From Dusk Till Dawn: Self-Contained review
El Rey continues to impress with their vision (and version) of From Dusk Till Dawn.
With a quick flash of the wreck that killed Jacob’s wife before the credits roll this week, From Dusk Till Dawn continues to follow Seth and Richie’s trek towards the border. This week is all about the car wreck and the border crossing, so I’m curious why it’s called Self-Contained, unless they’re talking about keeping Richie contained…that’d work.
Ranger Gonzalez got in trouble with his superiors (again) for going after the Gecko brothers at the motel and almost getting the two local cops killed; and he’s due to show up in front of a committee so they can tell him how messed up that was and what is going to happen with his career. Unfortunately, the committee is going to be waiting a while, since he knocked out his friend, a fellow Ranger, stole the guy’s ride and continued his lovely vendetta towards the border.
Meanwhile, in the Winnebago, we’re getting Richie’s flashes of the Pastor being a demon (a pretty cool one too), of the pastor’s son Scott having a tail, and Richie pretty much just wanting to kill them.
[Sigmund Freud-voice: This, while obviously not literal, is Richie’s psychic representation of the danger both pose, since both have ill will towards him and plans of violence in their hearts.]
Seth actually got Richie to give a full explanation, as lucid as it could be, from Richie about what he’s seeing and about the nameless “goddess” who’s been contacting him and calling him towards Mexico. Seth, to his credit, did not freak out on his brother or tell him he was crazy. He did his best to go with it, appease and calm Richie down, and whether he truly believed or not, he kept Richie from killing everyone. That last feat is especially impressive after Scott pulled a gun (which he apparently had planned for scaring the Lacrosse team jerks from school) on Richie in the five seconds he was actually calm and letting Kate hold his hand and pray.
Richie probably won’t be praying after that… Just saying.
So Gonzalez gets to the Border Patrol a little after they do, sees Jacob and actually figures out where Seth and Richie are, but the Border Patrol stops him! You have to love the irony, right? Well, the irony doesn’t last when we find out the Border Patrol guy is actually Carlos who ATE the border patrol guy and took his place to make sure the Geckos could make it through without a problem. I do think it’s pretty funny that the evil ceremonial knife was used to open a closet door. It’s Multi-Functional! It slices, it dices, it kills innocents, sacrifices their blood to a vampiric/snake deity…and also open cheap locks.
Of course, by the time Gonzalez finds the border patrol guy’s body, it’s pretty much too late. Gonzalez gets pinned for the body (though we’ll see more of that next time, if anything), he runs out to try and check the Winnebago, only to have Carlos show his true colors (or, shed his false skin), throw him into a wall and slowly saunter across the border while two of his guys shoot up the place. Clean exit for all.
Now, finally, we have arrived. The main event is brewing, the curtain is up and all that’s left is for them to walk in the door and the vampire shoot-‘em-up to begin. Is there more backstory to show? Of course. We will no doubt find out more about what happened to the young woman all those years ago to make her into the vampire/snake deity. With Gonzalez on their tail, even across the border, there’s plenty more to see there too. And now that we, and the pastor’s kids, know what happened the night of the car accident, there’s plenty of guilt, anger and resentment to play around with as well.
What do you think will happen next week, everyone? I know I can’t wait.