From Dusk Till Dawn

Recently widowed pastor Jacob (Keitel) has taken his daughter and son on a motor home holiday in attempt to strengthen their family bonds and renew his challenged faith. But that plan promptly goes to hell when they are kidnapped by common criminals Seth (Clooney) and Richie (Tarantino) Gecko, two brothers on the lam following a liquor store hold-up gone awry. The pair force their captives to take them down to Mexico in an attempt to escape the authorities, but when they decide to seek refuge for the night in the Titty Twister strip club, they find themselves at the mercy of more than just the long arm of the law. It turns out that this bar is also a vampire lair full of fanged fiends, led by she-devil Santanico Pandemonium (Hayek), thirsty for the blood of our human protagonists who must fight together if they are to ever see the break of dawn…

Starting as a tense character-driven road movie and climaxing in an epic high-stakes massacre, From Dusk Till Dawn strikes a great balance between smart dialogue and hilariously excessive violence. It is no great shock that Robert Rodriguez went on to direct Sin City and Planet Terror in more recent years, each exhibiting the hyperbolically graphic direction on display here.

The unlikely pairing of Hollywood hunk Clooney and nerdy fanboy Tarantino works surprisingly well: their dysfunctional duo cement the foundations of the film’s darkly comic style. Salma Hayek sizzles as the nightclub's smouldering temptress, and Keitel is superb as the conflicted clergyman attempting to impart his fatherly wisdom to both his kin and the troublesome ne'er-do-wells.

Profiting from its conscious decision not to take itself too seriously, From Dusk Till Dawn is simply a hell of a lot of fun.

Owen Rye