From Dusk Till Dawn
1996 · Directed by Robert Rodriguez
Original language: English
- horror
- action
- crime
The story
After kidnapping a father and his two kids, the Gecko brothers head south to a seedy Mexican bar to hide out in safety, unaware of its notorious clientele.
What it’s like
Grimy southwestern neon against sun-scorched dirt: the first hour is dusty desert highway and cheap motel rooms under flickering fluorescents, then the film shifts into a bar lit in lurid reds, sickly greens and bruised purples, with cramped handheld camera work, quick zooms and gleeful pulp framing. The sound is a rough mix of twangy guitar, sleazy surf-rock and mariachi-tinged dance music, punctuated by wet, sudden gunfire and a steady stream of crunching, splattering gore that often lands as slapstick. Its vibe is sweaty, mischievous and deliberately trashy, a genre-hopping splatter romp that turns from grubby road-movie tension into full-throttle siege horror. Expect heavy, graphic violence and gore throughout, vampire carnage, some crude sexual content and bloody cruelty, all played with a tongue-in-cheek swagger rather than dread. The pacing is restless, with a lurching first half and a relentless second half. It suits a late-night watch with friends or a loud, rowdy genre fix, for people who want B-movie chaos, dark comedy and grindhouse excess rather than anything gentle.
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