From Dusk till Dawn is not only one of my favorite Quentin Tarantino scripts but is hands down Robert Rodriguez’s best work. That isn’t to say this is the best thing QT has written, far from it. As this was a commission job, his first in fact.
Robert Rodriguez on the other hand went downhill from here. Slightly redeeming himself with Sin City but losing it again when he made the sequel 10 years too late.
Kind of like Spike Jonze, maybe it’s best he just sticks with Charlie Kaufman to write his stuff.
Packaged along with the DVD is a full-length documentary on the making of From Dusk till Dawn called Full Tilt Boogie, it is a must see if you love behind the scenes stuff and just filmmaking in general. I really wish more films still did this. The only one I can think of that did something in depth is Rob Zombie’s movie 31. Which for the longest time was sold separately from the movie and was only available online.
I’ve been waiting… I want to say more than 5 years for the 4k Anniversary Edition for From Dusk till Dawn to come out since it was announced. I believe at the time it was the 25th Anniversary, now it would be almost 30.
No one really knows what has kept it from getting released, only guess is it has to do with some legal or rights issue involving Miramax.
If you didn’t know, From Dusk till Dawn also spawned two sequels… Well, one sequel and a prequel. The sequel I remember enjoying a lot, as it was a bank heist movie, but with a vampire. The prequel… well, it sucks. Maybe not as bad as the TV series.
That’s right, they also made a TV series out of From Dusk till Dawn on Robert Rodriguez’s own network El Rey, a reference to From Dusk till Dawn, as it is the safe haven Richie and Seth are headed to in the movie.
The series like I said, is terrible. They took everything that was in the movie and decided, I know, let’s just do the opposite of it. I struggled to finish the first season and gave up pretty quickly on the first episode of season 2. How better or how downhill it went, I will never know.
There is technically another movie set in this universe. I know RR and QT like to reuse characters, for example Earl McGraw, the sheriff who shows up in Kill Bill.
But there is another movie in this cinematic universe you might not have even heard of, one directly linked to From Dusk till Dawn called Curdled. It’s a very small cameo, so not really worth your time tracking down this movie, but on the TV, we get a quick news update on The Gecko Brothers, our two leads From Dusk till Dawn.
It was just a fun tiny part; I think maybe because QT was an executive producer on this film. The movie isn’t very good and is only worth mentioning because if the linked connection.
I’ve read the script to From Dusk till Dawn a bunch of times, so might interject some differences from it to the movie.
As the movie starts, it does a great job of introducing our main characters by tossing them into a hostage situation. Tarantino does scenes like this in almost every movie. These tension filled scenes where you are never really sure what is going to happen next. It has you on edge until the scene is over, most likely erupting in some kind of violent climax.
In the opening scene, Seth and his schizophrenic brother Richie are bank robbers on the run, stopping at a liquor store where things get pretty out of hand.
They have the clerk Pete and a few of the patrons held at gunpoint, hoping the Texas Ranger that just walked in doesn’t catch wind of what’s going on. But like I mentioned, Richie is off his meds and is seeing things, like Pete the clerk trying to warn the Ranger of the situation.
In the script, Richie gets shot in the arm, but in the movie it’s his hand. Visually, it plays to the camera better, with a cool scene of Tarantino looking through the hole in his hand.
Oh yeah, if you didn’t know, Tarantino plays Richie.
After a big shootout and blowing up the liquor store, the two brothers set off to a cheap motel to lay low and find a way to the rendezvous point which happens to be a strip club in the middle of the Mexican desert called The Titter Twister.
Before they can get there however, they need to find a way to cross the border without getting caught. Enter a pastor and his family as they go on vacation in their Walking Dead style RV.
The pastor, played by Tarantino favorite Harvey Keitel, is having a crisis of faith after the death of his wife, due to her long battle with cancer.
With him on the trip is his teenage daughter Kate, played by Juliette Lewis, post Natural Born Killers and his Asian adopted son Scott. They stop at the motel Seth and Richie are staying at, with Kate immediately catching Richie’s eye.
You know right from the start something is wrong with Richie, you quickly find out how off when he is left alone with a hostage the two grabbed from the bank heist, a teller from the bank that has been bound by tape.
When Seth leaves to make a call to get direction to The Titter Twister, Richie does some gross shit to her and kills her.
I don’t believe this was in the original script, but the way it plays out in the movie is so creepy. Richie puts on this nice persona for her as she is clearly scared to death, and the two just watch cartoons together.
When Seth returns it looks as if he raped and beat her to death. They don’t show you exactly what happened, so it makes your imagination run wild.
Seth thinks Jacob and his RV are a perfect way to cross the border, taking his family hostage.
Richie starts hallucinating that Kate is flirting with him, which means Seth now has to keep an eye on him as well.
The Gecko Brothers and the Fuller family take a ride to the border where they are stopped by the border patrol. Seth has to knock Richie out to keep him from blowing their cover.
After getting let through, they head for The Titty Twister, a rough and tumble strip club populated by bikers and fellow outlaws.
What I love about this movie, if you didn’t know it was a horror movie with vampires, you would think this was just a crime film. It doesn’t become a vampire movie about an hour into the movie.
Ever since this came out, you still see this formula getting used a lot. Just recently with the movie Sinners. That trailer is actually what made me want to do a review for From Dusk till Dawn, almost 30 years later, movies are still copying it.
Before entering the Titty Twister, we are introduced to a Robert Rodriguez favorite, Cheech Marin who gives the most memorable monologue in history about the type of “pussy” you can get inside.
He actually plays dual roles in this, as he is also the brothers’ contact that can get them safe passage to El Rey.
Once inside the strip club, it’s about what you’d imagine it to be. There’s a live band playing as a bunch of girls dance for roughneck truckers and bikers.
