From Dusk Till Dawn

It's the sexiest, bloodiest vampire movie of the Nineties and few films polarised the critics as much as From Dusk Till Dawn.

Hot on the heels of Desperado, director Robert Rodriguez and writer/actor Quentin Tarantino made this no-holds-barred assault on the senses.

It turned George Clooney and Salma Hayek into superstars and soon became one of the biggest cult movies of the decade.

The story had been hanging around for quite a while, since 1990 in fact, but only in dog-eared script form. Had Tarantino not made Reservoir Dogs, that's the state it would have stayed in. But when that cause cŽl�bre opened, every Quentin script and note to the milkman was dusted down and examined to see how fast it could be made into a big screen experience.

Unlike Pulp Fiction and many other Tarantino movies, the motivation behind its production was partly to honour a debt.

In the early Nineties, a company called KNB EFX were looking for a showcase for their make up department so as a favour for the struggling film-maker, they decided to provide the severed ear effects in Reservoir Dogs for nothing if Quentin gave them a big screen showcase.

The result is an uneasy mix: The first half is pure Tarantino Ñ black clad anti-heroes on the run from the authorities, their best laid plans scuppered due to a technical hitch Ñ the second looks like a KNB EFX advert. Albeit, the bloodiest, most outrageous advert you've ever seen.

The plot centres on Richie (Tarantino) and Seth (Clooney) Gecko, two criminal brothers hotly pursued by the Texas police and bound for Mexico. After the unhinged Richie kills their first hostage, they abduct Jacob (Harvey Keitel), his annoying daughter, Kate (Juliette Lewis) and adopted son Scott (Ernest Liu). The fugitives end up at an all-night bar where the brothers intend to meet their contact, Carlos (Cheech Marin) and live a life of luxury south of the border.

Now things take a sharp left turn when the regulars turn out to prefer O negative to a pint of Banks' - or the Mexican equivalent.

So the scene is set for a showdown of Evil Dead/Spaghetti Western proportions. You know from the first few minutes Rodriguez is taking things far from seriously. After being shot through the hand, Richie bandages the wound with gaffer tape.

It's not all gore and bloodletting, however.

Salma Hayek pops up as Santanigo Pandemonium, an exotic dancer who will leave most lads drooling and their girlfriends green with envy.

Cellulite? She's never heard of it.

The effects are delirious enough to keep genre fans happy for the 108 minute running time and there are some hilarious new twists on the well worn vampire genre. Let's face it, bloodsuckers have been dispatched just about every way possible over the years but few have ever come unstuck with the aid of a disco ball, water pistol and shotgun/baseball bat combination. It's a relatively cheap affair at $20million - the movie earned $19million in US video rentals alone - and although it was eclipsed by that year's Independence Day, From Dusk Till Dawn was still the best horror thriller of the year, leaving efforts such as Eddie Murphy's vanity offering, Vampire in Brooklyn, standing.

The movie is littered with quotable one liners, most of them unprintable in a family newspaper. However, Clooney's "Everybody be cool. YOU - be cool," is priceless and Keitel's deadpan delivery: "I'll be a lap dog of Satan," is an unintentional scream.

Three years on and FDTD has spawned a couple of straight to video sequels. Advanced word on The Hangman's Daughter is not great but Texas Blood Money could be an improvement. If this is your first first viewing then you could do worse than investing in a bottle of good tequila, a bag of nachos and enough salsa to last the duration.

Aribaaa!

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