History Film / FromDuskTillDawn

** This seems to be the reason the vampires are so adamant about kicking out the Geckos and the Fullers instead of killing them in the nightly feeding massacre. The bar specifically targets truckers and bikers, people always on the road whose exact last known location can't be easily determined (especially in the 90's before widespread adoption of cellphones and [=GPS=] location). The vampires have no idea who the Geckos and Fullers are and can't be sure no one will look for them, in fact Gecko straight out tells everyone he's planning to meet someone there. For similar reasons, in the sequel the vampires offer to give Luther a ride to the nearest phone when his car breaks down near the bar, only attacking him after learning he hit one of them with his car previously.

** This seems to be the reason the vampires are so adamant about kicking out the Geckos and the Fullers instead of killing them in the nightly feeding massacre. The bar specifically targets truckers and bikers, people always on the road whose exact last known location can't be easily determined (especially in the 90's before widespread adoption of [=GPS=] location). The vampires have no idea who the Geckos and Fullers are and can't be sure no one will look for them, in fact Gecko straight out tells everyone he's planning to meet someone there. For similar reasons, in the sequel the vampires offer to give Luther a ride to the nearest phone when his car breaks down near the bar, only attacking him after learning he hit one of them with his car previously.

* PragmaticVillainy: The source of Seth's grievance with Richie; he objects to Richie's murderous and occasionally carnal rampages not on any moral ground, but because Seth prides himself on being a ''professional'' thief, and raping and murdering your only hostage means that now, not only do you not have a hostage, but racking up bodies draws attention and leaves a trail that can be followed.

** Richie's broken glasses are a homage to the movie poster to ''Film/StrawDogs''.

* ShellShockedVeteran: Frost, a KnifeNut 'Nam vet.

* ShellShockedVeteran: Frost, a Knife Nut 'Nam vet.

-->'''Seth (as he's reloading his gun in the aftermath of the first attack and everybody's discussing how to fight the vampires off)''': ...and I don't want to hear "I don't believe in vampires", because ''I'' don't believe in vampires, but I believe my eyes, and what I saw is ''fucking vampires''!

-->'''Kate Fuller''': ''(from Richie's first person view, all tinted in a fuchsia hue)'' Richie, could you eat my pussy for me, please?

--> Jacob: "Are you such a loser you can't tell when you've won?"

* BestialityIsDepraved: Eddie assuring customers "We even got horse pussy, dog pussy, chicken pussy...".

->'''Kate:''' Are you okay?
->'''Seth:''' Peachy, Kate. The world's my oyster, except for the fact that I just rammed a wooden stake in my brother's heart because he turned into a vampire, even though I don't believe in vampires. Aside from that unfortunate business, everything's hunky-dory.

** Michael Parks appears in the beginning as Texas Ranger Earl [=McGraw=], a recurring character of Rodriguez and Tarantino's who also shows up in ''Film/KillBill'' and both films in ''Film/{{Grindhouse}}''. He dies here, but it's anyone's guess whether this indicates ''From Dusk Till Dawn'' takes place after the other films.

* CoversAlwaysLie: The 2011 Echo Bridge release of the film on Blu-ray mistakenly included a picture of Rebecca Gayheart on the back cover even though she doesn't actually appear in the film. The picture was taken from the prequel ''Hangman's Daughter''.

''From Dusk Till Dawn'' is a 1996 film. It was written by Creator/QuentinTarantino, directed by Creator/RobertRodriguez, and starring Tarantino, Creator/GeorgeClooney, Creator/HarveyKeitel, and Creator/JulietteLewis.

The plot centers around the Gecko brothers, two dyed-in-the-wool criminals on the run from the police after a prison break in Texas. Causing death and destruction wherever they go, they eventually manage to sneak past the border with Mexico by taking a pastor and his two teenage children hostage in their RV. They go to a trucker bar, the Titty Twister, to spend the night as they wait for their rendezvous. What happens at this point is a very sudden and unexpected GenreShift when it turns out that the bar is a front for a clan of vampires, and they have to fight for their survival through the night (hence the title). Of course, this has become [[ItWasHisSled widely]] [[TrailersAlwaysSpoil spoiled]] and as such, loses most of its effect (in fact, many people probably rented the film and wondered where the hell the vampires were for the first half).

