Hard-Boiled Creature Crime
By Stephanie E. Nava
Falling into the Tarantino Movie-in-a-Movie Universe, 1996’s From Dusk Till Dawn is a fantastic combination of action-packed crime, drama western, and vampire-body horror that keeps things exciting for its 1-hour and 48-minute runtime. Directed by Robert Rodriguez, this film throws in the perfect amount of comedy blended with an intricate repertoire of characters that keeps me coming back for more. Dare I say, and commit on paper, that From Dusk Till Dawn is my favorite movie? Perhaps? It is the movie I continue to come back to when I need a pick-me-up. My happy movie. My comfort movie.
This film begins as a tribute to pulp crime novels.
You can feel the influence of writers like Jim Thompson or Richard Stark in the script. A prison break, running from the law, hostages.
This homage to hard-boiled crime sets the film up before taking the dramatic 180-degree turn into creature feature.
The first vampire in this vampire film doesn’t appear until an hour into the film’s runtime. Brought to you by the alluring and seductive Selma Hayek and her snake dance, the name of her character, Satanico Pandemonium, was also the name of a 1975 Mexican horror film.
The casting of this film is exceptional. We see Seth and Richard Gecko, played by George Clooney and Quentin Tarantino, as the career criminal brothers on the run to Mexico. Har vey Keitel, Juliette Lewis, and Ernest Liu, play the Fuller family, grieving from the loss of the family matriarch, who are kidnapped by the Gecko Brothers as decoys to smuggle the hoodlums into Mexico. The film’s opening scene features John Hawkes’ character Pete Bottoms, dramatic, charismatic and comedic, jumping out of the roaring fire, guns blazing, is certainly a scene to remember. Cheech Marin plays three different characters, including Mexican Border Guard, Chet Pussy, and Cartel member Carlos. Rounding out the cast of characters, Tom Savini, as Sex Machine, a master with a whip and crotch pistol (which is seen in 1995’s Desperado), adds action and comedy to the vampire scenes. Danny Trejo is a vampire tough man, Bar Manager/MC Razor Charlie. Fred Wiliamson plays an ultra-macho, never named, “Frost” Vietnam Vet character, who makes a memorable appearance in the film.
One of my favorite things about this film is the complexity of family dynamics. It is something I love to explore as I continue to watch and enjoy this film year after year. It brings grounding to the over-the-top antics of the film or maybe it’s my social science background overthinking things again. There is a particular scene where Seth tells Richie to put in his “bit” for teeth grinding. It’s such a human moment, a big brother ’s protection of his younger sibling, even if the younger sibling is a psychopath. I imagine and rebuild their relationship from childhood; imagine Seth playing this role of protector for 30+ years. He feels responsible for his little brother. We continue to see this protective aspect from Seth all the way until he drives a stake through Richie’s heart. “Here is the peace in death, that I could not give you in life”. Even his final encounter with his brother, he is taking responsibility for Richie’s life and death.
I was 12 years old the first time I saw this movie, and over the last 30 years, I have probably seen it 30 times. To me, it never gets old. I’m always seeing something new, noticing the simple nuances that were put in. I love the subtle insertion of mythology and news broadcasts. I love the cheesy bits of writing and the stylish camera work. Everything fits together so well. This will always be a film I turn to when I want to watch something fun and I hope you all can appreciate it too!