Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		3.5

From Dusk Till Dawn: Season One Blu-ray Movie Review

Quentin's Theme.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 27, 2014

If Robert Rodriguez intentionally channels Quentin Tarantino throughout the new television iteration of From Dusk Till Dawn, there’s of course a very good reason: Tarantino wrote From Dusk Till Dawn, the feature film on which the series is based (Tarantino also co-starred). So when two characters start debating the relative merits of menu items like mole sauce instead of the Whopper, the result, while derivative, is perhaps understandable. From Dusk Till Dawn was not overly successful with either critics or audiences upon its initial release, but the film’s luster has grown appreciably in the intervening years, and Rodriguez himself says it’s one of the most frequently asked about projects in his ever lengthening filmography. The television version doesn’t attempt to radically reinvent the Mayan calendar wheel (so to speak), instead filling in back stories and fiddling with time and a nonlinear exposition (in true Tarantino mode) to flesh out ten episodes. Fans of the film who want the story to get to the good stuff (meaning the vampires, blood and guts) will need to be relatively patient, for Rodriguez is in no big rush to get to the “final showdown” that caps both the film and this season’s story arc. Instead, various episodes ping pong back and forth through several timeframes helping to explicate how these disparate characters got to where they are in the pilot’s opening sequences, where the deadly showdown between the vicious Gecko Brothers and some unsuspecting Texas Rangers leads to all sorts of trauma.

Rodriguez keeps the basic outlines of the film’s plot intact in the television version, though he begins the series with a brief prologue showing an unsettling scene featuring Santanico Pandemonium (Elza Gonzales) having a close encounter of the disturbing kind with an oversized python. The series then segues to Texas Ranger Earl McGraw (Don Johnson), a scrappy older guy who’s attempting to mentor novice Ranger Freddie Gonzales (Jesse Garcia) on how to balance his personal and professional lives (McGraw insists Gonzales needs to choose between family and his Ranger duties). Their Tarantino-esque debate is brought to a halt when Earl stops at Benny’s World of Liquor, initially unaware that the Gecko Brothers, on the lam from the law, are hiding in the store.

Once again aping tropes that Tarantino favors, Rodriguez (who directed three of the first four episodes) repeatedly returns to the same basic plot points from different perspectives. When the horrifying interplay between McGraw and crazed Richie Gecko (Zane Holtz) reaches its bloody climax, Rodriguez then simply shows the same scene from the brothers’ point of view, offering up a bit more detail about how Richie helped to spring sibling Seth (D.J. Cotrona) out of stir, and then wreaked havoc during a robbery which left several Texas Rangers and policemen dead. There’s even more detritus from the botched job that ends up playing into the plot, as lovers of the film will already know.

But already the series is revealing both the hazards and benefits of expanding the basic storyline of the original film. Some of the skewed, alternating perspectives give some of the proceedings a quasi- Rashômon quality, even if the “facts” of any given sequence are never seriously in doubt. But there’s also more than a mere whiff of padding on display here, where a scene that was a bristling few minutes in the film is stuffed to overflowing in the television version to the point that even a simple interchange can take virtually an entire episode to play out.

The series does manage to create several extremely memorable takes on characters, however, which may be this first season’s crowning achievement. Zane Holtz is fantastically creepy and unpredictably volatile as Richie, and the series does a good job of walking a fine line early on between suggesting Richie is just a head case or actually privy to visions of creatures from another realm. The other real standout in the first season is Jesse Garcia as Freddie Gonzales, a character whose vengeance seeking really defines much of the momentum engendered in the first ten episodes. Don Johnson brings a certain weathered gravitas to his role, and Wilmer Valderrama is rather surprisingly menacing as the crime lord the Geckos are seeking to reach to be granted asylum.

Rodriguez does attempt to invest the series with a bit more fleshed out mythology than the film allowed, but even with this sometimes provocative content, From Dusk Till Dawn often feels like an exercise in style over substance. With this initial story arc more or less wrapped up by the first season’s culmination, it will be interesting to see where Rodriguez chooses to go next in the already announced second year of From Dusk Till Dawn. Perhaps he’ll take a page from American Horror Story and create an anthology series of sorts where some of these fine actors will get to stretch their wings (and/or fangs) in new roles.

