Geekatana Review - From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) - When Desperado meets Vampires

From Dusk till Dawn is a 1996 American action horror film directed by Robert Rodriguez and written by Quentin Tarantino. It stars Harvey Keitel, George Clooney, Tarantino, and Juliette Lewis. After enjoying financial success at the box office, it has since become a cult film. Also its Halloween month again so I've decided to do a movie review of this horror classic.

I'm a fan of Tarantino and Clooney after seeing the movie how well they did with the movie Desperado so I immediately got into this one as well. Sadly I never got to watch this on the big screen as I did with movie Desperado. Anyways minor spoilers and let us get on with the review.

From Dusk Till Dawn tells the story of criminals as they cross the desert on the way to Mexico with their hostages. The two stopped by run down truck driver and biker bar named "the Titty Twister" which unbeknownst to them is also the hive for a bunch of blood sucking vampires. Things could only turn to worst as they are forced to fight their way out and survive from "Dusk Till Dawn."

Storywise the plot is pretty much what you would expect from a Torentino film with lots of good action scenes with excellent music playing in the background. The films would have worked even without adding vampires in the mix but putting these supernatural creatures in the mix does add more over the top action ala shoot all you can vampire carnival game. It's just all around vampire shooting fun with a hint of fan service vampire style.

The film does have a ton of violence and swearing so if you are not used to these kind of horror action/crime drama movie then this is probably not for you. It was a shocking experience for me the first time I saw it. This film is supposed to be part of a trilogy but doesn't seem to connect to the other two films the way Demon Knight and Bordello does to each other.

Character wise the film is decent as this is probably definitely Clooney in his element. Salma Heyek also gives a good performance as Santanico Pandemonium. The other characters have enough back story for them to shine in their own way resulting in enjoyable characters that fits the sort of crime horror theme the movie was going for. Much of the character development was at the beginning of the film before it all dives into its horror elements halfway and towards the third act.

Visually the effects from the movie From Dusk Till Dawn are surprisingly good for a film that came out back in 1996. Sure there are some scenes that could have probably been done better but the ones they did right they did it good. The way the local transform into vampires was done with good taste. Sure it is not as over the top or visually stunning as the horror film of today but it was still one of the good ones. The visual was done by KNB which also worked on the effects on Army of Darkness and more recently the effect in the Walking Dead series mostly done in face morphing effects for the vampires.

Although it didn't do much in the box office it was a cult classic for horror fans and garnered two direct to tv movie sequels in DVD form and a tv series with the same name which lasted three seasons. Some liked the first part of the film for its more crime drama and stylized dialogued others like it for its over the top vampire mayhem. If your into vampires and the likes you should definitely give the film at least a once over.

Overall From Dusk Till Dawn is a fun entertaining vampire crime action drama. It mixes enough snappy dialogue and vampire hunting mayhem that a lot of horror and vampire fans would like. If you are a fan of Tarantino's work, Clooney or Selma Hayek you should definitely go see it. The movie is clearly not for everyone however but it is certainly something any horror fan would want to check out at least once.