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

From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money had the deck stacked against it, not only because it is a sequel, but because of the movie to which it is a sequel. What in the original was an unforeseeable surprise becomes expectation here, and we’re left simply waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Having said that, this film is better than it has any right to be, precisely because it knows how dumb it is. An old band of bank robbers is getting back together for one more score, which they insist on carrying out even after most of them have been turned into vampires; this would only make sense if it were a blood bank.

To its credit, Texas Blood Money is not oblivious to the situation’s inherent silliness; when asked "What in the hell are vampires doing robbing a bank?," protagonist Buck Bowers (the always effective Robert Patrick) deadpans: "I suppose vampires need money just like anybody else."

Insofar as the movie works, it does so because of the cast, who bring to the script more than it brings them. The filmmakers try too hard to emulate Tarantino and Robert Rodríguez at the peak of their powers, and can’t even reach the low levels to which those have sunk nowadays.

As far as horror/fantasy sequels are concerned, From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money exists in the same limbo as The Crow: Wicked Prayer. This not the best vampire movie ever, but it’s by no means the worst either.