Set in the Wild West, ‘ET’ star Henry Thomas plays the leader of a bunch of bank robbers who seek refuge in an old abandoned house. Here they bicker over the stolen loot, wander around the house (a lot…a real lot), and experience all sorts of supernatural goings on that eventually add up to very little at all.
‘Almost Famous’ star Patrick Fugit plays Thomas’ brother, who doesn’t look like the bank robbing, Wild West-type. Other members of the gang include familiar faces like Mark Boone Junior (Steve Buscemi’s old acting buddy), Michael Shannon, co-producer Isaiah Washington (who narrowly escapes Stepin Fetchit territory as the token Black character), and Nicki Aycox around for feminine spice. Genre veteran Muse Watson appears briefly in flashbacks/ghostly apparitions.
This low-budget genre-bending flick gets off to a great, splatter-filled start that shows what Sam Raimi’s ‘The Quick and the Dead’ could’ve been had it focused on wild filmmaking and lots of gore instead of also trying to operate as a traditional western (and thus pleasing no one). It also features a refreshingly scummy group of main characters. Unfortunately, once our anti-heroes enter the house, we are saddled with a stock-standard and entirely flat ghost story-western hybrid, and characters who don’t seem to have as much depth to them as they originally seemed.
The problem is mostly with the screenplay and how it is handled. At first, the ghostly apparitions/nightmares appear (huh, huh) to reveal too much information, and in a laughably perfunctory manner. But by the end, they haven’t really explained a good goddamn thing. I’m still not sure why the place was haunted, aside from minor (and incoherent) references to a brutal slavery past. I also have no idea what the hell the title refers to. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
It’s not an abomination, and some people might enjoy the blend of western and horror, and forgive its underwhelming execution. It also features solid work by Fugit and the stoic Washington (in underwritten roles), as well as a terrific A-hole characterisation by Shannon. But at the end of the day, this just doesn’t come off.
OVERALL SUMMARY
Unusual, but ultimately uninspired mixture of western and horror forgoes early promise for suspense-deprived scenes of people walking around. The script needed a rewrite or two.
