From Dusk till Dawn

Alternate titles : None

Tagline : "How far can too far go"

Perhaps one of the weirdest vampire films ever, the movie starts off with a couple of escaped criminals, Seth and Ritchie Gecko (played by George Clooney and Quentin Tarantino), who're on the run from the law, as they try to get over the Mexican border.

With the police, FBI and Texas rangers closing in on them, they Hi-jack a camper van, belonging to former priest Jacob Fuller (Harvey Keitel) and his family and force them to drive them across to Mexico.

After bluffing their way through the border check-point, Seth then forces them to drive to a rowdy bar in the middle of nowehere called the Titty Twister, where they are to meet with some of his gangster chums. But what they don't know is the bar is actually a front for a vampire coven, who prey on unwary travellers. As they find out when they get into an argument with the management, and they suddenly sprout fangs.

Seth, Richie and Jacob's family then find themselves fighting for their lives, along with the other people in the bar, as they try to hold off the bloodsucking creatures long enough for Seth's Gangster buddies to turn up. Juliette Lewis also stars and look out for special appearances by horror actor John Saxon, SFX wizard Tom Savini, Danny Trejo and comedy actor Cheech Marin, who has 3 separate roles.

Not your typical Tarantino/Rodriguez film, being part road movie, part vampire film (which caught a lot of audiences off guard). If you're a fan of Tarantino's or Rodriguez's films and if you like vampire stuff, you'll probably love it. It's great fun, but it is a little unusual...

Overall Marks : 8/10.

Terrifying Trivia

• Alternate tag lines used, "Vampires. No Interviews.", "From Quentin Tarantino. From Robert Rodriguez. From Dusk Till Dawn", "The Showdown is on", "One night is all that stands between them and freedom. But it's going to be a hell of a night."
• Green blood was used for the vampires to get the movie past the censors.
• Antonio Banderas, Steve Buscemi, Michael Madsen, Tim Roth, John Travolta, and Christopher Walken were all offered the role of Seth Gecko prior to George Clooney, but all passed because of scheduling conflicts.
• The codpiece gun that Sex Machine (Savini) wields was one of the weapons found in El Mariachi's guitar case in the film "Desperado", which was also directed by Robert Rodriguez.
• Tarantino was originally going to direct it himself, but decided not to, so he could focus on writing the screenplay and his role as Ritchie. He offered to job to special effects technician Robert Kurtzman, but he was unable to commit, so he eventually asked Robert Rodriguez, who jumped at the chance.
• The Titty Twister set was built in a desert in California.
• The name of Salma Hayek's character "Satanico Pandemonium" came from the title of a gory Mexican horror movie (Satanico Pandemonium - 1975) that Tarantino had seen on the shelves of the video store in which he worked.
• Horror veteran John Saxon (A Nightmare on Elm Street) played the FBI Agent being interviewed on Television.
• The US version was trimmed slightly, in order for the film to be granted an "R" rated rating. This cut the scene where Richie (Tarantino) repeatedly stabbed one of the vampires, reducing the number of stabs from 5 to just 2. The UK version passed by the BBFC with an "18" certificate was the full uncut version, and showed all 5 stabs.
• The film was initially banned in Ireland by the Irish film censors who where not impressed by Harvey Keitel's character Jacob (a faithless priest) and the fact that half the film was set in a strip bar (a good job that Sky movies is available in Ireland). It was later released on DVD though.

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