Favourtie Editions: Titty Twister Diorama DVD Set

 The Movies:
From Dusk till Dawn (1996)
From directors Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino comes 'From Dusk Till Dawn', a crazed throwback to the heady days of grindhouse cinema. Split in two half's, what starts out as a 'criminals on the run' picture, turns into a blood soaked vampire gore fest. Working from a story idea by make up artist Robert Kurtzman, Tarantino crafts a clever mix of western and horror complemented by Rodriguez's 'drive-In movie' spirit.

The movie starts with escapee's 'Seth' (George Clooney) and 'Richard Gecko' (Tarantino) and their efforts to cross the border and reach Mexico. They kidnap the family of ex preacher 'Jacob Fuller' (Harvey Keitel) who's traveling with his daughter 'Kate' (Juliette Lewis) and his son 'Scott' (Ernest Liu). 
Using the family as cover they successfully cross the border into Mexico, where they head to the Titty Twister Bar to wait for their escort. What happens next is an all-out F/X fuelled splatter fest, as the bar is revealed to be run by a legion of blood hungry vampires. Featuring a cast of cult icons, from Tom Savini, Danny Trejo, Fred Williamson and Cheech Marin, this is a wonderful reminder of the good old days of 'pre-cert' violence, a great beer and buds movie.
 Texas Blood Money (1999)
Directed by Scott Spiegel, who co-wrote 'Evil Dead 2' and directed the little know slasher, 'The Intruder'. Spiegel though is better known for playing the sex crazed pawn shop owner Maynard, in Pulp Fiction. 
'Texas Blood Money' never lives up to it's fun predecessor, what it does do, is wear it's straight to DVD heart on its sleeve. The B-movie cast make the best of their roles among the predictable plot, helped by a few cameos by cult icons, such as Bruce Campbell (Evil Dead) and Danny Trejo (Machete).

Spiegel provides some inventive death scenes, that hark back to his earlier efforts, the gore and the F/X are well handled but aren't to realistic. A fun little movie, if your in a forgiving mood, it helps that it uses familiar actors and has at least a hint of the Tarantino, Rodriguez magic.
The Hangman's Daughter (1999)
Finishing out the trilogy is prequel 'The Hangman's Daughter', set in Mexico in the early 20th century.The movie Chronicles the beginning of the 'Titty Twister Bar' along with explaining how Salma Hayek's character became a vampire.
An improvement over 'Texas Blood Money', this at least has an interesting set up, with some original ideas. Again its a far cry from the original movie, but is still an enjoyable time waster. Fans of direct to DVD sequels should definitely check this one out.
The Set:
That is if you can find it, this set was released in Italy in November of 2007, you get the three films together in an inventive diorama of the famous 'Titty Twister Bar'. Along with a t-shirt em-blazed with George Clooney's famous tattoo seen in the movie and a set of colour postcards. It is certainly one of the more unusual special editions out there and would make a great conversation piece for any film collection.