PopHorror Let's Get Scared
“Everybody be cool….YOU…be cool” ~Seth Gecko.
Welcome back to The Black Box Chronicles where we take a look at some of the best and most memorable movies from my childhood. As the calendar turned to 1996, a new vampire movie was coming out directed by Desperado’s Robert Rodriguez and written by Quentin Tarantino. Me being a massive Desperado fan, I was ready for it. What was released blew my mind and became the number 1 movie in The Black Box Chronicles. I must have seen it 25 times at least when it first hit the pay-per-view channel and subsequent movie channels a month later. That movie was the 1996 action horror flick FROM DUSK TILL DAWN.
So what’s FROM DUSK TILL DAWN about? Two armed robbers, brothers Seth (George Clooney – TV Series E.R.) and Richard (Quentin Tarantino – Desperado 1995) Gecko are on the run in southern Texas after their latest heist left a few dead in their wake. Their goal is to meet up with their contact Carlos (Cheech Marin – Up In Smoke 1978) in Mexico who’s going to hide them away in El Ray for the price of 30% of their loot. Only problem is the border is crawling with Texas Rangers and police, how are they going to get across?
Enter the Fuller family. Widowed pastor Jacob (Harvey Keitel – Reservoir Dogs 1992) and his children Scott (Ernest Liu – The Westing Game 1997) and Kate (Juliette Lewis – Natural Born Killers 1994) are at a motel that Seth and Richard happen to be at. They’re driving a massive RV so Seth orders Richie to kidnap them and make a deal at gunpoint. Get them across the border to Mexico without incident and they’ll go their separate ways. They are successful and Seth has Jacob drive the brothers to their designated meeting spot, The Titty Twister, a local nudie bar run by Chet Pussy (Cheech Marin…again) with Razor Charlie (Danny Trejo – Machete 2010) tending the bar.
Seth says to have a few drinks and when Carlos arrives, the Fullers can go and no hard feelings. In the bar they meet Sex Machine (Tom Savini – Dawn of The Dead 1978), Frost (NFL player Fred “The Hammer” Williamson) along with a mariachi band (Tito & Tarantula) and tons of strippers.
Then for our viewing pleasure the gorgeous Santanico Pandemonium (Salma Hayek – Dogma 1998) does a table dance for Richie set to Tito & Tarantula’s After Dark. Take a listen here! What a blast right? Well not exactly. Turns out Chet Pussy didn’t take kindly to the Gecko brothers coming inside so they beat the crap out of him before they entered. Once the lap dance is over, Chet brings over Big Emilio (Ernest Garcia – The Heartbreak Kid 2007) and Razor Charlie to confront the Geckos.
The brothers gun them down but not before Charlie buries a dagger in Richie’s hand. Santanico spots the blood on Richie’s hand and transforms into a vampire. Richie is attacked and killed and suddenly Chet, Charlie and Emilio rise up as vampires along with the strippers transforming as well. The whole room of bikers & truckers are killed leaving only Seth, The Fuller family, Sex Machine and Frost to deal with the onslaught until the sun rises. Can they do it? Watch the movie and find out.
The story actually came from makeup specialist Robert Kurtzman back in 1988 and he asked Quentin Tarantino in 1992 to write it as a tradeoff with the makeup company working on Tarantino’s movie Reservoir Dogs. The story was written but Kurtzman had no field directing experience, so the project was shelved for a few years. Following the success of Desperado, Tarantino asked Robert Rodriguez to direct FROM DUSK TILL DAWN with permission from Miramax.
As with anything, you can’t care about the characters without development. George Clooney plays the take charge Seth that only kills or harms when he has to while Tarantino plays the creepy rapist Richie to perfection. Harvey Keitel is known for playing stoic characters and Jacob Fuller as the near emotionless preacher was a great performance. Juliette Lewis played a great damsel in distress and the scene where she has trouble staking the vampires shows her human side. Cheech Marin plays three roles and one of which was one of the funniest he ever played. “Come on in Pussy lovers!!!”
Speaking of Cheech, Tarantino used most of his crew from Desperado to the point you expected Antonio Banderas to walk in reprising his role of Armand from Interview With A Vampire. Salma Hayek, Tito Larriva, Cristos, Mike Moroff and Danny Trejo join Hayek and Tarrantino from Desperado. With the exception of Moroff and Cristos, every single one of them have at least one funny one liner in FROM DUSK TILL DAWN that can still be quoted today.
The makeup effects were top notch mostly due to expert Tom Savini being part of it. The mastermind behind the Dawn of The Dead effects was present and the vampires looked amazing, especially the versions of the ones that were previously human. He also has one of the best lines in the movie “Sex Machine, pleased to meet you.”
