Aaaah, I forgot that! It’s been quite a while since I’ve seen that movie. Thanks for connecting the dots.
If there’s any problem with the movie, it’s not with the story or structure or dialog or acting - it’s with the fact that Robert Rodriguez, IMHO, is not a very good director.
Which is actually incorrect. You can drive an RV with a regular Class C driver’s license in any of the 50 states as long as it’s under 26,000 lbs and 40’. Harvey Keitel’s 1970s 27’ Pace Arrow is unlikely to weigh much more than 10,000 lbs.
Maybe he had a CDL, but he didn’t need one as he claimed.
But is that still true in a universe that has vampires? Maybe some Vampire Legislators are changing the rules, so that anyone who drives an RV is fair pickings at their roadside murder palaces.
That is way off the mark for me
Rodriguez is pretty much the best director out there for campy over the top action movies that “don’t take themselves to seriously”. IMO the industry is full of directors churning out big budget blockbuster action films that allegedly “don’t take themselves too seriously”, but which are in fact just boring movies (Michael Bay, Roland Emmerich, John Woo*, etc.) Rodriguez is one of the few directors who actually makes fun enjoyable action movies that “don’t take themselves too seriously”,
*- Arguable whether John Woo movies don’t take themselves too seriously or take themselves far far too seriously.
I think Rodriguez is a cool, audacious, original and likable director, and his geek cred is unimpeachable, but I also think that purely in terms of filmmaking technique, he’s just not very good. I’ve watched most of his films and enjoyed a lot of them, but even with the ones I enjoyed, I would find myself thinking, “This could be better”.
I really don’t. At this best (Desperado, Sin City, Planet Terror, Dusk til Dawn), there is really no one else I can think of doing a better job at directing a campy over the top action film that doesn’t take itself to seriously. Lots of people have spend 100s of millions of dollars trying, and ended up with boring unenjoyably movies, interspersed with uninteresting, but expensive, action set-pieces. I mean Tarantino tried to a degree in Inglorious Basterds, and while its not a terrible movie, as an homage to a B-movie its not a patch on Rodriguez.
Sure you want a thoughtful auteur’s contemplation on the nature of violence and man’s inhumanity to man, choose another director. But for what he does there isn’t anyone better IMO.
Remaking From Dusk to Dawn to remove literally the only thing about it that made it stand out from the flood of Tarantino clones that glutted theaters in the mid- to late 90s absolutely blows my mind. The only reason anyone remembers it today is because of that second-act twist. Take that away, and it’s lost in the flood alongside Go and The Way of the Gun and a hundred other lackluster imitators.
Exactly my point. I say if its remade it should double down on the weird genre twist, make even more of a sudden juxtaposition.
Inspiration to be taken from Se7en, of all things:
“If John Doe’s head should flip open and an alien fly out, I want you to have expected it”
So let’s go for constant escalation. Not only does the hoodlums on the run flick turn into a vampire movie, the vampire movie then takes a shocking twist as Juliette Lewis’s head pops open and an alien flies out. Which in turn awakens a dragon! The appearance of which summons an army of vengeful ghost Picts!! At this point it might start to seem too much, but by the time the killer asteroid looms in to view in time to decimate the armada of robot harpies the audience will be firmly on board, eager to see where the hell this is going next.
No, aliens don’t fit with the monster movie aspect.
Have one of the other bar patrons turn out to be a werewolf, a member of an anti-vampire werewolf clan, who reluctantly reveals themselves, so as to save these clueless mortals. “Okay, both vampires and werewolves are real? What’s next, Bloody Mary?” “Oh, god, don’t say that name two more times, you jackass!” “Why, what could possibly go wrong?”
Then just keep tossing in monsters, and every time, someone has the “But those monsters aren’t real!” reaction. Like, werewolves don’t believe in zombies, or something.
I’d watch either of these (as long as Rodriguez directs, see above). Look forward to the zombie-vampire-mummy-werewolf (like is that a werewolf who was killed with a silver bullet, then mummified, but brought back to life by a evil Egyptian preist, before being bitten by a vampire and then a zombie? )
I don’t think they exist!
Said by vampire-mummy-werewolf Danny Trejo to Harvey Keitel as the zombies break through the barricade.
Where does Santa Claus fit into the narrative?
You mean zombie-vampire-werewolf-mummy Santa Claus? I mean come on, that writes itself, how else can you explain a 4th century saint from Asia minor walking around in 21st century America?
He shows up in the sequel; From Dusk Til Dawn: Arctic Circle. Tag line: At The North Pole, Dusk 'til Dawn Lasts 40 Days.
Already been done:
It’s an homage. With Santa. And Zombie Werewolf Mummies. I think we’re safe from being sued.