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

SYNOPSIS

!! SPOILER WARNING !!

"I see no point in all this."

In a large city office block, two lawyers are working late. Just before midnight, they get into the elevator and begin to descend from the 30th floor. At floor 25, the lift jams and the man and woman are unable to get it started again. The man opens the emergency exit in the roof and the mutilated body of a maintenance man falls through. The man climbs onto the roof of the elevator car and is set upon by a swarm of vicious vampire bats. The woman panics and tries to get the lift restarted, but the swarm of bats soon overpowers her too. Two of the bats gnaw through the elevator cable and the car crashes 25 floors out of control. The doors open and the huge swarm spills out into the rest of the building...

Elsewhere, ex?con Buck Bowers is trying to watch TV with his girlfriend when the set breaks down. He repairs it in time to catch a news item about a solar eclipse, and then one about the escape of his former colleague Luther Higgs from police custody. Texas Sheriff Otis Lawson, who put Bowers away a few years before, swears to recapture Luther, then pays a visit on Buck, demanding to know where the escapee is. Bowers denies any knowledge of Luther's whereabouts, but just as Lawson is leaving, he receives a call from Luther, telling him that he is planning a big bank raid in Mexico. The two men arrange to meet with the rest of the team the following night.

Bowers sets out to round up his team, starting at a rodeo where he contacts C.W. Niles, a top safe cracker who is seriously down on his luck. He offers him a chance to join the team, then sets off to meet Mexican hard case Jesus. They drink beer and discuss Jesus' new fighting dog, Jaws 2 and the steroids he's been feeding the animal. Then Bowers asks him to join him on the bank job, but he isn't too pleased to hear that Bowers is also planning to recruit Ray Bob, a man Jesus regards as "an idiot." But Jesus is persuaded by the amount of money on offer and agrees to join in. Next Bowers visits Ray Bob who is asleep on duty as a night?watchman. Ray Bob isn't sure that he should join in as his wife won't like it, but Bowers bullies him into accepting.

The next morning, the team assembles and set off for the Mexican border. Luther, meanwhile, has prepared the explosives and other paraphernalia he needs and sets of for the rendezvous. As night falls, the team arrive at the El Coyote motel and check in with the brusque check?in woman. Jesus immediately hits it off with a young Mexican woman who whispers something in his ear then walks off.

The men wile away the hours watching porn movies and drinking beer as Higgs speeds across the desert towards them. En route, he collides with something and his engine suddenly overheats. Investigating, he finds a large bat trapped in the engine which tries to bite him. He shoots it and leaves it at the roadside, believing it to be dying. He then sets off on foot in search of help.

Higgs eventually arrives at the Titty Twister bar and goes inside to find dancers writhing with snakes and the place full of white trash punters. He's almost killed when a large mirror ball falls from the ceiling, then orders a drink and asks the barman where he might be able to find a cab this far out. The barman offers to drive him to the El Coyote himself.

Higgs rings the rest of the team and tells them that he's on his way. The barman then starts to drive him to the motel. But when Higgs mentions that he shot the bat, the barman takes him back to his abandoned car. The barman checks the car and finds the bat missing. He wanders off a little way, calling for someone called Victor. A man suddenly appears, badly wounded and dying. The barman asks "is this him" and pulls a bullet from his own body. Victor collapses and the barman transforms into a vampire. Higgs shoots at him and is nearly run down by a car which suddenly appears out of nowhere. The barman seems to vanish, but as Higgs sets off on foot he is followed and attacked by the man who has now transformed into a bat. Higgs manages to wound it with his gun, but the bat revives and the chase in on again. Eventually Higgs tries to drive away in the barman's truck but is bitten by Victor.

Back at the motel, the men are discussing porno movies and Jesus tells them the story of a Mexican man who gunned down the crew of a skin flick starring his sister which they all find highly amusing. Jesus leaves, claiming he's going for a walk but the others speculate that he's probably with the young woman he met earlier.

And sure enough, as a single vampire bat approaches the El Coyote, Jesus is having sex with the young woman. Afterwards, while Jesus sleeps, she goes for a shower and is attacked by the bat which has somehow got into her room. She is bitten many times and collapses, dead, in the bath which soon fills with bloody water.

Later, Jesus wakes and dresses. As someone turns off the shower, he notices the water seeping under the bathroom door and is about to open it when the Higgs appears. Jesus is horrified at what he's done with his lover and a fight breaks out. Luther, now sporting fangs, proves supernaturally strong and easily overpowers Jesus. But he turns the tables, fending off Higgs with the cross imprinted on the cover of a bible. Jesus seeks shelter in the bathroom and is attacked by the young woman who survives having her face smashed into a mirror. Jesus finally beheads her with a shard of broken glass and leaps out of the window. But Higgs is waiting outside for him and bites him. The terrified check?in woman sees the attack and manages to phone a warning to the police before being jumped by Luther. He makes short work of her by pushing an electric fan into her face.

Higgs and Jesus return to the rest of the men. Higgs shows them the ground plans for the bank they are planning to hit and announces that they are doing the job tonight. Though they are unsure about doing the job so quickly, they all agree to go along with Luther's plans. The gang moves out in a specially modified car that has its windows blacked out and heads for the town of Bravos where they plan to do the raid.

The police arrive at the El Coyote and Lawson is with them, still in pursuit of Luther. One of Lawson's men is the son of the Sheriff murdered by the Gecko brothers.

At Bravos. the gang arrive at the bank and Higgs tells them to wait for him, that he will see to the rear doors. Bowers is sceptical but Higgs insists that the gang just wait. Transforming into a bat, Higgs gets into the bank through the air ducts and murders the night?watchman, taking his keys. The rest of the gang are amazed when Higgs appears and they have the run of the bank.