The movie got two DirectToVideo sequels, though they share none of the creative cast and don't follow any of the characters introduced in the first film (except in the second sequel, which is about Santanico Pandemonium's origins), with the only connecting thread being the vampire bar/lair, The Titty Twister:

There's also the documentary ''Full Tilt Boogie'', which details the making of the first movie in addition to showing the cast and crew just messing around.

There was also a PC video game.

In 2014, [[Series/FromDuskTillDawn a TV series]] was made as one of the headliners of Robert Rodriguez's new network, ''El Rey''.

* AffablyEvil: Seth is a total bastard and an amoral thief, but he doesn't kill people he doesn't have to, can ''usually'' be counted on to keep his word and tries to avoid innocents from getting harmed.

* AnyoneCanDie: And boy howdy do they by the second half of the flick. Even the villains are not immune to this - [[spoiler:Santanico dies very quickly, much to her own astonishment]].

* {{Bathos}}: Richie hallucinates Kate asking to "eat my pussy", which serves to amp up the tension of whether or not he will rape her. He asks Kate if she meant what she said earlier, to which Kate naturally doesn't know what he means. He says they'll talk later and Juliette Lewis gives a comical little nod - playing the scene for some BlackComedy.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Though the Titty Twister is destroyed and all the vampires have been wiped out, Seth and Kate are the only survivors by the end of the ordeal. Kate offers to go with him, but Seth declines, admitting he is not evil enough to pull her into his lifestyle, and they part ways. Kate is left by herself in her now dead family's RV. It's implied Seth's going to get what he wanted - retire in peace to Mexico - and Kate's free from her family drama.]]
* BlackComedy: The film features and is written by Tarantino. This is pretty much part and parcel with his style. Of particular note is the opening scene - Seth and Richie set the liquor-store clerk Pete Bottoms on fire, who dives out from behind the counter shooting at them... only to collapse in a popcorn display, his flaming corpse setting the kernels popping.
* BodyHorror: Some of the victims once they turn. Most notable Sex Machine [[spoiler: after he gets his head pulled off. This doesn't kill him, rather it activates a whole new mutation into what can be described as a skinless oversized rat.]]

** Sex Machine's crotch gun can be seen in another [[Creator/RobertRodriguez Rodriguez]] flick - ''Film/{{Desperado}}''. [[Creator/SalmaHayek Carolina]] pulls it out of [[Creator/AntonioBanderas El Mariachi's]] guitar case o' weapons, and El awkwardly replies that it's saved his life on a number of occasions.

* DesignatedGirlFight: Averted. Several female vampires and Kate doesn't kill any of them, only visibly killing males. [[spoiler: Santanico is also killed by Seth]].

* {{Determinator}}: Seth absolutely refuses to give up hope, even when it looks like [[spoiler: he and Kate]] are about to be vampirized for sure. [[spoiler: Fortunately, they're saved by the film's BigDamnHeroes.]]
* DiscOneFinalBoss: At first it seems like the Gecko Brothers only gotta deal with the Texas police as they RunForTheBorder, being {{Villain Protagonist}}s who themselves drive the conflict. Then they escape the US halfway through the film and the vampires led by Santanico Pandemonium take over the conflict. [[spoiler:Even then, Santanico is killed early in the fight and the leaderless horde end up being the collective TrueFinalBoss.]]

* DwindlingParty: They lose [[spoiler:Richie]] to the vampires before even fully knowing what's going on. Then [[spoiler:Sex Machine is bitten and turns a few minutes later]], proceeding to bite [[spoiler:Frost]], and in the ensuing chaos, [[spoiler:Jacob]] is bitten as well. [[spoiler:Jacob]] accepts that he's going to turn and fights to the end, [[YourHeadAsplode getting shot]] by [[spoiler:Scott]], although the latter is bitten just after, torn apart by the vampires, and ultimately killed by [[spoiler:his sister Kate]] who, along with [[spoiler:Seth]] survives the night.

** Once Santanico Pandemonium and the other female exotic dancers [[spoiler: turn vampire and start devouring people, it isn't a pretty sight]].

* FinalGirl: [[spoiler: Kate is one of the few moral characters in the film and ends up one of the two survivors. Her father and brother were scripted to survive too, but get killed in the final film]].

