The most intriguing thing about Robert Rodriguez's From Dusk Till Dawn, perhaps, is that - for the first hour or so - you have no idea that you're watching a vampire film. It isn't until the last third that Quentin Tarantino's script makes an unexpected transformation, steering the film away from the crime genre and planting it firmly into B-movie horror territory. For those who were expecting something along the lines of Pulp Fiction or Reservoir Dogs, the switch is bound to prove disappointing - the first part of the movie contains some of Tarantino's most entertaining dialogue to date, after all. Vampire fans will love it, though, as a never-cooler George Clooney and Tarantino himself, playing the murderous Gecko brothers, kidnap a family after a robbery - two of which are played by Harvey Keitel and Juliette Lewis - and hole up in a sleazy Mexican bar which soon turns out to be a hangover for vampire bikers. Hey, we all make mistakes! Self-aware, bloody, sexy and hilarious, this is a unpretentious blast from start to finish.
Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.
