From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money

From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money is an American direct-to-video Western horror film released on March 16, 1999. It is the second film in the From Dusk till Dawn series and is a sequel to From Dusk till Dawn. The film was an early test release by Dimension Films for the direct-to-video market. It was co-written and directed by Scott Spiegel. Michael S. Murphey, Gianni Nunnari, and Meir Teper produced. Quentin Tarantino and Lawrence Bender executive produced, and Elizabeth Avellan co-produced. The film was filmed on location in South Africa and features cameos by Bruce Campbell and Tiffani Thiessen. It won a Saturn Award from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films for the "Best Home Video Release" of 1999.

A third film in the series, From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman's Daughter, which is a prequel to From Dusk Till Dawn, was released in 2000. In late 2010, a possible fourth film in the series was in production, but no progress was made after its initial stage. A TV series adaptation was released in 2014. James Parks would also later reprise his role as Edgar McGraw in Kill Bill: Volume 1, Kill Bill: Volume 2, Grindhouse (within Death Proof) and Machete; despite having the same actor and character, those films are not related to each other and the character is considered to be an Easter Egg.

Plot
After escaping from prison, bank robber Luther Heggs (Duane Whitaker) is the subject of a manhunt led by Texas Ranger Otis Lawson. Luther contacts his reformed former accomplice Buck Bowers (Robert Patrick) and tells him to get their old gang back together. Buck starts rounding up the old team, which consists of C.W. Niles (Muse Watson), Jesus Draven (Raymond Cruz), and Ray Bob (Brett Harrelson).

The team arrive at the motel, where they wait for Luther. Whilst on his way in his car, Luther hits a bat resulting in his car breaking down. When the car won't start, Luther walks to a nearby bar, the Titty Twister. He calls Buck from the bar to tell him about the breakdown. Luther in the meantime is offered a ride to the El Coyote by the bartender, Razor Eddie (Danny Trejo). However, when Razor discovers that Luther hit and then tried to kill a bat that was actually his friend Victor (Joe Virzi), he drives him back to his car, where Victor and Razor attack and turn Luther into a vampire.

Back at the motel, Jesus has sex with Lupe (Maria Checa), a woman he bumped into when he arrived at the motel. After they finish, Jesus sleeps while Lupe grabs a shower. Luther arrives in bat form and kills Lupe. Jesus awakes and starts to get dressed. The shower turns off, and he notices blood seeping from underneath the door of the bathroom. He goes to investigate and sees the body of Lupe lying lifeless in the bath. Luther then attacks Jesus before he hides in the bathroom. Lupe then reanimates as a vampire and attacks Jesus. He manages to kill Lupe by cutting her head off and then jumps out of the window in order to escape.

Luther catches up with Jesus, transforming him into a vampire. Hearing the noise, the owner of the motel goes to investigate and sees Luther killing Jesus. She panics and runs to the office and tries to call the police but is attacked and killed by Luther. While Buck is still in the room watching porn, somebody tries to get in through the locked door. Realizing it is Jesus, Buck opens the door where they find out that Luther has arrived. They then plan the heist which involves the robbery of the Banco Bravos bank.

The gang drive off to the bank, with Jesus and Luther covering the windows with black paper. Unbeknownst to the gang, this is to allow Jesus and Luther to have a place to escape to when the sun rises. Back at the Motel, after receiving the call from the Motel manager, Otis observes the crime scene. Upon arriving at the bank, Luther enters the building through the vents and proceeds to kill the security guard on duty and snatches the keys to let the others in.

Luther and C.W. proceed to the safe where they begin cracking it open. As they try to open the safe, they notice that the handle on the vault resembles a cross causing Luther to squeal before quickly covering it. While working with C.W. closely, Luther gets tempted to bite C.W.'s neck. C.W., feeling uncomfortable due to Luther's proximity tells him to back off, before removing Luther's coat from the handle. Luther reacts again and bites C.W, turning him into a vampire.

The police arrive at the bank. Buck encourages the others to escape, but they refuse. Buck and Ray Bob leave the bank but are forced back in by the police and SWAT team. With the bank surrounded by police and no escape in sight, Otis arrives and calls the bank. Otis asks to speak to the guard. With the guard dead, Buck tells Jesus to pretend to be the guard and tell Otis in Spanish that he is fine.

