The bloodthirsty Firefly family return to reap more carnage in Rob Zombie’s latest film, 3 From Hell. Coming almost fifteen years after their last outing in The Devil’s Rejects, and the trio’s presumed death, do they still cut it as everyone’s favourite family of maniacs?
LIonsgate
In addition to being a musician, Rob Zombie is also a talented film director well-known within the horror genre. To the masses he’s best known for his remakes of John Carpenter’s Halloween and Halloween 2, but to genre fans his biggest films are those that focus on the Firefly family – House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil’s Rejects. The latter was released in 2005 and seemingly ended with the remaining Firefly trio, Captain Spaulding (Sid Haig), Otis (Bill Moseley), and Baby (Sheri Moon Zombie), being killed. As they made their escape, they were showered with bullets and looked very much dead. Now though comes a new film in the Firefly series, one that proves this family are very hard to kill. The saying goes ‘evil never dies’, and in 3 From Hell that saying is most certainly proved.
3 From Hell begins via a documentary film that serves as an exposition tool, explaining away how the three survived certain death, before filling in the circumstances of the family during their ten year separation. After a typically violent scene, we then join them as they reunite and set about getting back to the family business – murder most horrid.
Recently, Captain Spaulding star Sid Haig sadly passed away, this film marking his last on-screen performance. Given his ill health at the time of production, Haig’s presence in the film, though memorable, is brief. Those panicking that the film won’t be the same without the menacing Spaulding will be pleased to hear that we still get three Fireflys, the threesome being rounded out this time with half-brother Foxy, played by Richard Brake. Brake fits in seamlessly, his previous working relationship with Zombie on Halloween 2 and 31 clearly helped as it feels like Foxy has always been a part of the series.
Related: 3 From Hell and the best in hillbilly horror
The film itself is split into three different sections. As previously mentioned, it begins with a documentary team recounting the event immediately after The Devil’s Rejects before moving onto fill-in the viewer on the time in between that film and this one. This portion of the film feels very similar to the first act of Zombie’s Halloween. The film then switches up and sees Otis and Foxy host a siege at the home of Baby’s prison warden (Jeff Daniel Phillips). This section of the film falls much more in line with The Devil’s Rejects and is home to some of the better moments. The finale of the film taps into early Rodriguez, heavily channelling Desperado. The constant changes in tone and style keeps the viewer on their toes, but also throws up some muddled moments. Were the film to pick one style and stick to it throughout, the result would be much more cohesive. As it stands, the film is another solid trip with the Firefly family, but one that feels a tad disjointed.
Though 3 From Hell might at times be a little disappointing, Zombie has gone to town with the special features. First there’s an audio commentary with Zombie himself, but the standout on the disc is the feature length documentary that charts the entire film making process. To Hell and Back: The Making of 3 From Hell, charts the production on an almost day-by-day basis, giving audiences an in-depth look behind the curtain. This documentary is filled to the brim with interesting facts about the production process, several of which will have you looking at the film in a different light, and may even encourage a repeat viewing to see if you can spot things that you missed the first time around.
We mainly focus on the prop masters, especially those in charge of weapons, and find out just how safe the film was. They’re an element of crew so often left out of behind the scenes footage, and yet they clearly have one of the most important jobs on set. The documentary also spends a lot of time with the visual effects team. How many visual effects can there be in a horror film like this I hear you ask? Well the answer is a Hell of a lot. It seems that on a film of modest budget and limited shoot schedule, a lot of things are achieved in post production.
3 From Hell offers a welcome return of one of horror’s most vicious families. It’s not a perfect homecoming, but with the addition of new family member Foxy, it might not be the last we’ve seen of the Firefly band.
3 From Hell is on Digital Download, Blu-ray™ and DVD from 14 October.