Let’s also talk about a Tarantino staple, the amazing soundtrack. Quentin always had a knack for finding obscure or forgotten songs and somehow turning them into some of the best parts of the movie. Seth and Richard leave the blown up liquor store and Dark Night by The Blasters plays over the opening credits. The RV shows up to the Titty Twister with various bikers making their entrance to She’s Just Killin Me by ZZ Top. The band in the Titty Twister plays Angry Cockroaches (which they themselves performed) and the previously mentioned After Dark to the Salma Hayek table dance.
Add in the haunting score when everything goes to hell and you’ve got a great movie with a soundtrack to match.
So what about the legacy? George Clooney was already a mega star on the hit TV show ER and this launched his solo movie career that still continues today. Salma Hayek seemed to stop aging in 1996 and continues to be in great movies as well. Harvey Keitel and Cheech Marin have taken a step back in their advancing years but both of them have incredible legacies of their own. Juliette Lewis pretty much reached her peak in the mid 90’s but having a legacy of Christmas Vacation, Cape Fear, Natural Born Killers and From Dusk Till Dawn is a hell of a run.
Tarantino continued to rock Hollywood for 20 years following FROM DUSK TILL DAWN although Ernest Liu was pretty much one and done here. Rodriguez went on to have a little bit of fun directed the Spy Kids franchise that naturally included Hayek, Cheech and Trejo. Michael Parks became a FDTD staple no matter what movie or show.
As for the film? Its now a franchise. A direct to video sequel called From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money was released in 1999 starring Robert Patrick and it turned into one of the best DTV movies of all time. Usually a third installment means back in time or go to outer space and sure enough, From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman’s Daughter takes place back in 1913 featuring a spin on the very real Ambrose Bierce joining Pancho Villa’s Mexican revolution. In 2001, a long awaited video game came out called simply From Dusk Till Dawn which Seth Gecko is sentenced to death following his capture and is shipped off on a prison boat.
Naturally vampires that didn’t happen to be at the Titty Twister on that fateful night took a dim view of their brethren being slaughtered so they snuck aboard the prison boat to kill Seth. Its up to you to guide Seth to safety in a third person shooter. In 2013, Robert Rodriguez came up with a TV series called From Dusk Till Dawn which elaborated on the characters from the first movie. The Gecko Brothers, The Fuller family, Santanico Pandemonium, Sex Machine, Carlos and Earl McGraw are featured although they have been completely recast. Of course the show has the obligatory Danny Trejo appearance because how the hell can you have a project without him in it?
Any complaints? Very minor. The character Frost isn’t even named in FROM DUSK TILL DAWN although Fred “The Hammer” Williamson made due with what he could. A modern day video game done in the style of The Warriors, Reservoir Dogs and The Godfather where you play out events from the movie along with prequel scenes would have been fun. Imagine playing as Seth & Richie trying to escape their bank robbery, or turning the opening liquor store battle into a boss fight. You could have also had a battle royale mode featuring the movie characters in a Titty Twister rumble. Imagine Cheech Marin as Carlos fighting himself as Chet Pussy. Too bad the technology wasn’t around in 1996.
Is it gory? You bet your bippy it is. Its a vampire movie so there’s gunshots, decapitations, limb removal and buckets of blood. It starts in the first five minutes with the liquor store shootout and ends with the vampires exploding from direct sunlight. Kudos to Tom Savini and Robert Kurtzman’s makeup department for their great practical effects.
It does get downright creepy as we don’t see Richie rape someone but only the gruesome aftermath that Seth is STEAMING MAD about. Not only that, Richie has fantasies and daydreams about Kate that not only Seth but Jacob pick up on. Audiences don’t take kindly to rapey Richie being portrayed as a protagonist in the first half of the movie. And there’s the obligatory Tarantino foot fetish shown on full display. You’ll know when you see it. It all adds to the down and dirty theme of FROM DUSK TILL DAWN.
All in all, what makes FROM DUSK TILL DAWN an all-time classic is its not supposed to be straight horror, its action based. You’re not going to get Resident Evil or Silent Hill, this is essentially John Dillinger’s gang against vampires. The one liners, the soundtrack, the makeup effects and the story all were a hit. The budget for the movie was 19 million and it grossed 60, not too shabby. If you’re looking for classic horror that is more psychological based, this ain’t it. If you want a straight up gun fight for half of the movie that slows down once in a while, this is the movie for you. Let’s end this editorial with one last quote.
“MOTHERFUCKING VAMPIRES! I SWEAR I’M GONNA KILL EVERY LAST ONE…OF YOU GODLESS, FUCKING PIECES OF SHIT!” ~Seth
“Yes you are, and I’m gonna help” ~Jacob
