Vampin' it up

One of my Christmas presents was the set of all three "From Dusk Till Dawn" movies. Nothin' says Christmas like a good vampire movie! We watched the first one the other night, and I had forgotten how good it is! It's always been one of my favorite vampire movies, and it was fun to revisit it after a few years.

Spoilers ahead, along with some language

George Clooney and Quentin Tarentino play a couple of brothers, Seth and Richie Gecko, who are crooks and killers, and need to get to Mexico to meet a guy for a "business" deal. They hijack the motor home of a preacher named Jacob (Harvey Keitel), and his two kids. They make it to Mexico, and get to the meeting place, which is a biker bar and strip club called the Titty Twister. As the evening progresses, they find out that these girls really suck...and not in a good way!

This movie is just a heck of a lot of fun. There is plenty of subtle humor, as you can see in this exchange between Jacob and one of the bikers:

Jacob: Has anybody here read a real book about vampires, or are we just remembering what a movie said? I mean a real book.

Sex Machine: You mean like a Time-Life book?

I told Ken that all the great horror movies have a touch of dark humor. I liked this conversation, where Seth has just been through a very rough night:

Carlos: So, what, were they psychos, or...

Seth: Did they look like psychos? Is that what they looked like? They were vampires. Psychos do not explode when sunlight hits them, I don't give a fuck how crazy they are!

End of spoilers

I was surprised to see that this movie was made in 1996--I thought it was quite a bit earlier. This was made during George Clooney's "ER" time period (1994-2000), so it was when he was just starting to make the transition to movies and away from TV. Even though his character is a killer, you can't help but like him, because he ends up doing the right thing and being a bit of a hero. It's hard to dislike George, though, isn't it? Quentin Tarentino is great as the slimy Richie, and I always like Harvey Keitel--remember The Fixer in "Pulp Fiction?" I'm not a big fan of Juliette Lewis, but she was good in this, and Cheech Marin plays not one but three roles (the hawker outside the club is a riot). The guy who plays Sex Machine is Tom Savini, the legendary horror movie makeup and special effects guy who went on to act and direct.

We may have George Clooney in this movie, ladies, but the guys have Salma Hayek and her dance. I told Ken, "I'm a girl and even I have to admit that's hot!"

It's not a movie for the faint-hearted, because there is plenty of foul language, lots of blood and decapitations, melting, gooey vampires, and junk like that. It also has a totally kickass soundtrack, which I think I'm going to have to look for. This is a modern classic vampire movie, ranking right up there with "The Lost Boys." Hey, now that I think about that movie, there were a couple of brothers in that one, the Frog brothers. In "From Dusk Till Dawn," we have the Gecko brothers. I wonder if that was an homage?

Here's the trailer, and if you like this kind of movie, this is a great one. Thanks for the present, Honey!