From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman's Daughter DVD: Review By Vamp

Well, naturally, after seeing the first two From Dusk Till Dawns, I made it my duty to rent this one as soon as we returned to the movie rental place. As soon as we got there, I went straight back and grabbed. I had seen bits and pieces of this movie before on Sci-Fi channel marathons, but never was able to piece things together and figure out what was happening, so upon seeing this I was naturally happy with what was going on, and this one is just as good as the second one was, which was actually very good. This one is a prequel more than it is a sequel, it explains a lot of things and even returns to the bar that seems to be the center of the bad things that happen in these movies. This definitely wasn't as good as the original, AGAIN, what sequels ever are, but it rates the same on my scale as From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money did. So that's a good enough rating that you should know you need to see this.

The director of this movie is P.J. Pesce, and he does an excellent job of stepping into the shoes of this movie as the director. He had a lot to live up to what with the first two films being so incredible, but he really pulls through this one, and gets the job done. It feels like the other two movies did while watching them, the only difference, it's in the old west, so it only felt the same, just in another time zone. Which is perfectly fine with me. The writers of this movie are Álvaro Rodríguez and Robert Rodriguez, which helps this one out as well, since From Dusk Till Dawn was Robert Rodriguez's film, and he helped with that, he returns to this one, and makes it awesome with the help of Álvaro Rodríguez, and together with P.J. Pesce they bring us another excellent story in this interesting and ever growing series of vampire movies. They definitely knew what it was they were doing, and that also helps to make this movie all the more better.

The visuals in this movie, as was the case with From Dusk Till Dawn as well as From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money, are incredible. Like I've also stated before, it's interesting to see all the different takes on vampires in different movies, and the vampires in the first two films were incredible. In this film, however, they look alot different, yet relatively similar. I know it doesn't make any sense to me either, but that's how it is with them. They're the same reptilian sort of creature, just with a different sort of, well overall look to them. It's all very cool as well. Also I like how the filters and angles are used to make this movie seem like it was filmed in the old west, that's a filming trick that I like, and a lot of the times it can be done JUST right, and this movie does it JUST right. They do the same as the first two did with the blood amount as well, it's a big amount, which doesn't bother me, but it's also a relatively believable amount, which ALSO does not bother me. The visuals are definitely done by someone who knows what they are doing.

The storyline of this one, like the others, is very original, as well as very well thought out and put together. Everything just sort of brings you together in your thinking, and then makes you go, "OH, so that's how it happened," as well as "OH, so that's what her problem is" and other things like that. It's what you'd call enlightening. A man has been forced to travel with a man and a woman who are big bible pushers, but on their journey they are ambushed by a gang of bandits who are holding an extremely powerful man's daughter hostage, by her choice. They take refuge all together in a strange and decrepit old saloon, and soon find out that it's infested with vampires, and that they must fight to win their freedom. It's very interesting, and from the opening scene you're pretty much rooted waiting to see what's going on here. It's fast-paced, and definitely a great addition to the series. Álvaro Rodríguez and Robert Rodriguez really do an excellent job at creating this story and allowing it to start the legend of "The Tittie Twister."

Marco Leonardi stars in the lead of this film as an outlaw/bandit named Johnny Madrid. When it starts Madrid is in the nouse, however the f*ck it's spelled, and he is rescued by a mysterious stranger, but as he leaves, he takes the Hangman's daughter with him. The Hangman is a very powerful man, and soon Madrid finds himself being chased by The Hangman and his men, and that's definitely not a good thing. That's when the person who rescued him shows up, wanting to be a legend like him, and he finds out that she is really a woman, and agrees, but is very harsh with her. What's more is that this new "apprentice" leads them to a possible scavenging jackpott, and soon he finds it's a soldier, and leaves him alone because of honour. Soon however, they all meet up again at a mysterious bar in the middle of the desert, and that's when everything starts to go to sh*t, and they're attacked by Vampires. Throughout all of this though, Madrid is beginning to fall in love with the Hangman's daughter, Esmerelda. Marco Leonardi, whom I've never heard of, does an excellent job in this role. You can tell that he's serious, and yet you can tell that he's falling for the Hangman's daughter. He makes the character very convincing, and the movie all the more believable.

