From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money (1999)

Directed by Scott Spiegel [Other horror films: Intruder (1989), Hostel: Part III (2011)]

This straight-to-video sequel is about what I was expecting. Seeing some familiar faces was sort of nice, and I’ll touch on that a bit, but really, the story here felt quite weak, and though I’m no fan of the first movie, this was pretty much worse on every level.

Robert Patrick was one of the few here who stood out. I thought his character, along with pretty much all of these characters, was a cookie-cutter cut-out of no interest, but he was still nice to see. The same could be said for Raymond Cruz (Tuco from both Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, not to mention Alien: Resurrection, which I’ve had the displeasure of recently seeing), though admittedly I think he did poorly here. Muse Watson and Bo Hopkins were also solid, though the story really didn’t do them justice.

At this point, you may be wondering what makes the story so bad. Here’s one of my problems – that was way, way too convenient and quick a solar eclipse. All it gave us was more painful action scenes which really didn’t move me. It’s never really explained why exactly these vampires are robbing a bank (even somewhat lampshaded by the end), and that didn’t help.

What annoyed me more than that, though, is that this wasn’t even some master plot from the vampires. Bank thief #1 becomes a vampire, and instead of going with the other vampires (who turned him), he gets with Bank thief #2, #3, #4, and #5, and slowly turns them into vampires. It just felt off. Once two of the five are vampires, you think that there’d be some way of noticing, but no, aside from slightly impulsive behavior, they’re pretty much the same.

The special effects throughout Texas Blood Money were weak, no doubt about it, but the story here was so unengaging that it wouldn’t have mattered if Savini did them. Like I said, I’m not that much of a fan of the first movie, but boy, was it higher quality than this. If you want a solid late 1990’s vampire flick, just go with Carpenter’s Vampires. I wouldn’t really bother with a movie that’s destined to be a TBS rerun at 3:00 am.

5/10