FROM DUSK TILL DAWN 3: THE HANGMAN'S DAUGHTER (2000)
Starring Michael Parks and Marco Leonardo
A totally kick-ass horror film that, in many respects, surpasses the original. While Robert Rodriguez’s original featured better acting from pros like Harvey Keitel and George Clooney, Part 3 boasts better effects, a "Good, the Bad and the Ugly"-inspired opening half, and better action. The producers obviously had the FDTD formula down pat for this one.
Rodriguez’s influence can be felt all over this movie, which isn’t surprising since he wrote the story (his cousin Alvaro penned the screenplay). Potentially the greatest horror/western film ever made, "FDTD3" truly deserved a theatrical release. Instead it wound up going straight to video.
Parks, who played a ranger in the first film, is great as the real-life, drunken atheist writer Ambrose Bierce (author of "The Devil’s Dictionary"). It’s the early 1900s, and Bierce is passing through Mexico to fight with a revolutionary when he finds himself in a carriage with a wealthy Christian couple from the U.S., who have headed south to evangelize. Rebecca Gayheart, who fans should remember from "Urban Legend," plays the babetitious Bible-thumping wife who won’t have sex with her husband.
Leonardo is a good-looking outlaw who barely escapes his hanging with his life. Chased across the Mexican countryside by his executioner (whose daughter he happens to kidnap), he eventually attempts to rob Parks’ carriage.
As you can always expect in an FDTD movie, the characters eventually wind up at the vampire bar/brothel known in Part 1 and 2 as the "Titty Twister." Former enemies wind up having to work together to fight off the vampire threat. In this film, there’s more tension between the characters than ever before.
Some of the effects are mindblowing for a direct-to-video feature. Particularly awesome: demon heads emanating from decapitated vampires. The action scenes that litter the first half of the film are also well-done, and the film comes across as a big-budget movie. Director Pesce, who had one other western under his belt before making this, is obviously a major talent.
By the way, in real-life Ambrose Bierce (who also was known for writing horror-westerns) is believed to have died in the battle of Ojinaga on January 11, 1914, fighting alongside Mexican revolutionaries.
