“[From Dusk Till Dawn] has always been inspired by pulp fiction. Not literally the film, but pulp fiction itself. The bones of this show are really all about all these things that happen in these crime sagas.†That’s the opening narration to the video posted above, as provided by From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series executive producer, Carlos Coto.
In the video, Coto traces the pulp roots of From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series to Richard Stark and his Parker novels; John D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee novels and his classic book, The End of the Night; Jim Thompson’s The Killer Inside Me and The Getaway; in addition to Lee Marvin’s Point Blank movie, which was based on Stark’s The Hunter novel.
Coto’s explanation has merit. Even the original From Dusk Till Dawn movie by Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino plays more like a crime drama than a horror film…right up until nearly everyone in the Titty Twister bar turns out to be a culebra. One of the biggest differences between the From Dusk Till Dawn film and the TV series is that the modern remake featured the horror elements from the very first episode instead of trying to confuse the expectations of the audience.
The second season of From Dusk Till Dawn kicked off earlier this week, and it’s maintaining its ties to pulp fiction. Richie Gecko (Zane Holtz) and Santanico Pandemonium (Eiza González) are wreaking havoc in America as if they are the culebra Bonnie and Clyde while Seth Gecko (D. J. Cotrona) and his new partner, Katie Fuller (Madison Davenport), are barely getting by on their small time heists in Mexico. But new supernatural threats have emerged, as the culebra lord Amancio Malvado (Esai Morales) has dispatched the seemingly unkillable assassin known as The Regulator (Danny Trejo) to find and eliminate the Geckos and Santanico.
From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series season two continues on Tuesday, September 1 on the El Rey Network.
Nerdist readers, which side of From Dusk Till Dawn do you prefer? The crime drama or the horror elements? Scare up your thoughts in the comment section below!
