From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money
Most people roll their eyes at the thought of “direct to video” sequels, essentially attempts to follow up a big hit theatrical film and continue it as a franchise, almost never using any of the original big name actors or crew and instead concentrating on making the “sequel” more of a glorified remake or at least something that somehow retains the elements of the original classic albeit on a much more reduced lower budget. This 1999 release (part of a usual back to back production block where a Part 3 was also made) is just such that type of a deal with an almost impossible act to follow: The Robert Rodriguez directed and Quentin Tarantino written From Dusk Till Dawn, a late 90s horror / action masterpiece that saw such A list superstars as George Clooney and Harvey Keitel kicking some vampire ass in a grimy, B movie environment, a movie that starts out like one of Tarantino’s gritty crime sagas before the story goes straight out the window in exchange for an all out Battle Royale between our human protagonists and a large gaggle of the bloodsucking undead and only succeeding so magnificently at it due to just the sheer amounts of filmmaking adrenaline unleashed during the anything goes second half perfectly set up by the intense criminal manhunt portions of the first half. Its success (with Tarantino’s name firmly tacked onto all of the advertising as both a writer and supporting actor) was virtually guaranteed and the lower budgeted, lower profile follow ups were quickly brought forth with both Tarantino and Rodriguez being credited as Executive Producers (and no doubt Tarantino at least had some say when it came to story and script approval) but the directing and co writing chores here would wind up falling in the lap of one Scott Spiegal, ubiquitous associate of both Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell and a major part of their successful run in the early to mid 80s and in fact he even scores Campbell for a cameo role right in the opening scene of the film (never a bad idea) where he plays a lawyer who is attacked and killed by a flock of vampire bats which also helps to stress the “mythology” of these particular vampires in this particular franchise, namely the fact that they oftentimes prefer to attack victims while in their bat form rather than their “human” form, something that is driven home when one bat is shown attacking a woman in the shower in an obvious homage to Janet Leigh’s iconic scene in Psycho. For all of the grief that this film got for not living up to the original (how could it?), it still makes its mark by attempting a handful of original ideas with varying levels of success (namely by having its premise here be bank robbing vampires) and assembles a decent B grade cast led by the infamous T-1000 himself in one Robert Patrick (a guy who seemed destined for big things after the prime villain role he had in T2 only to gracefully descend into B movie heaven where ever since he has always remained a well known and bankable name) and having the filming take place in South Africa which stands in for El Mexico. The original’s connections include having James Parks playing the deputy son of the murdered Earl McGraw from Part 1 as was played by Michael Parks (of which is mentioned in the dialogue along with The Gecko Brothers even though Parks’ Earl McGraw would return alive and well in later Tarantino / Rodriguez flicks along with the character of his deputy son) and the sole returning cast member being the legendary Danny Trejo whom (despite dying in Part 1) could possibly be the twin brother of the original character and who is currently bartending at the (apparently rebuilt and refurbished) Titty Twister where another dumbass escaped fugitive (co writer Duane Whitaker, best known as Maynard in Pulp Fiction) has wandered in having had his car break down after a dramatic prison break north of the border. He encounters Trejo behind the bar and accepts his offer for a ride only to be set up for an ambush where he is bitten and converted into the role of vampire. Despite now being revamped, Whitaker is still keen on carrying out a bank robbery he has planned in Mexico, calling his old running buddy back in Texas (Patrick) and telling him to round up a crew to carry out the job. Patrick obliges and brings in a scary Mexican type (Raymond Cruz, best known as the creepy guy who asked Ethan Hawke if he has ever had his shit pushed in during the movie Training Day), an old fart safecracker turned rodeo clown (Muse Watson, best known as the Gorton’s Fisherman psycho killer in the I Know What You Did movies) and a jittery, buck toothed idiot (Brett Harrelson a.k.a. Woody’s Brother) who only seems to have been brought in for no other purpose than to just stand there and watch the others rob the place while he panics. Pursuing them the whole time is a Texas Sheriff (character acting royalty Bo Hopkins) as the crew rolls into Mexico for a rendezvous with Whitaker prior to the job, holing up in a skanky hotel and spending what seems to be half the movie watching a porno movie together (and commenting extensively on it) before Whitaker rolls in and (more importantly) starts covertly putting the bite on his crew members one by one in order to give them the vampire powers required to pull the job off with a minimum of fuss (all while Trejo having done his damage heads back to The Titty Twister and is not seen nor heard from again for the rest of the movie). In the end it winds up being Patrick (a nominal hero at best) who finds himself losing this little game of vampire musical chairs, suddenly realizing that he is surrounded by his fellow thieves in their vampire form during the overnight robbery at the closed bank and must now fight his way to survival. All in all, it’s certainly a pretty pulpy premise that Tarantino would approve of with its true crime approach to the criminals forming their plan before the supernatural evil of Trejo and the other vamps come into it. There’s also some indication of the (sometimes comical) elements that were established in the first movie and carried over and extended here such as the fact that in this specific cinematic universe of vampires, their greatest advantage is derived from having their potential victims not even know that they are actually vampires as despite their strength and speed abilities, once a human adversary knows what they’re up against, they can use their inherent knowledge of vampire weaknesses to fight back or even win (a factor which resulted in Clooney and Co. coming up big in Part 1), preferring instead to stay in human form so that their victim becomes more comfortable before vamping out and then ambushing them. In addition, not only do these vampires become scared and weakened by the sight of crosses, but it can also happen almost accidentally at times as well (including them seeing the sight of the Red Cross symbol on the back of an ambulance), suddenly repelling them even if their adversary is not quite sure why. Everything leads up to another big Battle Royale scenario where the bank robbing vampires find themselves surrounded by cops, only to pick up their own weapons and face them head on, fully aware that bullets will have no effect on them but will most certainly work against the human law enforcement agents as they mow them down while also biting and dismembering those who get close enough to them. The filmmakers wisely bring back the makeup and gore FX team KNB to carry on what they started in Part 1 (although the nasty bits were probably more impressive there) and eventually the whole thing adds up to being some fun garbage, a watchable and commendable effort that has garnered an unfairly horrendous reputation amongst fans of the first film and horror aficionados in general, but the low expectations rule bar actually balances out quite nicely here with Patrick carrying a Steve Railsback type quality about him as a low rent action hero who can carry the day for you if you’re working on a budget and the other B graders make the most out of having sizable roles to work with as they always seem to do in these type of situations, so if vampires in general are something that you enjoy (and not necessarily the ones from Part 1) in a high octane, low budget, shamelessly R rated environment, then feel free to waste your time here without expecting any kind of a classic…
7/10