From Dusk Till Dawn 1.01 “Pilot”

I love From Dusk Till Dawn (1996). I feel no shame for saying that. It is one of those movies that I can watch over and over again, even if I catch it on TV late at night and it’s already halfway over. It was such a perfect storm of talent, guts, and pulpy exploitation that there’s no way that I couldn’t love it. Hell, I even dug From Dusk Till Dawn 3 despite barely remembering anything about it (Full disclosure: I will love just about anything Michael Parks is in, and Michael Parks playing Ambrose Bierce? Come on! Yes!). So, a Robert Rodriguez written and directed television adaptation of his film has at least gotten my attention just by existing – which is, I’m sure, part of the point of the entire project.

Not to appeal to me specifically, but you know what I mean.

What we have here is a cable television-friendly series on Rodriguez’s own El Rey network (available via Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and DirecTV in the US and via Netflix in Europe) that will be telling the same story as the movie, but expanding that original 108 minutes into ten 45 or so minute episodes — or a total of seven and a half hours.

For the first season. If more than a handful of people watch there’s no reason Rodriguez wouldn’t keep it going for more.

What this means for viewers is a serious expansion of nearly every scene from the original (if the pilot is any indication), plus a few extra characters thrown into the mix to help broaden the focus. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and the pilot did a pretty good job of jumping around in time to give us some backstory for characters that we never got in the original. And the pacing never really seemed to suffer this first time out.

This extra material is mainly focused on our “Good Guys,” Texas Rangers Freddie Gonzalez (Jesse Garcia) and Earl McGraw (Don Johnson doing his best Michael Parks impression), but we also get a glimpse into the world of Carlos Madrigal (Wilmer Valderrama) – the guy who arranges the fateful meeting at The Titty Twister Bar. In an interesting addition to the mythos, he seems to have some connection to the vampires, and it’s no accident that he sends the boys to the Titty Twister.

We’ll have to wait and see if it’s still called that for the TV version. If they can say “shit” with impunity, I doubt “titty” will be a problem. We may have to lose the “pussy” speech though.

In addition to some fleshing out of characters, we also get a glimpse into the history of the Vampires with a flashback to what is apparently the Secret Origin of Santánico Pandemonium (Eiza González). That involves González being thrown into a pit of snakes, being repeatedly bitten, and then having a python (or something) crawl down her throat. It was kind of silly, to be honest, and González is no Salma Hayek.

Really, none of the cast fills the shoes of their big-screen representations. D.J. Cotrona does a serviceable job occasionally capturing some of the swagger and charisma of George Clooney’s Seth Gecko. Some of those lines from the film that get transferred to this version hit their mark, but others fall way short. Clooney just brought it for this film. However, one episode in and I’m doubting that Zane Holtz can capture the quirky threat that Tarantino brought to Richie Gecko. Not only is he male model good-looking and fit, he doesn’t really have that same “anything can happen at any time” quality that Richie needs to have.

I never thought I’d say this, but Tarantino’s performance was about as spot on as humanly possible. He made Richie his own maybe more than Clooney owned Seth.

We’ll have to wait and see how Robert Patrick does taking on the role of ex-preacher Jacob Fuller (played to perfection by Harvey Keitel in the film). And I hope we get to see new versions of Sex Machine (Tom Savini) and Frost (Fred Williamson) once we get to the bar. And maybe a Danny Trejo cameo? How cool would that be?

Although the more I think of it, the more I hesitate. Those guys are so iconic, I can’t imagine recasting them successfully. Fingers crossed!

Another thing we’ll have to wait and see about is the inclusion of not only an original storyline as Ranger Gonzalez swears to hunt down the Geckos, but of strange hallucinatory elements where Richie sees monsters and has Santánico whispering paranoid thoughts in his ear at inopportune times. It’s an interesting addition to the original story, but I’m not sure I care for the implications. Does Richie already have a connection to the Vampires? Carlos intimates as much.

Regardless of where this narrative thread leads, Richie’s hallucinatory visions of monsters didn’t really work for me. Oh, they were okay monster suits, but I didn’t really get the connection to From Dusk Till Dawn. The costuming and make-up effects would be more at home in a Nightbreed TV adaptation — which isn’t a bad idea, now that I’ve said it.

Somebody needs to get on that.

All in all, serviceable is about the best description I can muster for the first episode of From Dusk Till Dawn. The bones are strong, but that’s been clear since 1996 and neither of the film’s two sequels were able to cash in on them. The question is can Rodriguez really flesh out what was originally a perfectly streamlined story into something more in tune with today’s TV expectations? Part of what made the film work so well was how grounded in gritty crime drama it was before dramatically shifting gears into crazy vampire action. It turned on a dime and had an energy that made it something totally unique.

I hope that the series can recapture some of that spark. If Rodriguez’s recent experiments in excess, Planet Terror and Machete Kills were any indication, he’s got it in him. He just has to cut loose. Hell, it’s his own show on his own network. He should feel comfortable enough there to really break out and do something insane and over-the-top. And that’s what this show needs; an assload of crazy.