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After the disappointing From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money, my hope was not high when it came to From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman’s Daughter. Both released within months of each other in 1999 and featuring similar covers, these movies seem to be made by the same people. But in reality they’re not. Both movies are their own productions with different writers, directors and casts behind them. The most notable difference between these two movies is that The Hangman’s Daughter is a prequel to the first two movies.
Set 100 years ago in Mexico, The Hangman’s Daughter follows the story of real life writer Ambrose Bierce who one day vanished without a trace in Mexico. He’s played by Michael Parks who also had a small role in the first From Dusk Till Dawn movie. A character totally unrelated to this character.
Bierce is trying to enlist himself in the army of Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa. Constantly claiming he has something of great value for Villa he draws attention to himself from the local outlaws. After a raid on the stagecoach he was traveling in, he and a missionary couple end up at an inn what would later be known as the Titty Twister.
You can probably guess what happens next by now.
From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman’s Daughter is better that its predecessor. While watching it, this movie points out all the stuff that was missing from Texas Blood Money. Mostly the lack of a connection with the original movie. Aside from one scene in The Titty Twister, none of Texas Blood Money is actually connected to the world of From Dusk Till Dawn. It’s just a movie about a bank robbery by vampires. The Hangman’s Daughter corrects all that and is firmly set in the world of the first movie, with all sorts of clear references.
Michael Parks steals the show as the stoic and often drunk Ambrose Bierce. Sadly the rest of the cast is underwhelming, though both main female characters manage to steal the show with their looks. One of them is played by Rebecca Gayheart, who apparently made such an impact on me with her role in Urban Legend that I could’ve sworn she was in much more well known movies. But according to her IMDB page she’s mostly in TV series I’ve never seen.
The Hangman’s Daughter weakest point is the large cast. In the third act of the movie everybody ends up at the Titty Twister making it a pretty crowded affair. Instead of building on the suspense of a small group of characters pinned into a corner by a large group of vampires, the movie opts to have the final act consist of at least a dozen people facing off against the vampires.
From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman’s Daughter is obviously not up to par with the classic original, but it does provide a fun 90 minutes in the world of From Dusk Till Dawn. There is less reliance on terrible CGI and more on decent practical effects. It’s not a great movie, but you can go a lot worse when it comes to straight to video sequels.
