I liked it more back then but even now it’s a funny crazy thing if what you’re looking for involves a good dose of horror splatter combined with a bit of crime movie-style. It was quite good back then, surprising and funny-entertaining, I’m not sure how it would look like now to someone who has never seen it, though.
It’s silly, splatter, full of mistakes, but it’s a horror movie Tarantino-style, what else to expect? It’s also very cool in its own way.
Of course I never liked Tarantino’s character because he plays a f**ing piece of sh*t (sorry, that’s what this movie does to you), who rapes and kills women, so I couldn’t wait to get rid of him; the surprise was that he stays alive for half the movie! It must be a record for a character played by Tarantino, I wonder if anyone has ever made a list of all his characters and how long it took them to die..
Back to the movie. The plot (there is, indeed, a plot)
Seth Gecko was on trial, he’s a thief, and his brother Richie helped him escape, leaving dead bodies behind. We hear this from a reporter (way too enthusiastic I must add, which I take as rightful subtle-sarcasm on nowadays media).
The movie starts at an isolated shop, where the owner starts talking with the cop (sheriff?) who just entered. It seems all normal and boring until the guy goes to the bathroom and we see that the Geckos are hidden and they have two girls hostage. The owner is doing his part and it might all go well if Richie didn’t come out all of a sudden shooting. I was rather glad that the two girls managed to escape, though. They kill the cop and the owner, Richie only gets a hole in his hand, and they set the place on fire then leave with Seth quarrelling with his brother, reminding him that he said they needed to keep a low profile which means Not taking hostages, Not shooting police, Not setting places on fire, and they drive away.
They stop at a motel, they have a woman hostage in the trunk and bring her inside the room, and Seth leaves her alone with Richie (come on Seth, you know your brother...) so when he comes back he finds her very dead on the bed. He gets angry but he’s still his little brother so he takes him along anyway.
They take a family hostage. Jacob and his children Kate and Scott. They have a big American-style-camper and the Geckos want to use it to cross into Mexico. Jacob was a pastor his whole life but left his congregation and faith behind after his wife died.
All together they manage to get into Mexico (thanks to the fact that Seth finally knocked Richie unconscious, thanks a lot) and now all that remains is to drive to the place where the Geckos have an appointment with Carlos. He’s like some big boss of Mexico and they need his permission to stay there, also giving him 30% of their money. He told them to go to the Titty Twister bar, open from dusk till dawn, then they’ll meet at dawn as Seth wanted.
They all drive there and it’s one hell of a place, meaning that it’s a place that makes me think of hell, full of dirt, drinkers and naked women. Seth seems enthusiastic of the place, but he also looks still on edge, and Jacob says “are you so much a fucking loser you can’t tell when you’ve won?” - “what did you call me?” - “Nothing, I didn’t make a statement, I asked a question, would you like me to ask it again?” and he does :lol:
The noise suddenly stops and the biggest attraction of the place is announced, Satanico Pandemonio, Salma Hayek comes out wearing a little bikini and a big snake on her shoulders; she starts dancing for like three or four minutes, making Richie drink from her foot; she is indeed beautiful and really hot but I felt more like Kate who had a bored-slightly annoyed look on her face.
When the music finally stops, a guy they beat before comes in with a grudge against them, so the Geckos kill him and the two men with him, one of them the bartender, who Richie stabs multiple times. There’s a lot of blood around, and maybe that’s what initiates it all. Pandemonio changes into a monster and jumps on Richie biting his neck killing him. The three men that were shot stand up again, some girls lock the door and all those who work there transform into monsters and start attacking the customers. The band uses a man’s corpse as a guitar, everyone gets killed but Seth and the family, plus two men who fought a lot and survived, Frost and Sex Machine. It’s vampires, so those that got killed rise up again as monsters and must be killed again, including Richie.
I was a bit disappointed that Pandemonio died so easily, she was presented as something special, ‘bow to her’ kind of goddess-special, and yet she died quickly and easily.
Frost took out a monster’s black-rotten-heart with one single move :p
There’s a lot of splatter here, pieces of bodies everywhere, disgusting fluids and dissolving monsters and stuff. Sex Machine saves Kate, but then one of the risen monsters bites his arm.
Now that all enemies inside are out they start talking about what they know and what they can do to kill them, because there are many more outside wanting to come in. They talk a lot.
Sex Machine didn’t tell anyone about his injury, of course, but now he starts to change, and when he’s fully monster he jumps on Frost and bites him. Jacob too, but for some reason Frost changes very quickly, the other doesn’t. Actually, all the previous victims only became monsters much later when they thought it was all over, so if anybody cares about things-making-sense in the middle of a splatter scene, well, this doesn’t make sense.
Anyway, Frost throws Sex Machine out of the door, breaking the door and letting all the bats inside (how come later the door will be whole and locked is another mystery). Seth takes the two kids and they hide inside a little storage room. Jacob is still himself for now, and joins them after keeping the monsters away with a big cross made from a baseball bat and a rifle. He knows he’ll change but he tells them that for now he can help in the fight, but when he’ll change they must promise to kill him like any other monster.
In there is stored all the stuff that was taken from the truckers and bikers that Pandemonio and company have killed over the years, and they look around for weapons. Kate finds a crossbow (Americans love crossbows against vampires, so like a gun..) which has six arrows but she uses it for a long time... Seth makes one of those silly-stupid weapons that sometimes you see in this kind of movies (sticking a bit pointed wooden stick into a jackhammer), Jacob keeps his cross-rifle, while Scott has a water rifle full with blessed water, which could do much more damage if he knew how to use it. It’s actually the best weapon they have but he makes little use of it.
When Jacob changes, Scott is not ready to kill him quick and is killed instead.
Only Seth and Kate remain, with little bullets and little hope, but still fighting, when a few sunrays start coming through, and then they hear Carlos voice, surprised that the place is closed and maybe that he can hear shots. Seth shouts for him to break down the door, and when his men do that, they run out, and the sun enters making the remaining vampires explode.
Carlos is surprised, Seth is very much pissed, and asks a question that everyone’s been waiting for: why did he choose that place??? Answer, “the place is just as good as another”, simple as that, he’s never been there, only drove by a couple of times... Seth wanted to meet in the morning, the place was open from dusk till dawn, so....
Carlos makes it up to him by taking 25% instead of 30%. Seth then gives some money to Kate before going his own way. She asks to go with him (because she’s now alone in the world and they fought side by side and shared a tragic experience and all that) but he says “I’m a bastard but I’m not a f**ing bastard” or something like that, with a low voice that I barely understood what he said, but I already knew what he said in Italian (“sono un bastardo ma non sono così bastardo” ) so I had quite an advantage there.
Kate drives away (where did she get the keys? oh well) and we see that the club was actually the tip of some big Aztec temple (according to internet, what do I know), and all around you can see the trucks of the people that were killed...
Cast:
Seth-George Clooney
Richie-Quentin Tarantino
Jacob-Harvey Keitel
Kate-Juliette Lewis
Pandemonium-Salma Hayek
Carlos-Cheech Marin
Bartender-Danny Trejo
FBI agent-John Saxon
Frost-Fred Williamson
Sex Machine-Tom Savini
ITA dal tramonto all’alba
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