At the bar we see another Robert Rodriguez favorite, Danny Trejo. The only one to actually return as the same character for every single sequel. He even pops up in the series, not playing the same character though, I don’t think.
For some reason he won’t serve the Gecko Brothers and wants them to leave. I always figured they somehow knew who they were and didn’t want the heat on them as this is a secret vampire lair.
I guess it’s just because they weren’t bikers or truck drivers. Folks that wouldn’t really be missed if they go missing.
Technically they are truck drivers with the RV parked out front, so with that loophole they are able to stay.
At the bar, we get introduced to some new characters, Sex Machine, played by horror SFX master himself, Tom Savini. His best characteristic is his whip and crotch gun. The mechanics for how it works, I have no idea. But it looks cool.
The other standout character is Frost, the vet played by Fred Williamson. An actor that has a stipulation for roles where he always gets the girl and always lives. In this movie however, neither of those things happen.
Seth and Richie are still at odds, as to get to El Rey, they must hand over a giant portion of the money they stole.
Now it’s time for the big show, and one I’m sure you know about even if you haven’t seen this movie. Enter, Santanico Pandemonium, played by Salma Hayek. She really doesn’t have that big of a role in this, but the little screen time she gets leaves a pretty lasting impression.
Her character isn’t in the script, instead we get someone called Blonde Death. Essentially, she’s the same character, with a different name.
Also not in the script, that famous strip scene where Salma Hayek shoves her foot in Tarantino’s mouth. As we all know QT’s relationship with feet. I don’t know if this was something he wrote for himself or something his buddy Robert Rodriguez tossed his way.
Sharon Stone blew Joe Eszterhas for writing Basic Instinct, Tarantino got a foot in the mouth.
The switch from action crime movie to action horror movie is quick. After the dance, Richie gets bitten and turned into a vampire, setting off the chain of events that follow. All the strippers turn into vampires and somehow the band is no longer playing instruments but corpses.
This was always the scene that got to me the most in the film. Just the band using dead bodies like musical instruments freaked me out.
Sex Machine and Frost team up to fight off the vampires, who are surprisingly easy to kill. Jacob and his family take cover behind the bar as Seth has to kill a now turned Richie.
During the fight, Sex Machine gets bitten and slowly starts to turn, hilariously trying to hide it from the rest of the group.
He ends up biting Frost, turning him as the other vampires storm inside the bar.
Seth and the Fuller family make a break for the storeroom in the back, with a heavy door they can lock themselves into.
The store is where they keep all the stuff left over from the bikers and truckers they killed, featuring a crossbow, some condoms and a super soaker that Jacob blesses to make holy water.
Seth finds himself a big ass drill, that he shoves a wood spike through.
What I hate about the script in some parts was it kept cutting between the Titty Twister and these stupid FBI agents. I’m glad they were removed from the movie entirely.
Once they enter the Titty Twister, we never leave it until the sun comes up.
Just recently Tarantino said something about him not thinking George Clooney was a movie star.
It came up not long ago in an interview for his Apple+ movie he made with Brad Pitt, telling QT to fuck off.
I think this has less to do with any kind of hostility, and more to do with old friends just giving each other shit.
QT even directed an episode of ER back in the day. I just wanted to include that because I thought it was funny.
Anyway, Seth and the Fuller family break out of the storeroom, tossing holy water and drilling their way to the bar. Jacob sadly gets bitten and sacrifices himself to save Kate.
Their adopted son Scott can’t go through with killing Jacob, so he is attacked and bitten as well, just leaving Kate and Seth alive.
After shoots a few holes in the walls, they realize the sun is out, making sure the sun hits a disco ball, frying all the vampires in the bar.
In the script, Scott sticks around a little longer, not turning into a vampire until they are out of the club, meeting with Carlos, their guy who can get them to El Rey.
I don’t really care for this ending. I think the ending that is in the movie is pretty much perfect.
It also ends with a character telling a long joke. QT used to do this in his scripts, characters would for no real reason just tell a long joke. It was never something I enjoyed. I love Tarantino, but he isn’t infallible.
They also try to cram on one last action sequence into the movie that felt unnecessary. And the biggest change that I don’t like at all was having Kate leave with Seth, even calling him family.
What?! Nope! I don’t think so. In the movie, Kate very much wants to leave with him, possibly hinting at romantic feelings. She’s a kid, and Seth is cool as hell, so obviously she’d be a bit smitten.
But Seth is like, fuck that. He gives the best answer too with, “Kate, I might be a bastard, but I’m not a fucking bastard.”, and he just leaves her there.
That ending is so much better than them just leaving together.
I love this movie and consider it a classic. Everyone likes to dis on Tarantino’s acting, but he is great here as the creepy psychotic killer.
I was never that into Clooney, but he is at his coolest in this movie. They easily could have spawned more sequels with just his character. I so desperately wanted to see what El Rey was like. The way characters talked about it; it sounded worse than the vampires at the Titty Twister.
RR also loves to show off in this film, giving Seth a ton of “hero shots”, which is basically just him pointing the gun at the camera.
I also really loved the side story of Jacob losing his faith but if forced to face it when vampires suddenly appear.
I did like the chemistry between Seth and Kate, it isn’t heavy handed, it’s very subtle, but it was handled appropriately as she is still a teenager.
The vampire designs are also fantastic, sometimes getting variations like Sex Machine for some reason turning into a giant rat. Or Salma Hayek turning into a snake lady.
Not to mention how great everything looks. Maybe not the 90’s morph effects, but all the practical stuff look amazing.
If you’ve never seen this movie, I highly recommend checking it out. SEE IT!
And Happy Halloween!
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