3fromhell
In an age where movie stars no longer guarantee a movie’s opening, but franchises and IP do, even Rob Zombie is having to go back to the well. Used to be his name alone was its own sort of IP – when he directs, you know you’re most likely getting a movie full of homicidal rednecks who make lots of movie references, and a retro ‘70s grindhouse vibe. The sole exception, The Lords of Salem, may have changed things: Zombie’s homage to Roman Polanski, Stanley Kubrick and other favorite filmmakers grossed $1.1 million on a $1.5 million budget to become his first unprofitable film. His follow-up, 31, was a return to redneck rampages and made only $779,820 in theaters, though the budget was Kickstarter-funded and it likely made most of its money on VOD.
So now he’s digging back into his catalog with the only film franchise he owns: the Firefly family saga, begun in House of 1,000 Corpses and continued in The Devil’s Rejects. Budget figures aren’t available, but 3 From Hell, which makes the saga officially a trilogy, looks like it was even cheaper to shoot than 31. In a pre-recorded intro shown on the first night of Fathom Events’ three-night engagement, Zombie talked about how it took three years to get everything together, and he really wanted to revisit these characters. It’s a shame, then, that he does so little with them besides going through the familiar motions.
Homicidal kinfolk Spaulding (Sid Haig), Otis (Bill Moseley) and Baby (Sheri Moon Zombie) were shot to death by police at the end of The Devil’s Rejects, but like Halloween’s Michael Myers, somehow managed to survive anyway, with the bullets apparently missing every major organ. 3 From Hell begins with them in prison, and likely due to Haig’s failing health, effectively writes Spaulding out and replaces him in the trio with Otis’ heretofore unmentioned half-brother Foxy (Richard Brake). It’s a switch-out akin to when the Three Stooges brought in Curly Joe – we know he’s not exactly the same character as Curly, but he does equivalent shtick well enough. Foxy was never captured, because nobody ever knew he existed before, so of course he’s the key to springing Otis and Baby, who have attained a modicum of counterculture fame akin to the Manson family. The year is now 1988, but there isn’t any real relevance to that, save an excuse to show a Ronald Reagan portrait for a laugh.
With The Devil’s Rejects plot having drawn heavily from The Empire Strikes Back, I was hoping 3 From Hell might be the Return of the Jedi of the series, but instead it’s just like a less interesting Devil’s Rejects. The basic beats are the same: The Firefly family escapes, they hang out in a motel and kill people, then flee to a small town where they party hard and get betrayed en route to a final showdown. Zombie clearly wants this to feel more like a western, as they go to Mexico this time, and into a small village with a main street perfect for high noon showdowns. And then he indulges his wrestling fandom by having them stand off against armed luchadores.
No doubt Zombie, who rarely overthinks the meaning of his stories, figured the visual of “Evil Hippies vs. Luchadores” would be cool. And in a way, it is. But in another, there’s something queasy about characters who were clearly inspired by infamous racists being depicted murdering Mexicans. In the times we live in now, it feels like a serious case of misreading the room. Baby even murders a white man who’s dressed as a Mexican for Halloween, shortly after she culturally appropriates a sacred Indian headdress as a fashion accessory. We’re not necessarily supposed to like the Fireflys, but we are supposed to be at least entertained by them. I want to think Zombie is deliberately pushing buttons to challenge our potential sympathy for rotten people, but it feels more like cheap shock value. And there’s none of the class-warfare critique here that 31 delved into.
On a technical level, Zombie continues the use of slo-mo and freeze-frame he used in 31, often in a manner that makes it appear he’s editing around an action sequence he didn’t have the money to stage in full. Taking to heed the Roger Corman axiom that breasts are the best special effects, he compensates with copious nudity – probably more than you’ll see in any other American theatrical release this year. For nearly the entire first act of the movie, he takes a page out of Natural Born Killers and makes a pastiche of TV broadcasts and “real” footage to tell the story. Interestingly, he takes pains here to show that African-American activists support the Firefly family, though they’d have no good reason to do so beyond the most simplistic possible interpretation of sticking it to the man.
For fans of Zombie’s characters, there’s enough here to tide one over. Brake made quite the impression in 31 as assassin clown Doom-head, and I can’t think of anyone better to play not-Sid Haig. Moseley is clearly having a blast, and Zombie still shoots his wife like she’s the sexiest woman alive, which is all the more radical by movie standards now that she’s 48. But all three deserve better than re-quel hell. It’s silly to complain that Zombie didn’t put a lot of thought into the story, as he rarely ever seems to, working more instinctively and visually (when his movies do have real subtext, it often seems accidental or subconscious). But maybe it’s time to show him a wider range of movies and give him some more diverse influences to chew on.
