3 from Hell

Remember that band you loved that broke up fifteen years ago? Imagine they reunited for a greatest hits tour. They needed a replacement lead singer, but the star guitarist can still shred. You see the show and enjoy the old songs, but can’t help feeling disappointed. That’s this movie.

The story, set ten years after The Devil’s Rejects, sees Baby and Otis escape jail with help from Otis’ half-brother Foxy, played by Richard Brake. The trio flee to Mexico, where they’re targeted for revenge by a masked gangster.

Bill Moseley shines as Otis, now a Manson-like figure who packs equal parts charm and menace. Zombie gives him the best lines, like a terrific sequence where Moseley and Brake discuss Humphrey Bogart and The Desperate Hours. And Sheri Moon Zombie has never been better as Baby, a character who has grown from Harley Quinn-esque sidekick into full Joker menace.

But I’m not sure if it was losing Sid Haig—who couldn’t commit to the whole film due to ongoing health issues and thus appears in a limited cameo—or the CGI blood, or just time itself that’s worn on writer-director Rob Zombie, but the result feels tired.

That needn’t be a bad thing. Early nods to The Getaway and The Wild Bunch gave me hope Zombie was delivering a Peckinpah-style elegy both for his characters and grindhouse cinema itself, similar to how Peckinpah’s films saw their tired protagonists facing a world that’s moved past them. But rather than an original coda, Zombie’s plot retreads The Devil’s Rejects, subbing gangsters for Rejects’ police, and closes with an open ending.

I loved how House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil’s Rejects offered new grindhouse cinema. Like a new band reviving a favorite genre. But 3 From Hell isn’t new. It’s the greatest hits tour. Sure it entertains, but watching it reminds you of the older, better films. And those films remind you of even older, even better films. Nostalgia is bittersweet.