Blu-ray

This triple-pack serves up Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino’s fun-packed, gore-splashed vampire flick (blighted only by the latter’s appalling acting) and its two made-for-DVD spawn. The dreadful Texas Blood Money sees a gang of bank robbers become vampires, while the Western-themed The Hangman’s Daughter acts as a slightly less awful prequel to the series.

Picture: From Dusk Till Dawn takes a bite out of Blu-ray with a richly coloured AVC 1.78:1 1080p encode that captures the film’s hot, sweaty atmosphere perfectly, without the obvious artefacting that caused issues on the old DVD release. While some points are lost for excessive black crush and minor sharpening, on the whole it’s a very positive hi-def experience.

The same cannot be said of either sequel. Texas Blood Money fares the worst with an unrefined AVC 1.85:1 1080p transfer that suffers from muddy detailing and faded blacks that give the image a flat look. Meanwhile, the Hangman’s Daughter’s AVC 1.85:1 1080p visuals seem to vary from shot to shot. Sometimes it’s crystal clear, other times it’s no better than its predecessor.
Picture rating: 3/5

Audio: All three films in the set make their Blu-ray debut accompanied by a DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack. As expected given its cinematic origins, the first provides the most robust and detailed soundfield. The track makes frequent use of the whole 360-degree soundscape to bring the interior of the Titty Twister bar to life, while dialogue and Foley effects are precisely rendered and full-bodied.

If the two made-for-DVD sequels are somewhat less expansive, at least both have a handful of effective showcase moments that remind you that the rear speakers are still working. They sound a bit better than they look.
Audio rating: 4/5

Extras: The original film gets the benefit of a commentary track by Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino; outtakes; a 13-min Making of… featurette; the trailer; two music videos; a stills gallery; a quartet of short scene-specific behind-the-scenes vignettes; deleted scenes; and on-set footage. The most glaring omission is Full Tilt Boogie, an excellent feature-length Making of… documentary that has previously appeared on the DVD release and broadcast on Channel 4.

Fittingly, the amount of extras offered by the sequels match the quality of the movies themselves. Texas Blood Money serves up no extras whatsoever, while The Hangman’s Daughter gets a solitary deleted scene. Whoop-dee-do.
Extras rating: 2/5

We say: Even hardcore vampire fans should ignore this boxset and pick up the first film on its own

Lionsgate, Region B BD, £45 Approx, On sale now
HCC VERDICT: 3/5