Michael Parks, another actor whom I don't know, stars in this movie as a mysterious and seemingly lost man named Ambrose Bierce. Bierce is in a town at the beginning of the movie, waiting for a carriage or something to take him to a town a while off where he can join the general's army, but the carriage he gets, has two occupants already, and he must share with them. However, he soon finds out that these two passengers are bible pushers, who are in Mexico to do missionary work, so naturally he begins to drink more and more, and of course they notice and start saying things, and just when he's about ready to snap, they're ambushed by a bunch of bandits, and the whole Carriage goes down. So the Bible pushers and himself must treck through the desert to somewhere they don't know. That's when they arrive at a mysterious old bar, and that is where they find refuge. However, they'dve been better off in the desert, as they've entered into a vampire bar and pretty soon are attacked by hordes of vampires. Michael Parks, does an excellent job in this movie as well. He makes his character all the more believable and convincing in his quest to find the general and join his army. He was definitely a great casting choice for the role.

Temuera Morrison, whom I've only seen in the Star Wars movies, plays The Hangman in this movie. The Hangman is a rough man who punishes his daughter Esmerelda with his whip, almost as much as he punishes the men he has to hang. He's very brutal, and very mean, and also, a very powerful man, both in money and strength. When a bandit named Johnny Madrid kidnaps his daughter he heads out after him to get her back. The Hangman's dark past is that he slept with a vampire, and that's who Esmerelda's real mother was, but she could never return to the bar in the desert, or else she would revert to her vampire ways. He protects her as best as he can, but when he arrives in the bar, soon he realizes, when he and the others are attacked by vampires, that he'll have to work together with Johnny Madrid, to get out of the bar alive. Temuera Morrison does an excellent job, and from seeing him in Star Wars, he is good at playing the anti-hero. The GOOD bad guy if you will, and in this movie it's not any different. He's very convincing, and that helps to make the movie all the more believable. He was definitely another great casting choice for this movie.

Rebecca Gayheart, whom I've liked ever since seeing her in the movie Urban Legends, stars in this movie as Mary Newlie. Mary Newlie is sitting along in a carriage with her husband John Newlie, when a strange and, in her opinion, "out of control" man shows up, this man's name is Ambrose Bierce. She soon sees that he has a drinking problem and tries to get him to turn to god so that he may be saved, but she also finds out that he is an aethiest, and doesn't listen. She and her husband are on their way to a town, same as Ambrose, where they will do missionary work. They got the money to procure this dream from Mary's dead father, who willed it to them, and they're using it for God's work. Well soon enough, they're attacked by bandits, and end up trecking to a bar in the middle of no where, where they are attacked by vampires, and now they question their faith. Rebecca Gayheart, who, as I've said, is an actress that I really like, does an excellent job in this movie. She acts a really good innocent bible pushing woman, and that helps to make the movie more convincing and believable. She was another great casting choice for this movie.

Esmerelda, the Hangman's daughter, is played by an actress who I also do not know, Ara Celi. Esmerelda is a girl who has grown up forever without a mother, and constantly beaten and whipped by her father. However when she attends a hanging, and he flips out and whips her back a good lot of times, she is rescued by the escapee, Johnny Madrid, and is whisked away. However, her father is now trailing them, and she's a little worried. She acts as a voice of reason for Johnny throughout the movie, and helps him to make the right decisions, and naturally stay out of trouble. She has a secret deep within her that not even she knows, but when her Johnny, and Johnny's gang decide to stop at a bar for the night, she mysteriously disappears while the others are attacked by vampires. Ara Celi does an excellent job in this movie like the others, and her character is one that would probably be a challenge because you can tell all her inner struggles and pains, and it's all in the expression. Ara Celi has that expression down to a "T." She makes the character convincing and believable, which in turn makes the movie believable and convincing. She was definitely a great casting choice for this character.

Lennie Loftin, yet ANOTHER actor that I do not know that much, plays Mary Newlie's Husband, John Newlie. John, at the beginning of the move, is found with his wife in a carriage when Ambrose Bierce shows up, and in Ambrose Bierce's accusations he says something about John that both of them take as an insult, but John knows that it is true. This statement was that John only married his wife for her money, that she inherited from her dead father. Soon however, after being attacked by bandits, they find themselves in a bar in the middle of the desert, and he sort of lets loose and drinks and gets into a huge bar fight, and that's when the vampires attack, and we find out that he DID infact marry his wife for her money, and he'd been peddaling it for his own benefits. Lennie Loftin does an excellent job in this movie, his characters differences from the others are portrayed by Lennie Loftin extremely well, and he makes the character very convincing as well as very believable, which, of course, also make the movie more convincing and more believable. He was yet another great casting choice for this movie.

All in all this is a movie that is definitely worth the watch. It's got everything that the others had, and also makes an acceptible prequel, that explains a couple of the characters from the first From Dusk Till Dawn movie, and it's also action-packed and interesting to watch. I'd say that if, like me, you loved From Dusk Till Dawn and From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money, then you'd definitely like this movie, as well as if, also like me, you like vampire movies in general, then you'd definitely like this one. It's another one of my favorites!!!!!