From Dusk Till Dawn might be one of the most iconic movies of the 1990s, thanks to its ability to blend two genres into one, with two different voices behind the camera. The movie starts as a crime drama, with Quentin Tarantino and George Clooney starring as two criminals on the run from the police who take shelter in a bar south of the border. However, that is when director Robert Rodriguez takes over, and it turns into an all-out vampire bloodfest since that is what this specific bar shelters.
The movie has an all-star cast, with Tarantino and Clooney (early in his career post-ER) joined by Harvey Keitel, Juliette Lewis, Cheech Marin, Fred Williamson, Danny Trejo, and Salma Hayek. It ended up as a cult classic, with the film bringing in fans of Tarantino and Rodriguez when the two directors were the talk of the industry, and it later spawned two sequels and a From Dusk Till Dawn television series that aired on Rodriguez’s El Ray cable network from 2014 to 2016.
10
Grindhouse (2007)
Another Robert Rodriguez & Quentin Tartantino Collaboration
In 2007, Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino co-directed the horror-thriller Grindhouse. The movie pays homage to the exploitation-styled double features of the 1960s and 1970s, presenting two back-to-back films each director took on. Tarantino’s Death Proof is a slasher flick that centers on a killer who pursues his unsuspecting victims using a tricked-out indestructible car. Rodriguez’s Planet Terror portrays a world during a zombie outbreak.
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Fake trailers by Eli Roth, Edgar Wright, Robert Rodriguez, Rob Zombie, and Jason Eisener air between the movies. While From Dusk Till Dawn lists Tarantino as the screenwriter and Rodriguez as the director, Tarantino worked on directing the first part of the film, and Rodriguez was all-in on the horror part. Grindhouse presents the same split, although Tarantino was officially the sole director of Death Proof, rather than just helping Rodriguez in the crime drama/vampire flick.
9
Tales From The Crypt: Demon Knight (1995)
The TV Show Presents A Big-Screen Horror Tale
Tales from the Crypt is an iconic TV series that found success thanks to its cheesy but ominous Crypt Keeper (John Kassir) and the tales from the 1950s comic books. Director Ernest Dickerson directed the first movie spin-off from the HBO series. Demon Knight is a horror-comedy that stars William Sadler as Brayker, a man who has to keep a set of keys safe as they contain the blood of Christ. A figure named The Collector (Billy Zane) has been tracking him to take the keys, and if he is successful, the world will plummet into darkness and disorder.
Demon Knight is funnier than From Dusk Till Dawn, but both movies maintain a “cool factor” that makes them very similar.
Demon Knight has a similar story to From Dusk Till Dawn, as Brayker is a drifter who takes shelter in an old house only to find that he is now trapped and has to find a way to survive the night as a demonic force begins hunting him. While Sadler is the film’s protagonist, it is villain Billy Zane who steals every scene he is in, as the charismatic and often hilarious demonic force seeking the end of the world. Demon Knight is funnier than From Dusk Till Dawn, but both movies maintain a “cool factor” that makes them very similar.
8
Natural Born Killers (1994)
An Oliver Stone Movie Based On A Quentin Tarantino Script
The 1994 action-crime drama Natural Born Killers is one of Oliver Stone’s most controversial films. It is loosely based on the lives of Charles Starkweather and his young girlfriend, Caril Ann Fugate. Both come from violent and traumatic homes, which leads them to one another. The movie focuses on Mickey Knox (Woody Harrelson) and Mallory Wilson (Juliette Lewis) and the deadly road trip they decide to go on. Every time they stop, they kill whoever they stumble upon but leave one traumatized victim alive to tell their story.
The connection to From Dusk Till Dawn is that this is the second Quentin Tarantino script of a movie he didn’t ultimately direct that was made in the mid-’90s. However, unlike Dusk, which Tarantino contributed to and was a part of, he was shut out of this film and has mostly dismissed it since Stone made it. While Tarantino said he hates the movie, it has many of his touches, including the tongue-in-cheek dialogue and the winks to other films in the genre.
