From Dusk Till Dawn
Don't bring a gun to a vampire fight
While the technique of “misdirection”
is mostly associated with magic, it's nothing new in the world of
horror. Many horror movies portray themselves in a certain way and
then pull the rug out from under us in an effort to create shock and
surprise. Some movies, such as The House Of The Devil, let you know
that the big surprise is going to happen and make you wait. This can
lead to a very boring watch that no payoff can make up for. The key
to any good movie is to have a completely enjoyable start to finish.
It sounds simple enough, but you'd be surprised how many movies make
you sit through an hour of nothing just for a half hour of action. Of
course, when you have a movie written by Quentin Tarantino (Reservoir
Dogs, Inglorious Basterds) and directed by Robert Rodriguez (Planet
Terror, Machete), you don't have to worry about a lack of action.
Or blood
From Dusk Till Dawn is a 1996 horror
action movie starring George Clooney (The Ides of March, O Brother,
Where Art Thou?) as Seth Gecko and Quentin Tarantino as his brother
Richie. Seth and Richie are professional thieves that have left a
swath of destruction across Texas after a bank robbery. They hold up
in a hotel near the border with a bank teller they took as a hostage.
While Seth goes to get food, Richie, a convicted sex offender, rapes
and murders the hostage. When Seth returns, he is infuriated, stating
that he is a thief not a rapist. Needing new hostages, Seth and
Richie kidnap a family driving an RV: Jacob (Harvey Keitel, Pulp
Fiction, Bad Lieutenant), a former pastor with a crisis of faith, his
teenage daughter Kate (Juliette Lewis, Natural Born Killers, What's
Eating Gilbert Grape?), and his adopted son Scott. Seth makes a deal
with Jacob that if he can get them across the border safely, he
promises not to harm them. He also promises to keep Richie from doing
anything to Kate. After a close call, they make it across the border
and Seth has Jacob drive to the rendevous point, a bar called The
Titty Twister, where they are to meet their partners. As they enter
the bar, they are briefly stopped by a worker named Chet Pussy
(Cheech Marin, Up In Smoke, Nice Dreams), but Seth and Richie beat
him down. Inside, Seth and Richie drink heavily an enjoy a
performance by the main dancer, Santanico Pandemonium (Salma Hayek,
Desperado, Four Rooms). After the dance, Chet returns and confronts
the Gecko brothers. Richie is stabbed in the hand and Santanico,
excited by the blood, turns into a vampire and bites him. Suddenly,
all the stirppers and workers at the bar turn into vampires,
attacking the patrons. Joined by a biker named Sex Machine (Tom
Savini, Machete, Dawn Of The Dead) and a Vietnam veteran named Frost
(Fred Williamson, Black Caesar, former Oakland Raider) Richie and
the slain patrons begin turning into the vampires and the group is
forced to kill them. Sex Machine is bitten who, in turn, bites Frost
and Jacob. After hearing the sound of bats flapping outside, the bar
is filled with more vampires. Seth, Kate, Scott, and Jacob retreat to
a back room where they find all the supplies from various trucks that
have stopped at the bar over the year. They arm themselves with
weapons including condoms filled with holy water, a crossbow, and a
drill. With Jacob about to turn into a vampire, will Seth, Kate, and
Scott be able to survive?
The only good vampire is a dead vampire
I can't remember the last time I had
fun watching a movie from start to finish. The first half of the
movie plays out like a crime action movie while the second half goes
for a completely over-the-top horror movie. The great thing is, if
either half of the movie continued in it's original direction, I
still would have enjoyed it. Credit goes in many directions. It's no
secret that Quentin Tarantino can create interesting characters as
we've seen in many of his other films. The dialogue is quick and
snappy while not getting bogged down in words for the sake of using
words like in Tarantino's “Death Proof”. Robert Rodriguez is no
stranger to great action movies and is able to mix in horror very
well, using creative angles and good wide shots to capture the
action. If you enjoy references to other movies, keep your eyes
peeled for a few nods to both Tarantino's and Rodriguez's work
throughout. Admittedly, the horror is ridiculous, but in the fun way,
never taking itself too seriously. There are a few scares, but it's
never the movie's intention to be too scary. More focus is given on
the action and genuinely funny humor. The vampires look good and
there is plenty of blood and violence to keep things exciting. The
movie tries to keep the vampire mythos from straying from the path,
even having a discussion of what can actually kill them. There was
one part where Sex Machine gets his head pulled off, only to have his
body grow a new one and become some sort of giant rat vampire
monster. I'm not sure where they were going with this idea other than
to have a big monster. Didn't really make sense, but at least it
looked cool.
The character of Seth Gecko is brutal,
but oddly charming, forcing the audience to cheer for him despite
being a murderer. It certainly helps that George Clooney is so good
in the role. It's strange that he hasn't been in more villainous
roles, because he is flat-out perfect as Seth Gecko. Quentin
Tarantino is his usual hammy self as Richie which is a mixture of a
good and bad. It is a little weird that he keeps playing rapists,
though. Harvey Keitel is great as the southern pastor Jacob, making
you completely forget that he's a nice Jewish boy from Brooklyn.
Jacob's crisis of faith is quite believable as Keitel plays him with
a quiet exhaustion, beaten down by an act of God that has broken his
beliefs. The movie is full of fun smaller parts for well-known
actors as Salma Hayek, Tom Savini, Danny Trejo (Machete, Con Air),
and Cheech Marin in three separate roles.
Way better looking than Nosferatu
From Dusk Till Dawn manages to do so
many things right that I find myself hard-pressed to find many flaws
with it. It's a little long and there are a few scenes even too
ridiculous for a movie such as this. What starts out as a fun action
crime movie becomes an equally fun horror comedy. Tarantino's
screenplay flow well, especially considering how wordy he tends to
get. The movie has good, believable characters as well as fun,
ridiculous characters in the bar. Rodriguez does a good job capturing
the action with lots of bloody violence and good-looking vampires.
George Clooney is great as Seth and should really play more villains
in the future. Harvey Keitel is equally as good as the broken-down
Jacob. If you can't decide on whether to watch an action movie, a
crime thriller, or a horror movies, you should watch From Dusk Till
Dawn because it is all those things and more.
9.5/10
It is hilarious that i found this because i was searching for the relevance of the giant rat morph. Lol. However, it is lovely to find someone else who appreciates how finely casted this movie was and how it manages to balance the line between gory horror and comedic ridiculous.
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