From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)

"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!"

- Seth Gecko

From Dusk Till Dawn is an American action/horror film of the vampire subgenre. It is the first in a series of three films and is followed by the 1999 direct-to-video sequel From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money. The movie was directed by Robert Rodriguez and written by Rodriguez and longtime collaborator Quentin Tarantino (who also stars in the film). It was produced by Dimension Films and Tarantino's production company A Band Apart and released theatrically in the United States on January 19th, 1996. The movie stars Tarantino and late ER star George Clooney as sibling bank robbers Richard and Seth Gecko. The other cast members include Harvey Keitel, Juliette Lewis, Ernest Liu, Cheech Marin, Danny Trejo and Salma Hayek. After Richie breaks his brother out of prison, they survive a shootout with Texas Rangers and escape. They kidnap the Fuller family which consists of lapsed preacher Jacob Fuller and his children Kate and Scott. They force the Fullers to drive them in their RV across the Mexican border where they eventually come upon a late night hot spot called the Titty Twister. As the Fullers begin to actually form a slight bond with their captors, things erupt into chaos as both they and the Geckos discover that they are in a cantina overrun with vampires.

Plot
Two brothers Seth and Richie Gecko are wanted by the FBI and Texas police for a bank robbery that has left several people dead. They stop at a liquor store with the intent of just picking up a state map, but Richie's psychotic behavior results in Ranger Earl McGraw and the cashier being shot dead while the store burns down. During the gunfight, Richie is shot in his left hand.

The Geckos are heading towards Mexico, where a contact has arranged a safehouse for them. Along the way they stop at a motel and it is revealed that they had been keeping a bank teller in their car trunk as hostage. While Seth goes out to buy some food, Richie rapes and murders the teller, which infuriates Seth when he returns.

Meanwhile Jacob, a pastor who is experiencing a crisis of faith, arrives at the same motel with his daughter Kate and his adopted son Scott. Realizing that the family's RV can be used to get them across the border, the brothers kidnap the family, making a truce that if they can make it past the border, Jacob and his family will not be harmed. After successfully reaching Mexico, they arrive at the "Titty Twister", a strip club in the middle of a desolate part of Mexico, to meet their contact Carlos at dawn. Before entering, Seth and Richie get into a fight with the doorman Chet Pussy, after the latter makes a lewd comment towards Kate. Inside, they are initially ordered to leave by the bartender Razor Charlie, as only bikers and truckers are allowed, but Jacob defuses the situation by showing him his driver's license which has a trucker rating. Seth and Richie drink heavily, encouraging the entire group to do the same. Richie takes special notice of the club's star performer, Satánico Pandemónium during an extended solo performance, after which Chet Pussy and some others approach the group, looking to settle the score with the Geckos. In a short confrontation, Richie is stabbed in his already wounded hand, and seeing his blood, Santánico attacks him, undergoing a transformation into a horrific vampire.

Chaos ensues as the employees, the strippers and the band are all revealed to be vampires. Most of the patrons are quickly killed, and Richie is bitten by Satánico and bleeds to death. Only Seth, Jacob, Kate, Scott, a biker named Sex Machine and a Vietnam veteran trucker named Frost survive the attack. They quickly establish an alliance in order to survive through the night. Seth convinces the group that Jacob is their best weapon, but only if he rediscovers his faith, and they also figure out how forming a cross with two objects helps fend off the vampires. The slain patrons, including Richie, suddenly reawaken as vampires, forcing the group to kill them all. During this second struggle, one of the vampires bites Sex Machine's arm. While the group is listening to Frost recount an event from his days in Vietnam, Sex Machine transforms into a vampire and bites both Frost and Jacob before being tossed through a boarded up window, which allows many other vampires, in the form of bats, to enter. Seth and the Fullers retreat to a storeroom and improvise anti-vampire weapons from supplies left by prior victims of the bar. The four stage their final assault on the vampires, their weapons proving effective in destroying many of the creatures. During the battle, Sex Machine is killed by Kate and Jacob slays the vampiric Frost. Jacob transforms, but Scott is hesitant to kill him and gets bitten. He manages to dispatch his father and is dragged down by other vampires. Kate follows the wishes of her brother and kills him, also destroying his attackers.

As the sun rises, only Seth and Kate remain alive, surrounded and low on ammunition. Just then, sunlight breaks through the bullet holes in the bar walls and burns the vampires. Seth and Kate shoot out more holes, which allows them to survive until Carlos and his guards show up. They open the doors, and the sunlight reflects on the bar's mirror ball, killing the rest of the creatures while Seth and Kate flee outdoors. Safely outside, angry over the deaths of Richie, Jacob and Scott, Seth demands that Carlos lower his 30% take for his stay in El Rey and telling them to wait in the bar, to which Carlos reluctantly agrees. Kate offers to accompany Seth, but fearing for her safety, he declines and gives her some cash. After Kate drives the RV away, the camera pans back to reveal that the "Titty Twister" bar is the top of an Aztec temple partially sunk into a valley wall, with many abandoned motorbikes and trucks seen around it.

Production
Production on From Dusk Till Dawn began on June 13th, 1995. Principal filming concluded on August 20th, 1995. The movie was shot on location in Austin, Texas, Chihuahua, Mexico, Barstow, Lancaster and Los Angeles, California with some scenes being filmed in Redmond and Seattle, Washington.

From Dusk Till Dawn ranked in at number 1 in box office receipts for the weekend of January 19th, grossing $10,240,805, averaging $5,110 per theater. At it's widest release, From Dusk Till Dawn was screened in 2,007 movie theaters.

Home Video
From Dusk Till Dawn was released on home video in VHS and Laserdisc format by Gativideo and Dimension Films in 1996. It was released to DVD by Miramax Films on June 17th, 1998. It was re-released with new box cover art featuring Salma Hayek as part of Dimension's "Collector's Series" on October 3rd, 2000. Special features on the disc include outtakes, deleted scenes and alternate takes as well as the Hollywood Goes to Hell featurette and the Art of Making the Movie documentary with commentary by Robert Rodriguez and makeup artist Greg Nicotero.

From Dusk Till Dawn was released on Blu-ray format by Echo Bridge Entertainment on May 3rd, 2011. The movie was included with From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money as a special Miramax Films double-feature Blu-ray edition on May 15th, 2011.