7
The Forsaken (2001)
A Man Delivering A Car Picks Up A Hitchhiker Who Happens To Be A Hitchhiker
An aspiring filmmaker named Sean (Kerr Smith) transports cars from one point to another to make ends meet. In his current job, he is driving an expensive Mercedes-Benz from Los Angeles to Miami, but he breaks one of the rules the owner gave him. He was told not to pick up a hitchhiker but ignores this and stops to pick up a lone hitchhiker named Nick (Brendan Fehr), who is an amateur vampire hunter who is hunting the Forsaken – the world’s first vampires.
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They stumble upon a left-for-dead woman named Megan (Izabella Miko), and after Sean becomes infected by a vampire, the trio races to kill Kit (Johnathan Schaech), the leader of the Forsaken, before it’s too late. In From Dusk Till Dawn, the Gecko Brothers take a vacationing family hostage and force them to drive to the bar, where they must survive the vampires awaiting them. Similarly, Sean is swept into the world of vampires, also thanks to an unexpected passenger on his road trip.
6
Vampires (1998)
John Carpenter’s Vampire Tale
It isn’t a secret that John Carpenter has revolutionized horror filmmaking. In 1998, he explored the vampire genre with the aptly titled Vampires. After witnessing his entire crew die in front of him, vampire hunter Jack Crow (James Woods) and his lone surviving team member, Anthony Montoya (Daniel Baldwin), are dead-set on finding a vampire leader named Valek (Thomas Ian Griffith) for revenge.
With the help of a bitten sex worker named Katrina (Sheryl Lee) and a knowledgeable Padre named Adam Guiteau (Tim Guinee), they face Valek head-on before he uses an ancient relic to walk in the sunlight. WhIle the two movies are different in that Vampires has skilled vampire hunters tracking the blood-suckers down, both rely on vampire lore and some disgusting bloody horror scenes to present the creatures in the horrific light that soon went out of style thanks to movies like Twilight.
5
Near Dark (1987)
The Vampire Movie That Never Uses The Word “Vampire”
Two vampire movies were released in 1987, but one of the movies never used the word “vampire” at all in its running time. Future Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker) directed the new-Western horror film Near Dark, the story of a nomadic family traveling though small towns in the south who encounter a young man named Caleb (Adrian Pasdar), who is then literally sucked into their way of life when a blood-sucker named Mae (Jenny Wright) infects him.
Near Dark is a different vampire movie genre, as it is more of a psychological horror than Dusk’s action-packed horror movie.
The movie shares a bit in common with From Dusk Till Dawn. Both deal with the unexpected arrival of vampires, but while From Dusk Till Dawn takes place in a strip club in a remote Mexican town, Near Dark takes place in the American Southwest. The cast is also great in both movies, with Lance Henricksen and Bill Paxton starring as two of the nomadic vampires. However, Near Dark is a different vampire movie genre, as it is more of a psychological horror than Dusk’s action-packed horror movie.
4
The Lost Boys (1987)
A Colorful, Exotic Vampire Movie
The Lost Boys
8/10
- Release Date
-
July 31, 1987
- Runtime
-
97 minutes
- Director
-
Joel Schumacher
- Writers
-
James Jeremias, Jan Fischer, Jeffrey Boam
- Sequel(s)
-
Lost Boys 2
Released in the same year as Near Dark and becoming much more successful and popular both during its release and in the years following, The Lost Boys is as different from Near Dark as vampire movies can get. After moving to a small town in California called Santa Clara, Michael Emerson (Jason Patric) and his little brother Sam (Corey Haim) are outcasts. With their mother and eccentric Grandpa (Barnard Hughes) in tow, they try to navigate their new world while delving into the world of vampires.
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Michael is taken in by the biker leader David (Kiefer Sutherland), and from that point on, everything changes for him and his family. While Near Dark is a brooding and dark study of what it means to be a vampire, The Lost Boys is more of a thrill ride with bright colors, pop music, and just as many laughs as it has scares. From Dusk Till Dawn is like a mix of the two movies, the horror and gore of Near Dark mixed with the fun action and one-liners of The Lost Boys.