From Dusk Till Dawn: Season One Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

From Dusk Till Dawn: Season One is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Entertainment One and Miramax with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. This digitally shot series boasts a generally very sharp and well defined image, one that is only slightly hampered at times by some rather aggressive color grading. Yellow is the overlay of choice in several key sequences, lending a kind of syrupy ambience to many scenes and just minimally smoothing out fine detail in the process. Contrast is generally strong and when not subject to the aforementioned grading processes, colors are nicely saturated and accurate looking. Fine detail is excellent in close-ups. Despite the prevalence of dark or dimly lit moments, there are no real problems with noise or other compression artifacts. Some of the CGI looks slightly soft when compared to the bulk of the series.

From Dusk Till Dawn: Season One Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

From Dusk Till Dawn: Season One features a nice sounding lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix that nicely supports everything from the roar of the Geckos' vintage Cougar to the expected outpouring of gunshots. The club scenes also bristle with a lot of activity, with both crowd sounds and source cues well splayed throughout the surrounds. Dialogue is very cleanly presented and well prioritized. Fidelity is excellent and dynamic range is very wide in this problem free track.

From Dusk Till Dawn: Season One Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentaries:

  Pilot with D.J. Cotrona (Seth Gecko), Brandon Soo Hoo (Scott Fuller), Carlos Coto (Writer), Eiza Gonzales (Santanico Pandemonium), Jesse Garcia (Freddie Gonzales), Robert Rodriguez (EP and Director), and Zane Holtz (Richie Gecko)

  Blood Runs Thick with Carlos Coto (EP and Writer) and Diego Gutierrez (Co-EP and Writer)

  Place of Dead Roads with Alvaro Rodriguez (Writer), Carlos Coto (EP and Writer), Dwight Little (Director) and Jesse Garcia (Freddie Gonzales)

  Pandemonium with D.J. Cotrona (Seth Gecko), Brandon Soo Hoo (Scott Fuller), Carlos Coto (EP and Writer), Eiza Gonzales (Santanico Pandemonium), Jesse Garcia (Freddie Gonzales), Robert Rodriguez (EP and Director), Wilmer Valderrama (Carlos) and Zane Holtz (Richie Gecko)

  La Conquista with Carlos Cota (EP and Writer), Fede Alvarez (Director) and Marcel Rodriguez (Writer)

  The Take with Alvaro Rodriguez (Writer), Carlos Coto (EP and Writer), Jesse Garcia (Freddie Gonzales), Robert Patrick (Jacob Fuller) and Zane Holtz (Richie Gecko)

• Full Length Trailer (1080i; 2:02)


• Best Kills Video (1080i; 1:02)


• On Set: Episode 1 Day 1 (1080i; 2:02)


• On Set: The Making of From Dusk Till Dawn (1080p; 23:08) is a pretty good EPK with interviews and behind the scenes footage.


• Behind the Scenes: "On Set: Brought to You by General Motors" (1080i; 2:08)


• Behind the Scenes: "On Set: Brought to You by Dos Equis" (1080i; 00:32)


• Character Bio Featurettes (1080i; 5:03) is a good way to get a quick overview for those not familiar with the film.


• General Motors Commercial Featuring Seth Gecko (1080i; 1:02)


• Dos Equis Commercial Featuring Carlos Madrigal (1080i; 1:02)


• Big Kahuna Commercial (1080i; 00:32)


• What's In the Briefcase Spot (1080i; 00:22)


• SXSW Featurette (1080i; 1:02) would more accurately be described as a trailer.


• Q&A From Premiere at Alamo Drafthouse with Robert Rodriguez and Cast (1080i; 33:59)

From Dusk Till Dawn: Season One Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

While some may be asking a rhetorical "why" with regard to the need for a more detailed version of From Dusk Till Dawn, other cynics may well answer, "Hey, at least it wasn't The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl." Some of this reimagining is quite visceral and well done, and the multi-perspective approach pays decent dividends. But there's still a lot of needless blather here that seems designed to merely fill up the time until the next big set piece trundles into view. Several performances here are standouts, and fans of the film will almost certainly want to sample this version of the story. Technical merits are generally strong and the supplemental package is fairly impressive. With caveats noted From Dusk Till Dawn comes Recommended.