Blade Meets 'Pulp Fiction' in Quentin Tarantino's 3-Part Action Thriller Nobody Remembers

Published Sep 23, 2026, 5:29 PM EDT

Collier Jennings is an entertainment journalist with extensive experience. Collier, or "CJ" to his friends and family, is a dedicated fan of genre films - particularly science fiction, fantasy, and comic book adaptations, not to mention all forms of animation. This stems from a close bond with his father, who introduced him to these genres via copies of X-Men comics and reruns of the original Ultraman series. With his near-encyclopedic knowledge and bottomless love of genre, he's tackled a wide variety of articles.

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Cinema's growth as an art form has also led to the evolution of how vampires are depicted on screen. Sinners blended together horror, romance, and family ties. The Twilight saga covered the ups and downs of being in a relationship with a vampire. One of the most iconic takes on vampire lore, however, remains Blade. Wesley Snipes' depiction of the Marvel vampire hunter was a large stepping stone in bringing the comic book movie back into prominence, and hooked non-comics readers with plenty of bloody, brutal action. Two years before Blade hit theaters, another action thriller that heavily featured vampires helped launch an entire franchise.

That movie is From Dusk Till Dawn, directed by Robert Rodriguez and written by Quentin Tarantino. From Dusk Till Dawn follows brotehrs Seth (George Clooney) and Richie Gecko (Tarantino) as they go on the run after a robbery goes wrong. After hijacking a motor home that belongs to pastor Jacob Fuller (Harvey Keitel), the Gecko brothers travel to a strip club. Instead of finding refuge, they wind up fighting for their lives as the club's full of vampires. What follows is a violently entertaining romp that features Rodriguez and Tarantino at their best.

‘From Dusk Till Dawn’ Features Robert Rodriguez & Quentin Tarantino at Their Best

Image via Dimension Films/Photofest

From Dusk Till Dawn doesn't let up for a minute, as its violence escalates to insane levels. The opening features the Gecko brothers running away from a gas station as it's literally exploding, and the vampires die in creatively gruesome ways. That's not even getting into the weapons that are utilized throughout the movie, with Jacob wielding a shotgun in the shape of a cross and the outlaw "Sex Machine" (Tom Savini) having a gun where nobody would expect it. Anyone who's watched Tarantino or Rodriguez's previous works wouldn't be surprised to learn that the two are behind From Dusk Till Dawn.

In fact, From Dusk Till Dawn has more than a few connections to Tarantino's work; he previously developed Robert Kurtzman's original idea into a screenplay in exchange for Kurtzman providing makeup work for Reservoir Dogs. Tarantino also used the success of Pulp Fiction to get From Dusk Till Dawn made, and even recommended Rodriguez as a director, as the two previously worked together on Four Rooms (which led them to cast Salma Hayek as the vampire Santánico Pandemonium). The end result was a surprising success, as From Dusk Till Dawn overcame mixed reviews to become a box office hit.

There’s an Entire ‘From Dusk Till Dawn’ Franchise, Including Two Sequels & a TV Series

While most horror fans know about From Dusk Till Dawn, they probably don't know that the movie spawned two sequels, From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money and From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman's Daughter. Ironically, neither sequel features any of the characters from the first movie, though they do follow its template of a criminal entering a brothel that's inhabited by vampires. Robert Rodriguez would eventually launch a television adaptation of From Dusk Till Dawn, which retells and expands upon the movie's events while also exploring the origins of the vampires. Rodriguez said the series was a chance for him to touch on story elements he didn't get to do in the first movie.

"I delved a little deeper into Mesoamerican mythologies and Aztec and Mayan mythologies and where a vampire culture could have existed back then and found fascinating stuff. If the film was the short story, this series is the novel. You go places in the television show we only hinted at in the movie."

From Dusk Till Dawn remains a truly unique horror hybrid, as it mixes the bloodshed of a vampire story with the gritty aesthetic of a crime thriller. It also makes for a great Halloween binge-watch, especially now that it's available to stream for free on Pluto TV.