Los Hooligans/A Band Apart/Kobal/ShutterstockThe only way to watch From Dusk till Dawn today is either a little bit sleepy, a little bit hungover, a tiny bit high, or all three. It was a provocative, pseudo tongue-in-cheek movie in 1996 when it was released on January 18, and 30 years later, it feels like a surreal fever dream. In some ways, you could say From Dusk till Dawn is the most patient B-movie of all time, waiting for nearly an hour to actually reveal its supernatural, bloodthirsty premise. In fact, if you had no idea what From Dusk till Dawn was about, and you just started watching the movie cold, with no context, you might think it was a deranged buddy movie about two criminal brothers, Seth (George Clooney), and Richie (Quentin Tarantino) being horrible, taking hostages after a bank robbery for reasons that barely make sense.But the thing about From Dusk till Dawn is that, yes, spoiler alert, it eventually reveals itself to be a movie in which an unlikely group of folks battle vampires in a seedy strip club. And, the funny thing is, that specific twist is less interesting than the movie From Dusk till Dawn pretends to be at the outset. Mild spoilers ahead.From Dusk till Dawn opens as we learn that the Gecko brothers have committed a bank robbery somewhere in South Texas. A cop at a lonely liquor store chats with an employee, worried about the impending arrival of these fugitives. Soon, all hell breaks loose as we learn that Seth and Richie have been hiding in the freezer section and are holding two hostages, young women who are desperate for escape. The funny thing is, those two women do, presumably, escape, because after a shoot-out in the liquor store between the brothers and the employee, the whole place is torched, and blows up. You may remember this particular moment from the 2009 MTV Movie Awards song by The Lonely Island, “Cool Guys Don’t Look at Explosions,” as this is the most not-looking at an explosion that is happening behind characters in a movie, ever.Directed by Robert Rodriguez and written by Tarantino (who is a pretty good actor in the film), From Dusk till Dawn isn’t even close to being one of Rodriguez’s better movies. For fans of the Desperado shared universe, there’s a lot to love here, and plenty of Easter eggs if you feel like firing up Once Upon a Time in Mexico right afterward. The script is full vintage-Tarantino with so many offensive lines packed together, you can’t help but laugh at the movie’s faux-edge-lordiness. Is this a movie making fun of movies like this, or is this just very well-made trash? If you’re someone who loves debating this kind of thing about the films of Tarantino or Rodriguez, From Dusk till Dawn is the epicenter of the schlock-as-art question. If this offensive dialogue and constant gore give you a headache or a stomachache, the only thing to recommend about From Dusk till Dawn is its occasional macabre humor.Quentin Tarantino and George Clooney in Form Dusk till Dawn. | Los Hooligans/A Band Apart/Kobal/ShutterstockAfter holding a family hostage in order to use their motorhome to get across the border, the Gekco brothers end up in a bordello, which is really a front for a ton of vampires. Enter Selma Hayek as Santanico, the sort-of queen of the secret vampires, who tries to lead her fellow erotic dancers to a feast of blood. From this point, a movie that felt like an odd crime thriller focused on the meaning of faith, family, and mortality, turns into a survival movie about murderous strippers versus a strange collection of humanity in which very few “good” people exist. Juliette Lewis as the innocent and abducted Kate is particularly good in this section of the movie, as is Clooney, whose fast-talking, cynical Seth betrays his hidden nature as maybe, just maybe, the murderer who could have been a hero in another life. (If you’ve just watched Jay Kelly, watching From Dusk till Dawn right afterwards will be a jarring experience.)Ultimately, though, all the best writing and acting happens before the arrival at the bar, and before the revelation that it's all a vampire trap. This makes From Dusk till Dawn both extremely clever and also maddening. Everyone went to see this movie because of the promise of the bloodbath, but the truth is, the better movie — which is most of the actual runtime — has nothing to do with that aspect at all.Quentin Tarantino and George Clooney, a great buddy duo? Or insufferable? You decide! | Sunset Boulevard/Corbis Historical/Getty ImagesIn fact, despite the various offensive tropes and language in the first half of the film, the more human-centered writing and themes of innocence and complicity are what make the movie watchable today. Well, perhaps, half-watchable is more accurate. But which half you think is better, all depends on what kind of movie fan you are; you’ll either start to think things get interesting at the arrival at the bar, or that will be the moment you want to turn it off.From Dusk till Dawn streams on Pluto TV and Paramount+.