THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Trilogies are so rare we barely get to appreciate them before Hollywood aims for financial & nostalgic expansion storywise. With that being said, Rob Zombie made us wait long enough to conclude his own series, The Firefly Trilogy.
PLOT
2019’s 3 From Hell takes place 10 years after the remaining Firefly family, aka The Devils Rejects, survived a shootout against the police that led to them being arrested for their past years of murderous rampage. In the following years since their sentence, their trial has been part of such cause célèbre to the point where the public believe their actions were a means to fight against the system. Despite the protest, they’re all found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. After Johnny Lee Johns aka Captain Spaulding is executed by lethal injection, Otis B Driftwood escapes in the midst of chain gang work thanks to the assist of his brother, Winslow Foxworth Coltrane aka Foxy. On the way out, he kills former bounty hunter Rondo (Danny Trejo) who is responsible for him to be tortured by Sheriff John Quincey Wydell. Together, Otis & Foxy plan to free Vera-Ellen Wilson aka Baby Firefly who’s been denied parole. They pull this off when holding hostage the family of warden Virgil Dallas Harper (Jefff Daniel Phillips). They demand the warden to free her by sneaking her out. He does comply by disguising her as a guard, but despite doing what they wanted, they cut their loose ends by killing him and his family. Unsure what to do next, they decide to travel to Mexico. Once they cross the border, they find a small town celebrating Day of the Dead. They seem to lay low when holing up at a hotel until the hotel’s owner Carol Perro (Richard Edson) recognizes them. When he does, he alerts the leader of the Black Satans, Aquarius, who is also Rondo’s son and vows to avenge him. He gets there by morning with his goons, but local worker Sebastian (Pancho Moler) notices and warns Baby who defends herself with a bow & arrow she took from Harper’s house. Otis holds his own separately that he kills Carlos for his betrayal. However, Aquarius is able to take Baby & Foxy prisoner after one of his men fatally shoot Sebastian. Otis faces one of the remaining Black Satans in a knife fight and as he wins, Sebastian frees his family. When Aquarius notices, he finishes him off with another shot. The film ends with the remaining Firefly family driving away after they burn Aquarius alive.
THOUGHTS
I wasn’t sure if Rob were to ever finish this personal saga of his due to getting caught up with other ventures such as giving his own interpretation of Michael Myers. However you feel with his Halloween remake, you know the guy is creative with original stories. When returning to this series for the last time, he didn’t really disappoint. It maintains the Hellbilly vibe he’s all about and it’s as crude and depraved you’d expect. It has a whole new set of energy that makes the violence all the more surprising where you’re still on the edge of your seat. Although it was hard to imagine Sid Haig’s Captain Spaulding not having a bigger role like before due to the actor being too ill to have the opportunity before passing away, there is no doubt the actor still nailed it in showing the actor to be about as defiantly psychotic you’d remember him for. Richard Brake doesn’t try to fill in his shoes because Foxy is a whole other ballgame in comparison. His eccentric-ness was much different since he was much calmer when taking action. You just know you’re deranged when tauntingly messing with someone’s urn without regret. Sheri Moon dials it up as Baby just the way you’d expect because she’s gone so unstable that she’s most careless in terms of her actions. I mean, you know you can’t trust her if she hardly tries to be playful like she used to. Bill Moseley still makes Otis a menace still he steps up as a patriarch while still relishing off of his own pain he commits. The fact he still bothers freeing Baby despite knowing she’s a loose cannon comes to show off an unusual perspective on how family must stick together no matter how different they are from one another. Since he is the adopted one, it comes to show how loyal he is to the family that gave him a chance to be who he wanted to be, which was good for him but bad for everyone else. This family may not be immortal, but they are definitely formidable when together which defends them being frightening characters. The craziest thing about this move is that you don’t really have anyone to root for since the one going after them is a gangster who has brought their own terror whenever. Emilio Rivera’s Aquarius was honestly an echo to John Quincy Wydell because he is a vengeful man who doesn’t care who he’ll have to hurt to be satisfied. Since his line of work is not ideal, it doesn’t really make him any better than the people he’s after, which is why I don’t feel bad when he dies. Had he been a man in an honest living, I’d probably feel a bit different. While I still think this film works well on its own, there are still some moments I scratched my head about. Like why was there a clown visiting Harper at night? I can praise the genuine fear Clint Howard plays out when he gets put through torment before being killed as well, but this was an odd way to stack up the body count. And how did Otis even find the warden’s home? It ain’t like he had the time to study his routine since he was in an isolated cell before Foxy broke him out. So if Foxy was the one who did so, that should’ve been acknowledged. And lastly, that hunting couple should’ve killed Foxy the second they saw him. Even if Otis were to retaliate, he’d be vulnerable without him because the numbers game would not benefit him in freeing Baby. Ignore this, then you’ll still have a horrific blast the way I did. To wrap up, 3 From Hell is a solid conclusion to a hellacious trilogy that delivers in all the depravity and gore it’s known for. If you’ve liked Rob Zombie’s movies up until this point, I promise this is worthwhile too
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