3
Tales From The Crypt: Bordello Of Blood (1996)
The Second Tales From The Crypt Movie
Bordello of Blood
- Release Date
-
August 16, 1996
- Runtime
-
87 minutes
- Writers
-
Gilbert Adler
-
Dennis Miller
Rafe Guttman
-
Erika Eleniak
Katherine Verdoux
-
-
Chris Sarandon
Reverend Current
A year after Demon Knight, the Cryptkeeper returns to narrate the story of a questionable funeral parlor that is actually a vampire bordello. When a private investigator named Rafe Guttman (Dennis Miller) is hired by Catherine Verdoux (Erika Eleniak) to find her brother, Guttman has no idea what he’s in for. Guttman’s findings lead to the bordello and the evil that lurks behind the front doors. Unlike the first film, which was a mix of coolness and scares, this one goes all in on the absurdity of the situation.
From Dusk Till Dawn has absurdly over-the-top moments and some wild kills, but it never gets near the level of kitsch as Bordello of Blood
While the Gecko Brothers wandered into a bar that turned out to be a vampire hangout, in this movie, Guttman searches for a missing person only to find a bordello run by vampires. It even leads to the mother of all vampires, Lilith. From Dusk Till Dawn has absurdly over-the-top moments and some wild kills, but it never gets near the level of kitsch as Bordello of Blood, which features Corey Feldman.
2
The Way Of The Gun (2000)
A Ne-Western Noir Thriller
Mr. Parker (Ryan Phillippe) and Harold Longbaugh (Benicio Del Toro) are two drifters who are also petty criminals. Knowing that bigger crimes lead to bigger paychecks, they overhear a conversation that involves one million dollars and a surrogate. The two men decide to kidnap the surrogate to take the money for themselves, but the plan doesn’t go smoothly. While they’re fleeing to Mexico, they’re chased down by a group of gangsters.
At the same time, they realize the baby is meant for a high-profile gangster named Hale Chidduck (Scott Wilson). The Way of the Gun is a classic action-crime drama with a neo-Western twist. For Dusk Till Dawn fans who loved the first part of the movie and wished there was more of that crime drama action and no vampires, this is a great flick to watch to fill that need. WhIle it lacks the Tarantino dialogue, Ryan Phillippe and Benicio Del Toro easily supply the cool factor.
1
30 Days Of Night (2007)
Vampires In A Town Where The Sun Doesn’t Rise
30 Days of Night
7/10
- Release Date
-
October 19, 2007
- Runtime
-
113 minutes
- Director
-
David Slade
- Writers
-
Steve Niles, Stuart Beattie, Brian Nelson, Ben Templesmith
- Sequel(s)
-
30 Days of Night: Dark Days
30 Days of Night is a 2007 horror film based on the Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith comic book of the same name. The story centers on a small Alaskan town preparing for a 30-day-long polar night. Josh Hartnett stars as Eben Oleson, the town’s sheriff, who is separated from his wife, Stella (Melissa George). When a strange man arrives in town, a string of murders begins to happen. One by one, the locals are being picked off by creatures of the night, and Eben has to stay alive long enough to protect the ones he loves.
Much like how From Dusk Till Dawn sends humans into a seemingly inescapable situation, locked in a bar after dusk with the vampires who want to feed, 30 Days of Night takes it one step further. Since there is no sun in Alaska during this time of the year, the vampires never stop hunting, and the remote town does not allow for a clean escape. If anything, 30 Days of Night is From Dusk Till Dawn on a grander scale, and with both movies becoming cult classics, they are the perfect one-two vampire punch for horror fans.
From Dusk Till Dawn
6/10
- Release Date
-
January 19, 1996
- Runtime
-
108 minutes
- Director
-
Robert Rodriguez
- Franchise(s)
-
From Dusk Till Dawn
This story originally appeared on Screenrant
