By Jono Baron
Gargoyle senior editor
Posted Friday, Oct. 27, 2006, The OG, arts

For the infamous Gecko brothers (played by George Clooney and Quentin Tarantino), a large-scale bank robbery was easy; taking an ex-minister and his children as hostages to get themselves across the Mexican border was easy; but although they expected a night of binge drinking and indecent exposure while waiting at a bar in the middle of the desert for their drop-off operation, things took an unexpected turn for the worst when they came face-to-face with sin incarnate: vampires.

“From Dusk Till Dawn” is essentially the 108-minute chronicle of Seth Gecko (Clooney), Jacob Fuller (Harvey Keitel), Fuller's children Kate (Juliette Lewis) and Scott (Ernest Liu), a few gunslingers, and an insane Vietnam vet fighting off the bar employees-turned-undead in order to survive until the morning. And the best part of it is: The fun doesn't stop.

In fact, after the vampires reveal themselves as such, the blood ‘n' guts action, cheesy dialogue, and ridiculous plot turns don't stop for a second. The entire film is a glorious mixture of campy horror with Tarantino's sick, violent screenwriting talents (and unnerving attraction to feet — there's no escaping it).

As the night progresses, the heroes find themselves in increasingly absurd circumstances until their main weapons are squirt guns and balloons filled with holy water and improvised drills fitted with wooden stakes, because vampires from hell who kill random truckers, renegades, and fugitives aren't implausible enough on their own.

Even after the band at the bar morphs into a group of jiggling rubber mannequins with suddenly demonic instruments, director Robert Rodriguez (“Sin City”) decides to kick it up a notch — they also have to explode once fired upon!

All of the corny violence aside, “From Dusk Till Dawn” actually is a good movie in a number of ways. Even the fake special effects do a great job of captivating the audience, and the gory violence is definitely at a level that illustrates supreme mastery.

In addition to the visual atmosphere and cinematography, Tarantino does a truly good job with the screenplay. Although the film is a self-aware B-rate survival horror film (is there any other kind?), certain lines really do stick out as being well-written and just plain cool.

So “From Dusk Till Dawn” does cater to a wide audience. True, it's no “Pulp Fiction” or “Reservoir Dogs,” but it's the kind of film that is perfectly representative of cult horror flicks in general, and that's an achievement all its own.

“FROM DUSK TILL DAWN”
— Click here for IMDB entry
— Released: 1996
— Country: United States
— Runtime: 108 minutes
— Rated: R
— Director: Robert Rodriguez
— Starring: George Clooney, Harvey Keitel, Quentin Tarantino, Salma Hayek