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Take a stroll down your average video store’s horror aisle and you’re bound to find the shelves being choked to death by a glut of unneeded, unwanted, direct-to-DVD sequels to movies that never really need any follow-ups. Film studios just seem to get a kick of turning stand alone pictures into ongoing franchises that get exponentially worse with each installment, for the sole purpose of milking the original film’s success for every last penny it may be worth. Sometimes, however, one or two of these opportunist sequels turns out to be not entirely bad. Some of them are actual even flat-out good movies. It’s not often but it does happen.
From Dusk Till Dawn is one of those movies that was good on its own and really did not in any way beg to be sequelized. Nevertheless, it has been sequelized and each installment following the first has gotten cheaper and cheaper and cheaper.
From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman’s Daughter actually makes a wise choice that From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money failed to make, and that is the choice to be a prequel to the original, rather than a sequel. Number three goes way back in time to the Wild West (or, in this case, Wild Mexico) and attempts to reveal the origins, or at least some of the origins, of the vampire bar that the series has revolved around since its inception. Surprisingly, the results aren’t all that bad in this straight-to-DVD cheapie. The budget is visibly smaller than both of the first two Dusk movies but if you look past the all that blatant cheapness you’ll find a little gem beneath the refuse.
Dusk 3 starts out with an absolute kicker of an opening scene, and the first half of the movie plays out like an extremely immersive low-fi Leone-esque western, complete with on-the-run outlaws, a horse-drawn wagon robbery, and lots of pistol-spinnin’, sand-blastin’, cowboy gun play. Much like the first film, which halfway through shifts abruptly from being gangster getaway flick to being a hell-raising vampire splatter movie, this picture shifts abruptly from the spaghetti western posturing of the first half and becomes a low budget creature feature in the second half. Unfortunately, the metamorphosis is not nearly as well done as it was in Dusk 1. In fact, the spaghetti western first half of Dusk 3 is actually far more interesting and engaging than virtually anything that happens once the bloodsuckers show up and the grue starts hitting the walls. Generally, it’s not a good thing when the “horror” part of a “horror movie” is the least interesting part.
The film tries to delve a little bit into the back story of the fang gang hideout that would eventually become The Titty Twister, with special emphasis on explaining the origins of the Satanico Pandemonium character. Unfortunately, all you really learn about The Titty Twister is that it’s been around for a DAMN long time, which is something obvious to anyone who has ever watched Dusk 1 at some point in their lives. And we only learn a small bit about Santanico Pandemonium, and what we learn isn’t too stellar. She starts out as a pretty but low key peasant girl whose transformation from sweetheart hangman’s daughter (hence the title, natch) to the serpent-faced stripper and murderer of Quentin Tarantino that she would eventually become is weak and shallow, at best.
Of course, that’s not to say that Dusk 3 is a bad movie or that its horror elements are completely flaccid. None of it is necessarily awful. It’s just than nothing about it, aside from the renegade western bits, is very stirring or original. The flick isn’t bad if you’re looking to kill a little time and happen to have a fetish for gun-slinging banditos, neck-munching monsters, and the always welcome Danny Trejo. The acting is uneven, with some folks handing in some really good performances while others range from middle-of-the-road to flat-out cornball. The effects are, for the most part, good. Nothing too exciting, and, like I said, the low budget is obvious to anyone and everyone, but the creature designs stay true to the original portrayal of Nosferatu as showcased in the original From Dusk Till Dawn. The direction is satisfactory but generic. It’s at it best when out in the orange and brown sun-dried expanses of Mexican desert, and it’s at its worst when inside the Titty Twister-to-be. There are some good memorable scenes, including the aforementioned opener and also a pretty nasty bar fight that seduces some super-cool brutality out of the character you’d least expect it from.
The film has a great atmosphere, blending the scorched earth spaghetti western aesthetic with a decidedly Hammer-esque Gothic horror ambiance. One of its greatest strengths lies in something most casual moviegoers are sure to miss. Anyone with a fairly informed education when it comes to literature will get a kick out of the film’s subtle intelligence in its inclusion of infamous author Ambrose Bierce in the plot and the moments of staunchly dry irony that arise because of it. It bears mentioning, by the way, that Bierce is played by none other than Michael Parks who played doomed Texas Ranger Earl McGraw in Dusk 1 and gives the hands-down best performance in this picture.
Overall though, the movie is damaged most of all by its most fervent flaw, which is how the storyline sticks way too close to the plot of Dusk 1. Granted, when you see a From Dusk Till Dawn movie you expect to see sleazy fugitive criminals fighting malformed bat-like vampires, but at least Dusk 2 changed things up again. The storyline of Dusk 3 is almost the exact same one as Dusk 1, only set back more than a few decades ago. While From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman’s Daughter does offer some pretty tasty bright spots, in the end its just way too much like the original film to be all that engrossing, especially when everything that is done in this flick that was already done in the original was, in fact, done BETTER in the original. Of course, you can’t really fault the movie for paling in comparison to the original. I mean, From Dusk Till Dawn had a story by Robert Kurtzman, a script by Quentin Tarantino, and direction by Robert Rodriguez. Meanwhile, From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman’s Daughter is a straight-to-DVD low budget franchise cash-in. What do you expect? Is it shit? Not at all. But it’s not fried gold either. My advice? Stick with the original and call it a night.
If you insist on watching From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman’s Daughter though, don’t expect a masterpiece.
And a helpful tip from one horror fan to another: if you don’t already know who Ambrose Bierce is then look into it. You’ll find yourself getting much more of a kick out of this flick with that knowledge in your noodle.
