From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) Review

 

From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)

I’ve danced around watching this movie for years, so when I found it on TV this evening, let’s say...I was surprised to say the least.

On the run after a bank robbery gone wrong, brothers Seth and Richard escape into Mexico with the help of a preacher and his kids. It’s there that they stumble upon a bar, that just so happens to be the home base for a horde of vampires, forcing them to fight their way out to survive.

First of all, what the hell is this film??? I went into it completely blind and thought, oh okay, they’re escaping to Mexico and will probably run into more bad luck. NO! There’s vampires! Lots and lots of crazy, superhuman, vampires. Let’s just say, I wasn’t expecting that at all.

The movie itself wasn’t bad though; a bit corny, but when you’re dealing with special effects and vampires in the late 90s, you’re bound to run into those challenges. The complete tonal difference from the first half, to the second half of this is astonishing, with the twist coming completely out of left field. And even though Tarantino doesn’t direct From Dusk Till Dawn (but co-stars), his bloody fingerprints are written all of it. It’s gory, it’s sporadic, and it’s one of the craziest movies on this page to date. Like a mix between Blade, Underworld, and James Gunn’s Slither if I had to sum if up.

As for the acting, some big performances by George Clooney and Harvey Keitel stand out above the rest. The brotherly relationship between Clooney and Tarantino is wonderfully hilarious, and Keitel’s fatherly and mild-mannered persona (compared to his usual work) make for an extremely entertaining and off the walls flick.

From Dusk Till Dawn falls short in some scenes, omitting music and toning down the action in scenes that should be tense and even more wild, but even that doesn’t seem to slow it down in the grand scheme of things. Robert Rodriguez, as usual, is at his kookiest and makes another batshit film to add to his long list of even more batshit films like Machete and Spy Kids. All in all, this is a wild one and it’s genuinely hard to put to words how weird and silly it is, while still attempting to take itself semi-seriously.

6.7/10