From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)

The '90s may not have been a prime decade for horror but they were a second golden age of independent filmmaking.  One of the central figures was Quentin Tarantino, who got noticed with Reservoir Dogs and managed to keep the train running with Pulp Fiction and two other films that he wrote but did not direct: True Romance and Natural Born Killers.  He was suddenly everywhere and he was not afraid to bring his friends along with him.

One of those was Robert Rodriguez.  Rodriguez had an underground hit with his self-financed action film El Mariachi, which translated into actual box office success with its sequel, Desperado.  Tarantino had written a script called From Dusk Till Dawn, but he had written it in hopes to have Robert Kurtzman, who had already begun making a name for himself as a makeup and effects artist, to direct.  For whatever reasons Kurtzman was not able to so Rodriguez was tapped to do the job.  What resulted is one of the best twists in horror history.  That is, if it hadn't already been ruined by the trailers.

Seth (George Clooney) and Richard Gecko (Tarantino) are on the run after a bank robbery that has left five people dead.  While Seth is violent to a point Richie has a tendency to find excuses to kill people for fun and also has a penchant for rape.  The plan is to get into Mexico and pay a contact (Cheech Marin) to get them to safe haven called El Rey where they can enjoy the fruits of their labors.  Problem is, the FBI and the Texas Rangers know exactly where they are heading.

The brothers find a solution when they run into Jacob Fuller (Harvey Keitel) and his children Kate (Juliette Lewis) and Scott (Ernest Liu), who are heading into Mexico on vacation in their motor home.  The ploy works and they make it to the rendezvous point: a bar in the middle of nowhere called The Titty Twister.  It turns out to be a rough place, catering largely to bikers and truck drivers.  It is also a feeding ground for vampires.

Part of the reason that Tarantino wanted someone else to direct is so he could concentrate on playing the part of Richie.  Problem is, as much as Tarantino wishes he was, he is not an actor.  As long as he's not trying to do an Australian accent he has managed to get better, but better in the way Sheri Moon Zombie has, which means going from annoying to tolerable.  Harvey Keitel is top-billed because, although this has George Clooney, who was a current heartthrob at the time, Keitel is the experienced actor of the bunch.  Still, Tarantino is basically the co-star, which did not bode well when the film came out.  However, he did something by accident, which is forget to write a lot of lines for Richie.  Thus, this is the first time he gets a role where he truly works, as Richie's uncomfortable awkwardness somehow fits Tarantino's limited style.

George Clooney was known for playing good guys, so the turn as Seth Gecko was a surprise.  The casting works well because Clooney is a good actor that can fit the roles given him, much like Keitel, and the two work well together as antagonists.  After the vampires show up the central dynamic switches to the two of them setting aside their differences to survive.  

When I first saw From Dusk Till Dawn I was impressed by how well the change in tone and plot worked.  It still does.  Unfortunately, it was still filmed on quite a low budget, and though the corners cut to get things on screen aren't noticeable, the early CGI is.  Satanica Pandemonium's (Salma Hayek) transformation looks good, but the rest of the CGI, though still better than some recent DC and Marvel films, is not convincing.  Kurtzman didn't get to direct but his effects company did all the makeup and effects work, so the practical stuff looks good.  Like in most Rodriguez films, though, I still wonder exactly how some of the more exotic guns - particularly that of Sex Machine (Tom Savini) - actually work.  

Also like with most Robert Rodriguez films it doesn't matter.  It's the aesthetic that does, and even here we see the throwback to '70s b-movies that the pair would celebrate in Grindhouse.  Along that vein we also have Fred Williamson as one of the surviving heroes, as he was making a bit of a comeback as a character actor at the time.  For Rodriguez it was also important for him to put a bit of his culture into the film.  The vampires featured were meant to represent the Mexican interpretation, something glaringly absent from most Hollywood films.  These are creatures that are human in outward appearance only, and even them the glamor barely holds.  They are bloodthirsty monsters and many of the final scenes resemble a zombie film more than they do a traditional vampire flick.

Despite the dated effects this still holds up rather well.  The massacre in the bar is done well for what they could get away with after censorship and From Dusk Till Dawn still stands out as a gem in a time when horror was at a lull.  

From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)

Time: 108 minutes

Starring: George Clooney, Quentin Tarantino, Harvey Keitel, Juliette Lewis

Director: Robert Rodriguez