Director: Rob Zombie
Year: 2019
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Exploitation
Plot:
After surviving the police ambush, the psychotic family is split up in the prison system forcing them to reunite with their long-lost brother which enables them to head to Mexico to let the heat die down, but when they discover they're being hunted by a familiar foe resort to their old ways to survive.
Review:
There really isn't much to like with this one. Among the only good parts here are the film's rather impressive grindhouse atmosphere, which makes it as dark and grimy as the others rather easily. The exploits of the family while stuck in prison, resulting in numerous beatings, guard abuse, and general over-the-top torture that shows off the treatment inflicted upon them by not only the guards towards them but also what they dish out to the other prisoners, resulting in a rather dark and brutal sequence. The home invasion that forces him to free her is just as vicious and graphic resulting in some generally graphic elements present here, much like their later antics at the motel which is only enhanced by the fun of mixing together the atmosphere of the celebrations to add a little more just like the overall dirty feeling generated here. Given plenty of gore and graphic bloodshed as well as other sleazy aspects, this manages to hold up somewhat.
There are some big problems with this one. The main issue is the film's overall presentation, which feels much like the previous films about their antics taking center stage in a rampage, heading out on the road. The prison break is a small, glossed-over section of the film, and it turns into a road trip following that part of the film, which seems to be nothing more than an extended chance to spotlight their actions and glorify the family with everything they do. This one goes from the prison scenes to the escape attempt and then stops off at a motel before arriving in Mexico, which is all given to showcase them killing anyone they come across, which is the exact same thing as the previous film. None of this is as interesting as it thinks it is, and really causes the film to feel like a retread of the previous entries without doing anything new.
The other issue with this one is that when it doles out the new elements, none of them are just as interesting as it thinks it is. The new family member introduced here is a total mystery as to where he's been the entire time, with no mention of where he's been the entire time, instead of helping them out, as he comes off like the placeholder he really is. The son of the slain hunter coming after them is a cliché based entirely on the premise of reworking a storyline from the previous film for no reason other than to mention the past cast members while again running through the films' main theme of glamorizing the family's ruthless antics throughout which makes this feel far too long for its own good. Some of that is enhanced for no reason by the needless slow-motion sequences that last way too long and feature too many individual sequences, which is a major recurring problem here. These factors all bring this one down overall.
Overview: ***/5
A better-than-expected entry but still has some issues, this one does what it needs to close out the trilogy with the same attitude as the others did, which might not be to its benefit at this stage of the series. Give it a shot if you're not that bothered by its flaws or are ardent fans of the series or the creative crew, while most others out there should heed caution with this one.
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