Cinema Basement's Vampire Spectacular: From Dusk Till Dawn

A review by Chris Lee

“OK, Vampire Killers. Let’s kill some fucking vampires!”

As someone who absolutely adores great creature features, it is hard to write this review without sounding like I’m gushing.

Quentin Tarantino’s first paid screenwriting gig is a mile-a-minute roller coaster of pulp drama and gory practical effects; a genre mashup of criminal caper and b-movie horror proceedings.

There is really no film like it, that pulls of its characters and threadbare plot in such a satisfying, earnest, and entertaining way.

The film follows criminal siblings Seth (George Clooney) and Rich (Quentin Tarantino) Gecko, who’re on the run from the law and seeking to make their way across the U.S.-Mexico border to freedom.

On their way down south, they commandeer the camper of the Fuller family, a dysfunctional trio made up of a widower preacher named Jacob (Harvey Keitel), his biological daughter Kate (Juliette Lewis), and his adopted son Scott (Ernest Liu).

Racing over the border and finally free, Seth stops the adventure at a Mexican strip joint named “The Titty Twister”. There, he plans to keep the Fuller family hostage until he and his brother’s associates arrive to take him them further into Mexico.

Well, we’re only about an hour into the movie at this point so something has to go wrong. Instead of a cliche shootout with the law however, Rodriguez and Tarantino decide that this Mexican Strip Club for Bikers is actually a night-time feasting ground for Aztecan vampires. How silly is that?

It’s pretty silly. It’s also fucking dope as hell.

The next hour of the film ratchets up into an unending fight for survival against a horde of the blood-sucking undead, all brought to life in fabulously grotesque practical make-up and animatronic effects that’ll stick in your mind like a holy-water doused crossbow bolt.

Inherently, horror movies are ridiculous. The horror movies that do it best realize this and stick to what people want: cool characters surviving (or getting killed in) scary scenarios. If you’re looking for a fun and intense Halloween-appropriate romp, you can’t do much better. The soundtrack is bangin’ too.

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