Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

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

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 7, 2017

Even though it’s actually culled from the second season of the series, the third year of From Dusk Till Dawn gets off to both a figurative and a literal bang, something that immediately gives a sense that this often relentlessly energetic show is “going for the gusto” perhaps more than ever. The opening conflagration shows the explosive end of the Titty Twister (something already detailed in the story), but now there’s a coda of sorts, with a number of vile looking creatures rising out of the ashes like mutant phoenixes. This particular development is another hint about the path From Dusk Till Dawn is on, for the show now introduces a number of new characters in an already overstuffed cast, all within the confines of the adventures (misadventures?) of the Gecko Brothers, Seth (D.J. Cotrona) and Richie (Zane Holtz). Robert Rodriguez is on record as having stated that one of the reasons he wanted to adapt From Dusk Till Dawn as a television series was to give himself “space” to further explore the rather fascinating Mesoamerican mythologies that underpin much of the story, and in that regard, this third season fulfills that promise quite winningly. As I mentioned in my review of the show’s first and second seasons, the series’ writing team tends to emphasize some of the stylistic quirks of Rodriguez’s collaborator on the original film, Quentin Tarantino, a choice that some will unabashedly love but which others may find overly twee and problematic. The show is often quite funny in a completely dark and twisted way, something else that may in fact recommend it to certain people with skewed senses of humor, and it continues to offer pretty substantial amounts of gore as the Geckos find themselves wrapped up with any number of nasty entities.

Our reviews of the previous seasons of From Dusk Till Dawn can be accessed by clicking on the following links:

From Dusk Till Dawn: Season One Blu-ray review

From Dusk Till Dawn: Season Two Blu-ray review

Note: This review assumes the reader has been watching the show and is already “spoiled” in terms of developments in the first two seasons. Those who don’t want any “secrets” revealed are encouraged to skip down to the technical portions of the review, below.

It’s getting a little harder to determine who exactly are the good guys (and/or gals) and who are the bad guys (and/or gals) as the third season of From Dusk Till Dawn continues to explore certain moral shades of gray (or at least red, considering the blood sucking and flesh eating that’s part and parcel of the series’ plot mechanics). That ambiguity in fact extends more than ever to the Geckos themselves this season. The brothers have not exactly been the paradigms of a traditional hero from the get go, but now with Richie “turned” the whole ambience of their interrelationship is colored in interesting new ways. In fact one of the kind of funny subtexts in the show now is how Richie is “one of them”, at least from Seth’s perspective, something that tends to set the brothers’ relationship on edge from time to time.

Some of this season’s emphasis shifts from the now destroyed Titty Twister to another alliteratively named location, Jacknife Jed’s, where the brothers meet the Lords, where they’re “thanked” for their previous services by being informed they’re now “bagmen”, something Seth isn’t particularly happy about. All of this takes place within the structural artifice this season utilizes, where flashbacks are detailed as having taken place this or that many “moons ago”, with subsequent events then playing out without much interstitial explanations. In this case, the brothers’ new assignment is then shown after it’s been in place for six months, with Seth and Richie attempting to collect on a past due debt by a nasty guy named Alonzo (Lobo Sebastian). Suffice it to say that in short order a number of beasts have been slayed, with the upshot being that there’s an element of mind control underway with regard to several characters, all courtesy of an entity with the charming (and appropriate, given his “collecting” habits) name of Skull Keeper (Joseph Gatt).

While the third season introduces several new characters, it’s actually some longstanding supporting players who have the most interesting changes. Chief among these is Kate Fuller (Madison Davenport), who (for those who have been paying attention to previous seasons) really shouldn’t even be around anymore, but who in this third season undergoes a really interesting transformation in another kinda sorta version of mind control. Her opening scene in a mental hospital, as brief as it is, is hilarious and one of the high points in the early going of this season. Things become considerably darker as the story progresses, of course, leading to a denouement that my hunch is will provide a lot of grist for the mill if the show returns for a fourth year (I haven’t been able to track down any renewal information online).

What’s kind of interesting if the show does not in fact return for another season is how many of the characters are more or less back where they started, albeit transformed by the experiences they’ve been through. It makes this season’s windup both fraught with danger but also weirdly approaching happily ever after status.

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

From Dusk Till Dawn: Season Three is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Entertainment One with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. The show's palette continues to be one of its most distinctive features, with lots of neon purples, greens and yellows entering the fray and popping quite nicely throughout the season. As with previous seasons, there is a lot of dimly lit or downright dark material, as can easily be seen in some of the screenshots accompanying this review, and a bit of murk tends to intrude at times. Low contrast in certain shots tends to add a kind of violet hue to some of the blacks as well. In more brightly lit sequences, fine detail is excellent and helps to make some of the more bloody elements rather gruesome. The "ashen" deaths still look great this season, but as with previous seasons, some of the CGI can be a bit soft looking at times.

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

From Dusk Till Dawn: Season Three's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track is very much in keeping with the series' previous seasons on Blu-ray, offering some nice immersive elements in the big action sequences, as well as regular bursts of LFE at key moments. Sound effects are well placed around the soundfield and help to open up what is often kind of an intentionally claustrophobic feeling show. Dialogue is presented cleanly and clearly and is well prioritized on this problem free track.

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

Disc One

• Audio Commentary on 'Head Games' with Diego Gutierrez (Executive Producer) and Carlos Coto (Executive Producer)

Disc Two has no supplementary material.

Disc Three

• Audio Commentaries

  'Matanzas' with Joe Menendez (Director), Carlos Coto (Executive Producer) and Brandon Soo Hoo (Actor)

  'Dark Side of the Sun' with Joe Menendez (Director), Carlos Coto (Executive Producer) and Brandon Soo Hoo (Actor)

• Season 3 Catch Up (1080p; 9:24) offers three featurettes getting viewers up to speed on things.


• Featurettes (1080p; 7:41) offers four pretty brief featurettes: Carlos Madrigal Returns, The Evolution of Kate Fuller, Monsters of Xilbalba: Itzpa (Llorona) and Monsters of Xilbalba: Xilbalba 101.


• Inside the Episodes (1080p; 7:24)


• Trailers (1080p; 2:47)


• Season 3 Wrap Up (1080p; 3:58) is a bookending piece to the Catch Up featurette, above.


• Season 3 Best Kills (1080p; 1:26)


• When Sex Machines Collide (1080p; 2:18) offers interviews with Jake Busey and others.


• Evolution of a Fight Scene (1080p; 2:54) gives some background on one of the MMA-ish sequences.


• Deleted Scene, Episode 309 (1080p; 1:45)

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

I'm not quite sure why exactly, but this season of From Dusk Till Dawn actually captured my fancy a bit more than previous years. Some of the Tarantino-esque dialogue can still grate on occasion, but the series' neat blend of black comedy and gruesome horror is often quite compelling, and the whole Mesoamerican mythos the show explores makes it a really distinctive entry one way or the other. Recommended.