Every hack in Hollywood contributed to this disaster

Rating: 1/10 (24 March 2004)

*some spoilers follow*
Looking back over my reviews, I see that I have a somewhat inconsistent reaction to violence. Maybe not inconsistent, but complicated. In general, I'm bothered by "funny" or glorified violence, and "From Dusk 'Till Dawn" wallows in both. From the moment that the "heroes" set fire to a convenience store clerk, they lose all of my sympathy. They're every bit as repulsive as the vampires - so who cares if they win or lose? An essential element of horror is that the victims should be likable, so we can be alarmed at the prospect of their deaths; here, they're a bunch of jerks.
The film could still be good, if viewed on an entirely superficial level, but it's not. Rodriguez's over-the-top action just looks tacky. The CGI effects are already ludicrous, the vampire makeups are silly (rubberized demons - what is this, a BBC production?), and the violence is neither exciting nor scary - it's merely gross.
Check the trivia section and note that Quentin Tarantino - that fiercely original screenwriter and director - ripped off all of the film's best lines from older movies. I guess it was too much effort to come up with an original script, right? Of course, the siege aspect of the story comes right out of "Night of the Living Dead" and about 10,000 other horror films. At least Sex Machine acknowledges one debt - the improvised cross is lifted from Peter Cushing's "Horror of Dracula," a film that's superior to this pile of crap in virtually every respect.
This is horror for the stupid set, a movie where the coolest thing in evidence is a "crotch cannon." It's SO mindless that I can't even appreciate it on the same level as bad Godzilla; it's TRYING to be campy and stupid, but at the same time masquerading as a piece of decent film art created by famous people, and it's that clash of styles that bothers me so. This film is dishonest. It's a turd wrapped in silk. It thumbs its nose at horror while trying to horrify. In short, it's maybe the worst film I've ever seen...and I've had to sit through it twice! Do I get some kind of endurance award for that?