Horror Westerns or Westerns with heavy horror elements seem rare. Though not done too much (and usually by independent studios), the isolation provided by the Old West in my less than humble opinion is ideal for tales of terror. Help is far away and for most of us the nature of life in those times is very foreign yet somewhat familiar to us. Perfect fodder for terror.
YouTube is a place where people are unafraid of trying to frighten you by using a story in the West to scare. They delve into that realm and try to scare.
Maybe you will find something here that piques your interest. Maybe you do not. Maybe you think I am off my rocker.
Enjoy!
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Ghost in the Gun
- Written and Directed by Andrew Chen
- October 5, 2019
A man about to be hanged threatens revenge from beyond the grave on his executioner.
Ghost in the Gun is a short film about a vengeful spirit. The vengeful spirit appears to be regularly taking over the bodies of people that have had some wrong done to them and using that as a way to hunt down his executioner who is apparently a corrupt local sheriff. You could easily jump to the conclusion that this man is using the veneer of the law to run multiple criminal enterprises in the West given all that is said and done.
What’s clear by the end is this is not the first time the ghost has come for the sheriff. And more importantly the sheriff is well aware of what’s going on. It would imply that the spirit in the gun is not that competent in how it chooses those it possesses or in going about its vengeance. And once you start thinking of it like that then the story loses some of the impact.
Don’t get me wrong. This is a very good idea but the vengeful spirit not accomplishing what it sets out to do by the end of this short film makes the whole exercise pointless. Rather it takes over a little girl to try yet again. What was done to her? Not exactly sure.
There is certainly some promise here. You could even take what we get as part of a larger narrative but how many times are they going to do the spirit coming back in another body? Or are they going to do any more films at all where things play out pretty much the same? How is this ghost with unlimited tries not able to accomplish its goals.
A good ending can save a film. Conversely a bad ending can sink a film. This is an ending that sinks it. It makes the who exercise pointless. This is not the story of success after failure. This is the story of a failure. One of many. And no offense to Tim Russ as the ghost in the gun, but his opening performance does little to start things off on a good note. Not that anybody else is all that good here.
Ultimately Ghost in the Gun is a good idea undone by a bad ending which implies the incompetence of the spirit. Just skip.
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Bandit Blood Be Bitter
- Directed by The Helmers
- June 5, 2022
Not much of a plot here.
This is a short little 10-minute Western themed horror film. Or is that horror themed Western film? Sometimes that distinction is very fine.
There are grunts and groans when appropriate but beyond that none of the characters use any dialogue. Yet the movie is easily understood. At least you can follow along. The only issue I had in that department was that I was left thinking this was a mixture of vampires AND zombies, but it was ALL vampires just of different types.
Towards the end our main character and a much creepier vampire scuffle and there is some rather comical screaming. The thing is I do not believe it was intended as comical. Somebody was just engaging in overacting which while this is not serious does hurt the film. It just broke the mood.
I can’t call Bandit Blood Be Bitter great, but it is entertaining. It will not blow your socks off but you will not feel disappointed. The production values are good and the direction is quality. I give this an if you want.
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The Midnight Express
- Written and Directed by Chris Schwartz
- August 31, 2018
After robbing a bank, an outlaw gets more than he bargained for on the last train out of town.
The setup is pretty straightforward. I do have some issues. The first is that there is no point where you could see kinda that things moved into the supernatural. It is not an element that needs to be overt but one that you can see the point of divergence from the rational world.
The acting is a bit rough and with only three real characters (one of which is there to die in the first few seconds) there is no escape from it. It is more amateurish or just a bad table read. The actress playing the demon is doing the right things but she is doing them poorly. And that is not helped by the poor production values and the claustrophobically tight shots used to cover that reality.
But it is not bad. Just so much less than it could have been. The performances needed a little more polish, and they needed a few more bucks. I am not talking a fortune but enough money that they could film on a train rather than a bench pushed against a wall. Is that too much to ask?
You won’t jump or anything while watching The Midnight Express. It is an entertaining few minutes but one that falls a bit short. Chalk this up as another if you want.
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The previous offerings were not as strong as I had wanted. Limited budgets or just poor execution (or both) were the major culprits with one committing hari kari (not Harry Caray). Does not mean that there are not some good offerings out there. Just means that these are not those.
Happy Halloween!
Warren Watched A Movie 