From Dusk Till Dawn: Season Two (2015) Review

3445455I love Robert Rodriguez From Dusk Till Dawn so when I discovered that not only had the 1996 film spawned two sequels From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money and prequel From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman’s Daughter but also a TV series I felt spoilt for choice like a man looking for a new cat outside the Titty Twister.

What is great is that master film maker Robert Rodriguez has kept involved in all the genre jumping gangster vampire movies many incarnations especially the TV series which he developed as well as writing and directing episodes extending the life of all the characters far beyond that fateful night in the Mexican strip club come vampire infested man trap that we all secretly wish we could visit, well at least I do I love cats!

23323

Series One set about reimagining the original story across 10 episodes telling the tale of bank robbers Seth and Richie Gecko (played here by D. J. Cotrona and Zane Holtz) who take the God fearing Fuller family hostage while on the run from the law ending up in the ill-fated lair of a bunch of fang toothed killers all the while extending the movie’s Mesoamerican mythology and characters with new back stories across the board.22323

From Dusk Till Dawn: Season Two picks up right where the first left off with the club in chaos, the Gecko’s separated and the famous sexy snake dancer Santánico Pandemonium (Eiza González) freed from her shackles and hell bent on destroying her demonic ex-master and his entire organisation.

As Seth teams up with Kate Fuller (Madison Davenport from The Possession) in search of her brother Scott (Brandon Soo Hoo) who is still trapped in the vampire lords clutches, Richie and Santánico set about taking down her old bosses business one piece at a time in a blood soaked bid for revenge.

The Series perfectly evokes the films feel with lots of dark comedy, graphic violence even down to the trademarked Tarantino movie speeches which pop up throughout referencing a variety of obscure old shows and movies.

It is great to see so many of the original films characters brought back to life and given new blood, some of them even craving it themselves, and the cast do a great job taking over from their far more famous counterparts who originally infested the roles including George Clooney, Quentin Tarantino, Juliette Lewis and Salma Hayek.

2

Even some of the lesser known figures such as Carlos Madrigal (Wilmer Valderrama) and Professor Aiden Tanner aka Sex Machine played here by Jake Busey appear the best of all being the Series Two return of the amazing Danny Trejo as The Regulator a villainous unstoppable killer; a role Trejo was born to play.

Robert Rodriguez has consistently talked about getting more Hispanic and Latino actors on mainstream television and in roles that aren’t just the stereotypical gang bangers and sexy Latinas and it is great to see in From Dusk Till Dawn The Series he has succeeded not only with the cast but with the locations, the culture and even in having Spanish language frequently spoken across episodes.

5

Blending gangster sex and violence with horror gore and monsters worked brilliantly in the fantastic first film and the same is true here in the TV show with plenty of great effects, twisted creatures and more vampires than a Goth bar serving cheap Bloody Mary’s on Bram Stoker’s birthday.

With all the episodes on this great DVD set you also get a variety of extras including 13 Behind-the-Scenes Featurettes, 2015 NYC Comic Con Panel Discussion and some brilliant audio commentary featuring the main cast and Rodriguez himself

34

As Season Three is already underway there is no better time to get yourself reacquainted with the crazy world of vampires and criminals that populate this series to fight, feed and fuck From Dusk Till Dawn.

Movie Rating: ★★★☆☆ 

Trailer:

YouTube video
avatar

Alex Humphrey

Alex studied film at the University of Kent and went on to work for Universal Pictures in their Post Room gaining an inside look at the movie industry from the very bottom. Constantly writing reviews in everything from local magazines to Hip Hop sites Alex honed his critical skills even spending a brief period as a restaurant critic. Read more

Related post

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.