A film of two halves

Rating: 8/10 (4 August 2016)

As the film opens a Texas Ranger pops into a liquor store and starts talking about a bank robbery in Abilene. The robbers, Seth and Richard Gecko, are believed to be heading through Texas to the Mexican border he has no idea that they are hiding in the store and he doesn't live to find out. The brother's continue south to a motel near the border. Here they meet the Fuller family; Jacob and his children Kate and Scott, for are taking a holiday in their recreational vehicle. Jacob is a preacher suffering a crisis of faith after the loss of his wife. The Geckos take them hostage and force Jacob to take them to a sleazy bar in northern Mexico.
Here they settle down and have a few drinks while waiting for Seth's contact to arrive. While waiting they learn the terrible truth about the bar it is a nest of vampires who prey on their unfortunate clientele! If they are to survive until dawn they will have to recall everything they've heard about vampires and Jacob will have to find his faith again.
This is very much a film of two halves; the first a tense hostage situation and the second a full on vampire movie there is nothing in the first half to suggest what is to come. George Clooney does a fine job playing against type as Seth and is ably supported by Quentin Tarantino who plays is disturbingly creepy brother. Harvey Keitel is more understated as Jacob Fuller, Juliette Lewis impresses as his daughter and Ernest Liu is pretty good as his son. Selma Hayek may not be on screen for long but she oozes sexiness in the film's most memorable scene. The style of action changes too; in the first half it is grittily realistic in a fairly mean way then in the second half it is more full on blood and gore done in a more tongue in cheek way; an example being the four stripper-vampires who end up staked on the legs of an upturned table. Overall I'd say that this is very much a cult movie that people will either really enjoy or really dislike thankfully I enjoyed it and would certainly recommend this to fans of the films of Robert Rodriguez or Tarantino.