Now when I think about From Dusk 'Till Dawn I think about the vampires. If you ask the average person what From Dusk 'Till Dawn is about they'll focus on the vampires. But the vampires don't show up (in the book I have) until page 108 of 159. So essentially the story doesn't really start until 2/3 of the way through the script. Now that's not 2/3rds of the way through the movie, as that last 3rd is mostly action while the first 2/3rds are predominately dialogue.
My initial intention was to talk about mixing genres, but that's not really what happens here. It's not like Zombieland or Shaun of the Dead or something like that where you are mixing horror and comedy. There is no mixing; it's like oil and water. These are two separate stories with the same characters. The first story definitely informs the second, but the second could easily stand on it's own. If need be you could start this movie when the RV enters the parking lot for the Titty Twister and be able to figure out rather quickly who the characters were and how they related to one another.
I'm trying to figure the structure of it. It seems like it either has 2 second acts or, my personal theory, it's actually two movies. It's almost as if you have a movie and it's sequel all in one.
You could argue that the movie has two second acts. The first one beginning when they kidnap Jacob and his family and the second 2nd act beginning when they get to the Titty twister.
The problem is that the Vampire sequence fits so well into a 3 act structure. The first act is when they enter the Titty Twister up to when the vampires appear. The second act ends at the low point, when Jacob gets bit (this also just after his character makes that all important second act decision to move the story forward when he decides not be a faithless preacher but instead to be a "mean, motherfucking servant of God". The third act is when they go out and fight the vampires."
The first part would break up roughly as - Act 1: Up to when they get to the hotel; Act 2: After the kidnap Jacob and his family, up to the border (when Scott wants to turn the Gecko's in); Act 3: From when the border guards come on the RV to the point when they get to the Titty Twister.
Seth being the main character, his primary question in the first part is: How do I get me and my brother out of the country. When they get to the Titty Twister, the question is: How do I survive the night.
I don't know. I feel like I'm rambling at this point. If you have any ideas let me know.
From Dusk 'Till Dawn: http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/From-Dusk-Till-Dawn.html
I always thought of it as 2 movies, but the first movie gets hijacked late in the second act by a vampire movie. Structure is somewhat similar to 'Death Proof', come to think of it…
ReplyDeleteMy current theory, the morning after, is that it's two movies and that the end of third act of the first movie and first act of the second are the same because both of which (in storytelling terms) are about returning to the ordinary world of the escape portion and establishing the ordinary world of the vampire story.
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