Review of 3 from Hell (2019) by Godsavethequeen — 27 Mar 2020

Always been a sort of fan of Rob Zombie's whole exploitative killer freakshow style, but this movie flat out didn't cut it. The movie as a whole is style over substance; if you take a step back and look at the story beats, it's basically a series of cliches, one after the other. Besides the nepotism of Sherri Moon having the most screen time while being the worst actor by far, complete with about eight slow-mo shots of her dancing around like a moron, you have no less than three people being shot in the back at the last second, saving our "heroes" deus ex machina style, in addition to more groan-worthy dumb quips from Otis than you can shake a stick at. You basically know what is gonna happen in a scene before it happens. Very uncreative and overall basic plot, hidden under a grindhouse style.

This is basically a Quentin Tarantino movie without good acting. You have a poor man's Charles Manson, a second rate Harley Quinn, and the third dude that isnt Captain Spalding. The movie thinks its more clever than it actually is, with character banter sprinkled in meant to endear you to the evil psychos. It doesnt work because the characters are two-dimensional tropes we've seen before. Psycho killers 1, 2, and 3. Otis looks scary in the camera and talks about the devil, Moon trots out her fake laugh and crazy, unhinged, schlocky character she plays badly in every. single. Zombie movie with Troll 2 levels of acting ability. Throw in a washed out filter over every shot and some violence and you have a movie trying too hard to have a 70s vibe, complete with screen wipe scene transitions for heavens sake. This movie...

Basically, this movie isn't good in my opinion. It's rehashed stuff we've seen done better in Zombies earlier movies.

Stop giving Rob Zombie money until he stops casting Sherri Moon just because she's his wife, and get a script we haven't seen over and over again, expecting the violence and roundhouse style to carry everything. It's getting old.