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Sex Machine speculates about vampires' having such [[MadeOfPlasticine soft flesh]] that it'd be possible to rip the head right off of one, and Frost tells a lengthy half-heard story about having killed an entire Viet Cong patrol with his bayonet and getting his rifle covered in blood and flesh halfway up the barrel. [[spoiler: Guess what happens to them each, respectively, once they become vampires?]]

* GameFace: Sported by vampires when they reveal themselves as bloodsucking fiends - ranging from reptile-things, Buffy-style smashed-up ones, all the way to strange wolf-like muzzles. When [[spoiler:the younger Gecko]] is turned, he gets ''two''.

* HotAsHell: Not {{Satan}} herself but Santanico Pandemonium fits to a T.

** "I didn't say 'Do what I do.' I said 'Do what I say.' "

* InnOfNoReturn: [[spoiler: Titty Twister is a den of hungry vampires that eat alive all their patrons every night - and since said patrons are all truckers and similar, it's near impossible to pin-point their exact moment or place of disappearance]].

* KarmaHoudini: For Seth who survives in the end so that his crimes remain unpunished. Still is a PyrrhicVictory, though, considering he lost his brother.

-->'''Seth''': I'm gonna give you the peace in death I couldn't give you in life, Richie.
** [[spoiler: After Jacob gets bitten, he has Scott and Kate promise to kill him once he turns. During the final battle, it does happen and Scott is forced to do the deed. Though not before getting bitten himself after a moment of hesitation. Kate then has to kill him as he's being devoured by vampires.]]

* NightOfTheLivingMooks: A rather weird example in that the vampires begin with a clear leader in Santanico and are clearly individuals with personality themselves, but once they are killed the ''subsequent'' vampires are interchangeable faceless undead monsters. Curiously though some of the vampires can shift into different forms.

* OffWithHisHead: [[spoiler:Happens to Jacob and Sex Machine. Though it takes two shot to bring down the former (as Scott only blew off half his face the first shot) and it doesn't kill the latter (See Body Horror).]] The third movie has an undead mook who has this happen but he just replaces the head with a cobra before that ends up getting shot off.

** [[spoiler: Sex Machine]], after realizing that he's been turned into a vampire - and that his former friends will kill him as soon as they find out.

--->'''Seth''': I may be a bastard, but I'm not a ''fuckin''' bastard.
* PragmaticVillainy: The source of Seth's grievance with Richie; he object's to Richie's murderous and occasionally carnal rampages not on any moral ground, but because Seth prides himself on being a ''professional'' thief, and raping and murdering your only hostage means that now, not only do you not have a hostage, but racking up bodies draws attention and leaves a trail that can be followed.

* PyrrhicVictory: In the first half of the bar scene, Jacob wins a semantics argument that allows the group to stay in the bar. Come the second half... well, vampires eating everyone.

* SkewedPriorities: The survivors start arguing about whether silver works on vampires or not. Kate shuts the argument up by asking if any of them actually ''have'' anything silver - which they don't.

* SociopathicHero: The Gecko Brothers, who are just about devoid of heroic characteristics but still fight the spawn of hell when forced into it. [[spoiler: Or at least Seth does; Rich doesn't really survive long enough to do anything.]]

* TheVamp: Santanico Pandemonium, quite literally - being the main attraction to the club to lure anyone thirsty enough to their deaths.

* WhamLine: When the Fuller family are taken hostage by the Gecko brothers, Richie imagines Kate saying this to him. Showing just how truly mentally ill he is.

** [[spoiler: The shot of the green blood on the knife after Richie stabs Razor Charlie.]]
** [[spoiler: Santanico Pandemonium and the other exotic dancers turning into hungry vampires once they catch sight of Richie's hand bleeding.]]

* WorstAid: After the shootout at the gas station, Richie patches up the huge hole in his hand with duct tape. Justified in that the Geckos are wanted fugitives, so going to a hospital isn't really an option, neither of them is a medic, and besides they've got an appointment to keep in Mexico.

* DisguisedHorrorMovie: The film's famous HalfwayPlotSwitch turns it from a gritty NewOldWest crime thriller to a violent vampire horror movie, with no indication that it's coming until it happens.

''From Dusk Till Dawn'' is a 1996 film. It was directed by Creator/RobertRodriguez, written by Creator/QuentinTarantino and starring himself, Creator/GeorgeClooney, Creator/HarveyKeitel, and Creator/JulietteLewis.