A Prequel to From Dusk Till Dawn, released in 2000 starring Marco Leonardi, Ara Celi, Michael Parks, Orlando Jones, Temuera Morrison, and Danny Trejo.
The film is set way in the past in the wild west. A bandit makes off with the titular character and flees into the Mexican desert where they come across the Titty Twister (a pueblo in this era), with a posse led by the girl's father not far behind.
This film has examples of:
- Abusive Parents: The Hangman. He treats his own daughter like crap and considers her an aberration due to her half-vampire nature. It's revealed he actually tried to kill her a few times, but she always survived.
- Alien Blood: When Quixtla is shot the first few times, her blood is oozing green.
- Age Lift: The real Ambrose Bierce was 71 when he went out West, but Ambrose in the film looks like he's a decade younger than that.
- Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: Ambrose Bierce disappeared because he became a vampire, and he's still alive in the present day.
- Better to Die than Be Killed: John asked to be staked by Johnny after he's gets bitten rather than wait to be turned.
- Bookends: The same Aztec-style pyramid, partially embedded in a cliff that was revealed in the last shot of the first film appears again in the ending.
- Casting Gag: Ambrose Bierce is played by none other than Texas Ranger Earl McGraw himself, Michael Parks.
- Character Title: Character Subtitle, to be exact.
- Dwindling Party: As with the previous movies, the heroes are picked off one by one as they make their way through the building trying to escape. At the end only Madrid and Bierce make it out alive, or undead in the case of Esmeralda/Santanico.
- Doomed by Canon: Esmeralda will become the evil vampire Santanico Pandemonium.
- Game Face: As in the previous films, the vampires faces go much more monstrous when they go on the attack. Ranging from a variety of them such as the standard bumpy face to bat like to near-reptilian.
- Evil Matriarch: Quixtla, the vampire high-priestess that rules over the local inn/whorehouse that would soon become the Titty Twister is revealed to be Esmeralda's mother.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: In retrospective to the first movie, it's revealed that the ruthless and seductive vampire queen Santanico Pandemonium used to be a humble Girl Next Door who would have probably lived a normal life if it wasn't for a fugitive outlaw who kidnapped her and inadvertently returned her to her mother...
- Groin Attack: A very cringe worthy one when Johnny uses a knife boot to hit a vampire in the crotch. He even has to wipe the testicles off when he does it.
- Halfway Plot Switch: Rehashes the plot switch structure of the first film with a Mexican western setting, having a post carriage theft plot preceding the action and horror.
- Heroic Sacrifice: By Santanico's father, the eponymous hangman. Despite being bitten and instantly turned by Satanico. He doesn't succumb to being evil (not at the moment anyway) and opens the gate out of the pueblo allowing Johnny and Ambrose to escape. He even gets his revenge on his ex-wife by impaling her with the gate trap and letting the sun finish the job.
- Immune to Bullets: The Hangman shoots Quixtla when she first confronts him. It does knock her out for a bit, but she eventually recovers with just some slight discomfort to her abdomen that she manages to push in.
- Mercy Kill: John has Johnny stake him after he is bitten.
- Numbered Sequels
- Pater Familicide: Gender-inverted.The Hangman: You killed your mother and father? Why?Catherine Reece: They were starvin', there was no food, so I sent 'em to a better place.The Hangman: What about your aunt, your uncle, and all your cousins?Catherine Reece: I never liked them.
- Please, Don't Leave Me: A rare villainous variant when Santanico begs Madrid to not abandon her as the entrance is closed while he flees the vampires.
- Power Floats: When Quixtla confronts the Hangman, she floats toward him. Pretty much giving away to Johnny and the others that something is seriously not right with the pueblo.
- Shot at Dawn: The film opens with Ambrose Bierce having a nightmare in which he's being shot by a Mexican firing squad.Pancho Villa: The blood of many brave men have been shared on that wall. It will give you some comfort to share in their glory.Ambrose Bierce: I accept that honor.
- Sinister Minister: John turns out to be one, having married Mary for her father's money, lusts after some of the pueblo workers and has quite the violent side when drunk. Though he does experience a sort of Heel–Faith Turn once the vampires come forth, confronted with what he had done when the now-vampire Mary reveals to the survivors his past misdeeds and is forced to stake her. Then before he's staked by Madrid after being bitten, he begs for God's forgiveness as he wants to die human.
- Prequel: Set in the past of the old west and shows how Santanico came to be.
- Shout-Out: The titular hangman wields a whip.
- The Stinger: It reveals Ambrose Bierce in the modern day finishing telling another guy the events of the movie, the latter expressing disbelief at "Mexican hooker vampires". So Ambrose shows him proof-by promptly ripping out the man's heart. The final shot shows Ambrose's eyes turning golden, fangs in his mouth and him emitting a low growl before eating the heart. Of course, this was foreshadowed during one of Ambrose's visions earlier in the film briefly. Though, it wasn't shown when he was bitten due to the rest of the original ending where the stinger came from being replaced with the ending it got.
- Tragic Monster: It's very hard not to feel bad about Santanico Pandemonium when you discover her backstory in this movie.
- Transhuman Treachery: All who get bitten succumb to vampirism and become instantly evil. Examples include Erza (A traveler stopping at the pueblo. He's fed on by a least four vampire women, turns, bites Mary and practically becomes an enforcer for Quixtla), Mary (A devout Christian and John's wife. Once she turns, she follows after the group and reveals John's dirty secret to the group) and one of Johnny's men who attacks the group after he tries to hide that he was bitten by a vampire earlier.
- Vampire Refugee: One of Johnny's men is bitten when one of the prostitutes he was with bites him. When Johnny asks if anyone was bitten, he tries to deny it. However the curse eventually gets to him before he turns and bites John.
