This straight-to-video sequel to the surprise cinema hit of '96 is a lot better than I had heard and expected. Sure, it's just a rehash of the original film done on a much smaller scale (and lower budget, obviously), but what this film may lack in money and originality it more than makes up for in pacing and almost non-stop action. It's definitely a tongue-in-cheek cross between comedy and horror, a fact which some reviewers seem to have missed, and is pretty enjoyable on a dumb-but-fun scale.
Director Scott Spiegel first cut his teeth by assisting with some of the EVIL DEADs back in the '80s, before making his debut with the incredibly gory slasher movie INTRUDER. Here, we find out that Spiegel hasn't progressed as a director (as has his pal Sam Raimi) in the twelve-odd years since then, as basically he uses exactly the same kind of comic-book style as in that movie. Spiegel's penchant is for bizarre camera angles, so we witness things occurring from behind moving fans, from the point of view of a man doing press-ups, from the mouth of a vampire, from the bottles of barrels and glasses, and lots more besides. Far from being annoying and over-the-top (well, maybe over-the-top) as some reviewers would have you think, these dodgy camera angles are the highlights of the film for me; at least they're somewhat original and make the film more fun and interesting to watch. You can just imagine Spiegel trying to work out where he can place the camera next...
The contrived plot is tenuously linked to the original film by having a brief scene set in the bar (seemingly rebuilt after the slaughter that occurred there before), and also a cameo appearance from that vampire barman Danny Trejo, who sets the plot in motion. Don't be fooled into thinking that Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino had anything to do with this film, as they didn't; being executive producers, all they had to do was let Siegel use the rights of the film so that they could get a cut of the money. That's their achievement over with.
The cast is familiar only to those who enjoy similar B-movies and straight-to-video releases. The noticeably ageing Robert Patrick is surprisingly pretty good as the lead, especially considering the slumming level of some of his performances in the past decade. Bo Hopkins plays the town sheriff, and could well be playing exactly the same character he did in MUTANT fifteen years previously; did someone mention typecasting? Also of interest are some brief cameos from Tiffani-Amber Thiessen and Bruce Campbell, who star in a movie playing on television (!) at the very beginning of the film, and are bitten to death by a flying swarm of vampire bats.
These bats lead me on to the special effects in this film. They are cheap, yes, but they're also enjoyable on a B-movie level. The bats themselves are purely CGI, and are pretty well done; not in the least bit realistic, but then they don't have to be for a comic-book film like this. The vampires look less like aliens this time around, more like actors with prosthetic appliances, contact lenses, and false teeth, and of course we don't get to see any fancy morphings either. Saying this, the vampire deaths - where they dissolve into skeletons - are suitably grotesque and gruesome, and highly reminiscent of the end of the first EVIL DEAD. The blood and violence level is relatively high but not disturbing, more splattery in the style of BRAINDEAD, with severed heads bouncing around and the like.
After a fairly nondescript two-thirds, this film suddenly kicks into high-gear at the end with a showdown between the majority of the Mexican police force and the four vampire bank robbers, with Patrick caught in the middle. Here, seemingly endless amounts of bullets are fired, loads of vehicles explode, and people are slaughtered wholesale. Pretty damn impressive on the low budget this film has, and it almost comes close to a similar scene in TERMINATOR 2 on which it models itself. In fact, this finale is highly entertaining and packed with action, flying stuntmen and other cheesiness. While FROM DUSK TILL DAWN 2: Texas BLOOD MONEY never rises above the level of a B-movie, it's undeniably enjoyable entertainment that contains a tongue-in-cheek approach sometimes lacking in movies today. Fans of EVIL DEAD II and similar efforts should have a field day. Yes, this is a bad film, but it's a damned good bad film that never becomes boring!
Director Scott Spiegel first cut his teeth by assisting with some of the EVIL DEADs back in the '80s, before making his debut with the incredibly gory slasher movie INTRUDER. Here, we find out that Spiegel hasn't progressed as a director (as has his pal Sam Raimi) in the twelve-odd years since then, as basically he uses exactly the same kind of comic-book style as in that movie. Spiegel's penchant is for bizarre camera angles, so we witness things occurring from behind moving fans, from the point of view of a man doing press-ups, from the mouth of a vampire, from the bottles of barrels and glasses, and lots more besides. Far from being annoying and over-the-top (well, maybe over-the-top) as some reviewers would have you think, these dodgy camera angles are the highlights of the film for me; at least they're somewhat original and make the film more fun and interesting to watch. You can just imagine Spiegel trying to work out where he can place the camera next...
The contrived plot is tenuously linked to the original film by having a brief scene set in the bar (seemingly rebuilt after the slaughter that occurred there before), and also a cameo appearance from that vampire barman Danny Trejo, who sets the plot in motion. Don't be fooled into thinking that Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino had anything to do with this film, as they didn't; being executive producers, all they had to do was let Siegel use the rights of the film so that they could get a cut of the money. That's their achievement over with.
The cast is familiar only to those who enjoy similar B-movies and straight-to-video releases. The noticeably ageing Robert Patrick is surprisingly pretty good as the lead, especially considering the slumming level of some of his performances in the past decade. Bo Hopkins plays the town sheriff, and could well be playing exactly the same character he did in MUTANT fifteen years previously; did someone mention typecasting? Also of interest are some brief cameos from Tiffani-Amber Thiessen and Bruce Campbell, who star in a movie playing on television (!) at the very beginning of the film, and are bitten to death by a flying swarm of vampire bats.
These bats lead me on to the special effects in this film. They are cheap, yes, but they're also enjoyable on a B-movie level. The bats themselves are purely CGI, and are pretty well done; not in the least bit realistic, but then they don't have to be for a comic-book film like this. The vampires look less like aliens this time around, more like actors with prosthetic appliances, contact lenses, and false teeth, and of course we don't get to see any fancy morphings either. Saying this, the vampire deaths - where they dissolve into skeletons - are suitably grotesque and gruesome, and highly reminiscent of the end of the first EVIL DEAD. The blood and violence level is relatively high but not disturbing, more splattery in the style of BRAINDEAD, with severed heads bouncing around and the like.
After a fairly nondescript two-thirds, this film suddenly kicks into high-gear at the end with a showdown between the majority of the Mexican police force and the four vampire bank robbers, with Patrick caught in the middle. Here, seemingly endless amounts of bullets are fired, loads of vehicles explode, and people are slaughtered wholesale. Pretty damn impressive on the low budget this film has, and it almost comes close to a similar scene in TERMINATOR 2 on which it models itself. In fact, this finale is highly entertaining and packed with action, flying stuntmen and other cheesiness. While FROM DUSK TILL DAWN 2: Texas BLOOD MONEY never rises above the level of a B-movie, it's undeniably enjoyable entertainment that contains a tongue-in-cheek approach sometimes lacking in movies today. Fans of EVIL DEAD II and similar efforts should have a field day. Yes, this is a bad film, but it's a damned good bad film that never becomes boring!