombie character. Now let\u2019s go for ice cream. I\u2019ll take \u201cTutti F***ing Frutti!\u201d\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

3 from Hell (2019)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lionsgate\/Horror-Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 115 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No MPAA rating (strong sadistic violence, language throughout, sexual content, graphic nudity, drug use)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Rob Zombie\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Rob Zombie\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Zeuss\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: David Daniels\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: September 16, 2019 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Sheri Moon Zombie, Bill Moseley, Richard Brake, Sid Haig, Jeff Daniel Phillips, Dee Wallace, Kevin […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3523,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-scary-gory-wild-i-love-it"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/3-from-Hell-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2638"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2638\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3524,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2638\/revisions\/3524"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}