From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangmanās Daughter
The ambitious 1996 Robert Rodriguez / Quentin Tarantino collaboration From Dusk Till Dawn created a curious formula that nonetheless was extremely effective: spend the entire first half of the film building a story where criminal miscreants (Tarantinoās specialty) somehow wind up on the run before finally landing themselves in a place where (seemingly out of nowhere with little to no foreshadowing) they wind up being attacked by savagely bloodthirsty vampires of the Mexican variety, a scenario where everyone (good or bad) stands an equal chance of being killed off with the survivors all banding together in a desperate attempt to make it to the end credits. The concept spawned two sequels and a later TV series (none of which could touch the original) but the main gist of the spinoffs would be to explore the nature and origins of this particularly vicious strain of vampires which seems to reside in Mexico. This 1999 entry which constituted Part 3 in the series would opt to go the prequel route, serving as a backstory for Satanico Pandemonium, the gorgeous vampire princess played in Part 1 by Salma Hayek and featuring a moderate cast of would be badasses topped off by Michael Parks (collecting a paycheck for playing a new character after his Earl McGraw was unceremoniously blown away in Part 1) and Temuera (Jango Fett) Morrison as the titular hangman, a nasty sort with bad teeth and extensive scarring. The formula for Part 1 is also adhered to here with the mostly outlaw characters being fleshed out and developed in the first half before the vampire attacks commence in the second half, but the problem is that said first half is just so relentlessly BORING in how it sets up the story, not to mention the camerawork is so overexposed to the point that it blows out the picture contrast entirely, appearing to possibly attempt to be taking on a lucid, dreamy look but instead coming off as being so bright that it becomes hard to watch complete with visible dirt and smears on the camera lens (thankfully this settles down in the darker lit second half). Possibly even more disturbing than that is when we bring out the main Mexican bandit hero (played by pretty boy Australian Marco Leonardi) and as soon as he speaks his first lines, it dawns on us that he sounds like he has a severe learning disability. Scheduled to be strung up by Morrisonās hanging rope in the opening scene, he finds himself (unexpectedly) rescued Clint Eastwood style by a young girl (Jordana Spiro, a cute girl despite being given some unseemly prosthetic teeth) in the first of many nods to both Sergio Leoneās work as well as Rodriguezās own El Mariachi. Her reason? Turns out that the starstruck girl desires to join his gang and become a full fledged outlaw just like him but alas, Leonardi doesnāt allow females in his gang and leaves her to die in the middle of nowhere. Meanwhile, Morrison and his henchmen are in hot pursuit with his own posse and the extra motivation coming from Leonardi having also kidnapped his beautiful daughter (Ara Celi) on the way out whom much to her fatherās raging chagrin willingly went along with the outlaw. Then there is Parks as author and real life historical figure Ambrose Bierce, having sidled on down to Mexico to join Pancho Villaās revolutionary forces hitching a stagecoach ride with a bible thumping couple (Rebecca Gayheart and Lonnie Loftin) whose own Christian views clash mightily with Parksā world weary atheist when they are happened upon by the very same outlaws who then proceed to rob them blind. After Morrisonās posse rescues the fledgling young girl outlaw, the time comes for all of these characters with various scores to settle to arrive at the currently Old West incarnation of The Titty Twister, still being bartended by the legendary Danny Trejo (although when his character vamps out completely here he is obviously then played by an entirely different actor probably because the budget only allowed Trejo to work on set for a limited amount of time). As the various human characters start having at each other with lots of blood being spilled, it isnāt long before the vampires get really hungry and reveal themselves en route to their big attack, forcing everybody to get on the same page as the overtones of Part 1 start coming to the fore (in a good way). The big story here as stated earlier is in having the resident vampire queen on the premises (Sonia Braga, once a very big name after having done the 80s Oscar bait opus Kiss Of The Spider Woman) recognize that the daughter of Morrisonās Hangman (who looks almost exactly like Salma Hayek and was obviously always meant to become Satanico) is also HER daughter as well which makes her not only the heir to the vampire queen throne but literally a princess as well (not to mention it is stated that she is also a virgin). Where this curve ball makes absolutely no sense is that it also means that 1) a female vampire had mated with a human male (Morrison) and had even bore a child with him without ever killing him in the process and 2) Morrisonās Hangman had raised his daughter to be human while knowing all along her actual bloodline origins, even admitting at one point that over the years he had actually KILLED her on several occasions only for her to come back instead. So, what this essentially means is that due to her half human roots, Satanico is in reality a Daywalker (like Blade) for whom sunlight has no effect whatsoever on her. But of course, the real focus here is on the desperate and futile struggle for survival with Parksā atheist having the maturity to best qualify him for taking on the role of leader without even the hint of having him reconsider his religious stance through the ordeal unlike Keitelās faithless preacher in Part 1. The film scores resonance points for the highly original dynamic of having one of The Bible Thumpers getting bit before almost immediately saying a prayer and then having the others kill him BEFORE he ever even turns in the first place. But the investment that viewers had in Part 1ās characters under siege (some of whom we knew better than others) is just not here in this installment as Parks (while it is an interesting performance) is simply not likable while the pretty boy outlaw Leonardi and his considerably more scummy comrades are a hard sell for any viewer to root for and Morrisonās Hangman comes right out of the gate ill tempered and he more or less stays that way for the duration. We also get Orlando Jones as another wayfarer at The Twister who gets bitten rather quickly and then suddenly starts carrying on as if heās The Vampire King rather than the newbie that he truthfully is. Satanico as a young innocent type would appear to be the primary rescue material here but anyone who saw Part 1 prior to this already knows thatās not going to happen and when the wanna be girl outlaw is revealed to have previously murdered her whole entire family in cold blood, one can cross her off the list of those whom we want to see āmakeā it. With its prestigious filming location of South Africa standing in for Old Mexico and the first half conflicts along with even the action scenes early on failing to engage the viewer, one must look to the small and usually gory pleasures which we get served from time to time such as when one guy gets his head blown off in such loving detail that we get to see his skin burst to reveal his skull underneath before it explodes entirely or the revealing of the āOld Oneā (allegedly Satanicoās grandmother and The Queen Mother of all vampires whom Satanico must actually have to kill by her own hand in order to inherit the throne), a disgusting latex creation of a naked old hag with full frontal nudity and played by a male. Is it any better than Part 2? Well, no because Part 2 utilized an original storyline in a Tarantino style while only using The Titty Twister vampires as the catalyst to set off the whole story whereas this entry strives to be more of an Old West remake of Part 1 (complete with almost the exact same final shot) with Satanicoās initiation proving to be the only added wrinkle into the mix. Of course, when doing a sequel thatās really a remake, one must make sure that all of the reused components are casted and presented just right or else parody might wind up taking over in place of homageā¦
5/10