From Dusk till Dawn (R)
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This came out in 1996, and I must have seen it on TV or something, sometime in the late 90s. I'm writing my review after watching it again on DVD in 2021, and few if any of the details were familiar to me, beyond the basic premise. It was written by Quentin Tarantino and directed by Robert Rodriguez. And btw, putting my review under "vampire films" is inherently something of a spoiler, because the movie doesn't start out that way. It's a total genre shift about halfway through the movie.

Professional thief Seth Gecko (George Clooney) was recently broken out of prison by his brother, Richie (Tarantino), who is obviously less intelligent and more trigger-happy than Seth, as well as being a rapist and prone to mild hallucinations. Together they just robbed a bank, and now they want to go to Mexico to meet a contact named Carlos (Cheech Marin, who also played two other roles in the movie). In exchange for 30% of the money they stole, he'll take them to a sanctuary for outlaws called El Rey. They have a hostage with them, but while Seth is away from their motel room, Richie rapes and murders her. So Seth decides they need new hostages, and they take an RV belonging to a former preacher named Jacob Fuller (Harvey Keitel), who is traveling with his daughter Kate (Juliette Lewis) and son Scott. Seth has Jacob drive them across the border and to a strip club called the Titty Twister, where they're supposed to meet Carlos the next morning.

While waiting through the night, they have some drinks and watch some exotic dancers, most notably Santánico Pandemonium (Salma Hayek). But before long, it turns out all the employees of the club are actually vampires who intend to feed on the clientele. Richie is the first one killed, and after that all hell breaks loose. Seth, Jacob and his kids, and a couple other patrons named Sex Machine and Frost manage to kill all the vampires, but all the other patrons are killed. Then the place gets surrounded by bats trying to get into the club, and once they do they transform into vampires. So there's a lot more work for our heroes to do if they're going to survive the night.

That's all I can say about the plot without spoiling too much. It's a very violent and gory movie, but somewhat stylish and reasonably entertaining. It's more action than horror, so it isn't all that scary, though one can certainly empathize with the fear of the characters. Anyway... the movie spawned a sequel and a prequel, both direct to video, which I have no great interest in ever seeing. There was also a TV series (on a network called El Rey), which I'd kind of like to watch someday, if I can.