From Dusk till Dawn – season 3 – review

Directors: various

First aired: 2016

Contains spoilers

For noting; the previous season reviews can be found: Season 1 and Season 2.

By the end of Season 2 (heavy spoilers if you haven’t watched season 2) Carlos (Wilmer Valderrama) had been killed, chopped into pieces and those pieces buried in different locations. Santánico (Eiza González) killed Lord Malvado and broke away from Richie (Zane Holtz, Vampires Suck), who took over Malvado’s crime syndicate with Seth (D.J. Cotrona). Kate (Madison Davenport) is killed and then, through blood from the Well, comes back with red eyes and the Titty Twister is destroyed.

Amaru possessing Kate

So, as the third series start we have the Geckos trying to make a go of their inherited crime syndicate but it turns out that the Titty Twister contained demonic prisoners from Xibalba – a demonic dimension where the culebras had been slaves. The Nine Lords of the Culebra had killed Amaru (played by Madison Davenport when possessed of Kate’s body and later played by Natalie Martinez) the Xibalban queen. The Well had contained her blood (and thus she possesses Kate’s body) and the Nine Lords had consumed her body. Amaru’s quest is to get her body back (for which she needs the ashes of all the Lords) and open the gate to Xibalba to release Hell on Earth.

in Amaru's thrall

We get new lore in that the culebras will heal very slowly from damage caused by Xibalban weapons. Also, there is one particular Xibalban demon who captures culebras, drains their venom and then remove the venom glands. This makes them slaves to Amaru and also immune to staking for some reason. Certain culebras can function in daylight through force of will – but may burn if they lose concentration. There is a shadow self that is orientated to Xibalba and this can be accessed to make someone an agent of Amaru.

Tom Savini as Burt

The series sees the protagonists and antagonists from previous seasons band together to fight against the peril that is Amaru. As well as the general arc there is the opportunity to face the characters against particular demons each episode. Carlos is rebuilt and returns to the series and we get a new character in the form of Burt (Tom Savini, Absence of Light, the Dead Matter Dark Craving, Lost Boys: The Tribe, Forest of the Damned, Martin & From Dusk till Dawn). Savini, of course, was Sex Machine in the original film, a role taken in the series by Jake Busey – the series deliberately pairs them together and the two work very well together – with a cracking throwaway joke about the groin gun towards the end of the season.

Eiza González as Santánico

However, despite a nice circular ending (though there is a thread in the final credits that could open a fourth season), this still wasn’t up to the first season. That said, like every season it was very watchable, Santánico is perhaps a tad side-lined but Madison Davenport is clearly having a great time playing the villain. All in all, score-wise, probably worth the same as season 2. 6.5 out of 10. The imdb page is here.