Bowers is appalled that Higgs has killed the guard, but the raid begins anyway. Higgs takes C.W. down to the vault where he begins to drill through the main doors after Higgs has disabled the alarm system. Higgs is momentarily repelled by the wheel of the main vault door lock which has a cross shape at its centre and has to cover it with a cloth.

Time passes and the raid seems to be going OK. But Bowers and Ray Bob are distinctly uneasy at the recent turn of events, worried that if they are caught they will now be dealt with as murderers. Back in the vault, C.W. removes the cover from the door wheel and Higgs goes crazy. A scuffle breaks out and C.W. is bitten by Luther.

Bowers decides that things are too risky and confronts both Higgs and a now vampirised C.W. in the vault, telling them that it's too risky to stay. They disagree and Bowers decides to flee with Ray Bob while they have the chance. They are trying to get out of the bank when the police suddenly arrive and surround the bank. They recognise Bowers and Ray Bob from their mug shots and radio for even more backup ? soon the entire area is crawling with police and special tactics units.

The police try to get the gang to leave the bank and Bowers realises that they have very little chance of getting out of this in one piece. Lawson arrives and learns that Bowers is inside the bank and phones him up, asking to speak to the guard. Bowers tries to bluff Lawson, asking Jesus to impersonate the guard. Lawson sends in a team of special tactics police and tries to persuade Bowers to surrender. Bowers in turn tries to negotiate a way out, but Jesus angrily smashes the phone then turns on Bowers when he tries to protest. A furious Jesus severs the phone lines into the building.

The special tactics squad disperse on the roof of the bank and its neighbouring buildings as C.W. finally gets the vault door open. He and Higgs start to load up backs of money, noting that they only have half an hour until dawn. The special tactics squad drop tear gas grenades into the building but Higgs sees them off by turning into a bat and attacking them ? he throws one man off the roof and he falls into an electric cable before crashing through the roof of a parked car.

Bowers and Ray Bob make plans to escape on their own but are uninterrupted by a suspicious Jesus. On the roof, a sniper sets up position on a neighbouring building, but is impaled on his own high powered rifle by Higgs.

Back in the bank, C.W. gets Ray Bob to help him load the money until Higgs returns. Upstairs, Bowers notices that Jesus is casting no reflection in a computer monitor. Both he and Jesus are called in to help with the loading before he can mention anything.

Down in the vault, Bowers pulls a gun on Higgs, C.W. and Jesus and tells Ray Bob to come with him. Bowers tell shim that the others are vampires and that they are going to escape without them. But Bowers is too late ? Ray Bob is already a vampire who tries to attack him. Bowers fires on the creatures and is barely able to escape into a storeroom with his life. He forces his way back across the vault using a makeshift cross, but walks into another tear gas attack on the bank.

In the ensuing chaos, Bowers continues to fend off the vampire attacks, but eventually, Jesus stabs him in the leg with a knife. With nowhere else to go, Bowers leaps through the main glass doors into the arms of the police. He tries to warn them what's waiting in the bank for them, but Lawson refuses to listen to him. Lawson orders a full scale assault on the bank, but the men are slaughtered by the waiting vampires, a severed head being tossed outside as a warning.

Inside the bank, the vampires feed on the police as dawn begins to break. As the sun rises, the vampires are forced to retreat further into the bank. But suddenly, there's a solar eclipse and the area is plunged into darkness again, allowing the four vampire bank robbers to brazenly stroll out of the bank. Using the police's own special weapons, they massacre the remaining police until only a handful are left. The survivors return fire and a massive gunfight ensues.

Lawson is forced to seek advice from Bowers, but refuses to take the cuffs off him and tries to deal with the undead himself. But with the odds stacked against him, Lawson eventually agrees to uncuff Bowers and listen to his plan. With only themselves and Lawson's deputy left standing, Bowers and Lawson prepare for their showdown with the vampires. The undead are confident that they have the upper hand, but Bowers plan is put into operation ? they use their rifles as part of makeshift crosses and drive the vampires back. But they are unprepared for fresh victims of the quartet, one of who suddenly springs up and attacks them. Bowers impales her on a metal spike, but the vampire bank robbers look set to be getting away with their ill?gotten gains.

Disputes between the bank robbers soon materialise ? as C.W. is killed by Lawson with a knife through the heart, Higgs and Jesus fight over their haul. Then Jesus and Ray Bob get into a fight over Bowers who manages to kill the Mexican by impaling him on the ornamental bull horns on the front of the getaway car.

Now only Higgs is left and he and Lawson get ready to settle their old scores. Bowers manages to help Lawson, before being knocked unconscious by Ray Bob who in turn rescues Higgs from Lawson. The two remaining vampires try to flee by Higgs is killed when Bowers, now recovered, skewers him to the driving seat of his car.

Bowers is again attacked and badly beaten by Ray Bob who ends up throwing him through a shop front window. But Ray Bob is forced to flee for his life as the eclipse comes to an end. Ray Bob almost makes it to the car but Bowers uses a pair of mirrored sunglasses to reflect the sunlight onto him and the vampire goes up in flames.

As daylight again takes hold, Bowers and Lawson are reunited and, their old scores now settled once and for all, wonder why vampires were robbing a bank in the first place. Police reinforcements arrive and Bowers announces that he should make a run for it. Lawson turns a blind eye to his escape as Bowers makes off in the getaway car.
KEVIN LYONS

Last Updated: 15 October, 2008