27 Days of Fright (The Reprint) - Day Twenty Four

Originally Published Wednesday 29th October 2008

From Dusk till Dawn

Whichever way you cut it, Quentin Tarantino is a tosser. He’s made one or two decent movies but for the most part he’s a self-obsessed twat who drags up obscure material from the 1970’s and rams it down your throat in a desperate attempt to feel relevant and cool. Then, he wrote “From Dusk till Dawn” and all his sins were forgiven, including his performance in the movie!

Dusk till Dawn follows the Gekko brothers, Seth and Richie, two bad ass bank robbers on the run from the law and heading to Mexico to a safe haven they have lined up. Along the way they encounter the Fuller family, a preacher who has lost his faith as a result of his wife’s tragic death, and his son and daughter, Scott and Kate. The Gekko’s take these three hostage as part of a ploy to get safely across the Mexican border.

Once in Mexico the group hold up in a wild bar with a great name – The Titty Twister. Seth and Richie, though now safe from the law, are constantly on edge and are unable to avoid trouble, getting into a row in the bar that sparks off the shock revelation that the place is crawling with vampires! With their secret out, the creatures of the night kill all round them, leaving an ever decreasing number of survivors to make funny remarks about their situation until we are left with Kate and Seth to face the hoards of the undead alone.

One for the ladies, but fellas, listen close!

Dusk till Dawn is a simple vampire tale where everyone (nearly) gets murdered. What makes it such a joy is the level of humour involved, not so much as to push it into out and out comedy territory but enough to make it nicely quotable. The vampires characters are exaggerated caricatures of the person they are based on and the humans are pretty much the same only without the make up, Fred Williamson as the troubled Vietnam veteran is a prime example as is the biker, Sex Machine with his amazing weaponry.

On the acting side there are some let downs. Juliette Lewis is a skank and should not be allowed to be in films, academy award nomination or not, she’s just rotten. Tarantino is such a pleb of an actor it’s easy to see how he only ever gets screen time in films he’s either written, produced, or directed himself. George Clooney on the other hand is brilliant as Seth, the ultimate bad ass, or as he says himself, a bastard, but not a fucking bastard!

Two Thumbs Up for From Dusk till Dawn.