Otis then tells the SWAT team to enter the bank via the roof. Jesus rips the phone out of Buck's hand and tears it from the wall. Luther and C.W. unlock the vaults, before filling the bags with money. The SWAT team on the roof throw tear gas down the vent. Luther throws it back up to them before killing them in bat form. Luther returns and bites Ray Bob, turning him into a vampire as well. Back in the guard's room, Buck and Jesus are still waiting. Buck lights a cigarette and notices that Jesus has no reflection in the computer screen.

Luther then enters telling the two to help load the money. Buck holds a gun to Luther, Jesus and C.W. and tells Ray Bob to stand by his side. Ray Bob reveals that he too is now a vampire. The group attacks Buck but he escapes the bank and gets arrested by Otis. Otis sends in the SWAT team to clear out the bank, despite Buck's warning. The group of vampires brutally kills and feed on the SWAT Team.

Suddenly, sunlight appears, and the vampires try to hide. However, an eclipse takes place and the Sun disappears. The vampires leave the bank and start to kill the police and SWAT Teams in a full blown blood bath. Once all the police have been killed, only Buck, Otis, and Edgar McGraw remain. A face-off between the survivors and the vampires takes place. Just as all of the vampires appear to be defeated, a female police officer, who has been turned, attacks the survivors and succeeds in freeing the vampires. Buck kills the female vampire, just as Jesus kills McGraw.

Jesus then attempts to take the money for himself before being caught by Luther. C.W. is then killed by Otis while Jesus is killed by Buck after being impaled by a horned hood ornament. Luther attacks Otis, as Ray Bob attacks Buck. Seeing that the eclipse is ending, Luther and Ray Bob try to escape to their car. Luther is killed by Buck, who had been hiding in the back seat. Ray Bob mistimes his retreat and the eclipse ends, revealing the Sun. Buck uses his sunglasses to reflect sunlight onto Ray Bob, killing him. Otis and Buck reunite and take in the events that have just occurred. As sirens are heard approaching, Buck flees with Otis giving him a head start.

Production
From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money and From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman's Daughter were produced at the same time as one another with Robert Rodríguez and his cousin Álvaro Rodríguez shepherding their own prequel pitch which would serve as the basis for From Dusk Till Dawn 3, while Quentin Tarantino, Lawrence Bender, and Scott Spiegel produced their own sequel pitch which would become From Dusk Till Dawn 2.

Tarantino and Scott Spiegel attended the premiere of From Dusk till Dawn and met Bob Weinstein whom Scott had worked with while writing a draft of Halloween 6 that was rejected by Moustapha Akkad. When the subject of the sequel came up in their discussion, Weinstein offhandedly suggest Spiegel handle the sequel. Shortly thereafter Spiegel wrote the story with friend Boaz Yakin and successfully pitched it to both Tarantino and Weinstein. In the initial premise Spiegel outlined, Seth Gecko would have been killed shortly after the events of the last film while heading to meet up with his criminal associates in Mexico for a larger heist. When the news reaches the crew they learn that the Titty Twister was the location he came from and go there to see if Richie Gecko is still alive and has the loot from the heist only to find out he's now King of the vampires. Tarantino was reluctant to reprise his role as Richie so instead the concept was retooled as a standalone follow-up. The film was shot over the course of 40 days in Cape Town, South Africa. Inspired by the success of previously produced direct-to-video The Prophecy II, Miramax used From Dusk Till Dawn 2 as a way of testing the waters to see if direct-to-video franchise sequels were a viable avenue.

Release
From Dusk Till Dawn 2 was originally released direct-to-video on March 16, 1999.

Echo Bridge Entertainment released it on Blu-ray on May 15, 2011.

Reception
Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports that 9% of 11 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating was 3.4/10. Bilge Ebiri of Entertainment Weekly rated it D− and wrote: "Without the genre-bending goofiness and engaging characters of the first Dusk, all that's left is cheap splatter effects and cliched Western/horror homages". Nathan Rabin of The A.V. Club called it "a gigantic waste of everyone's time, money, and energy". Youssef Kdiry of DVD Talk rated the film 4/5 stars. Jim Thomas of DVD Verdict called the film "half-baked" and "disappointing", even for a direct-to-video release.