Billy Drago plays the leader of a posse of Satanic Wild West gunslingers who terrorise the western town of Hope Springs, killing everyone before committing ritualistic suicide. Gil Gerard is the ill-fated local preacher condemning their association with the Dark Arts. Cut to modern times and Jessica Rose plays one of a busload of students (with a couple of faculty members, members of the hockey team, and a bus driver who I swear looks like that Ce-Lo guy). The bus breaks down, you guessed it, at Hope Springs, which now looks like a deserted Wild West theme park. What our stranded protagonists soon realise, though, is that this is a Ghost Town in more than one sense of the word, as Drago and his now ghoulish gang are still there, ready to haunt and kill (See what I did there?).
Welcome to another episode of ‘If Billy Drago’s in it, I’ll watch it’. Most of these SyFy Channel flicks are terrible, but this Todor Chapkanov (who helmed a previous horror-western for SyFy called “Copperhead”, co-starring Drago) flick isn’t bad, all things considered. I mean, this is a film that opens with a clearly Aussie-accented guy in the American Wild West. Not just an Aussie speaking the Queen’s English, or a Bushranger-era Irishman or something, but a real ‘ocker’ Australian. It just doesn’t convince. But overall, this is one of those films that might’ve been quite good if not for a few major flaws.
Firstly, although I’ll praise the lighting later on, I have to say that the camerawork here employs a disastrous and large amount of jittery, shaky-cam. And inappropriately so, I might add. We get the camera shaking during a Wild West shootout, and even in a scene where a bunch of people are just standing around panicking. So where in the hell is the source of disorientation? Oh, right…the camera. The film is so tricked-up that it becomes hard to bear at times (the director is very fond of zooming in and out, suggesting that maybe Chapkanov is another alias of Spanish Schlockmeister Jesus Franco).
This is also the most inappropriate story to have shoe-horned in a bunch of generic young horror movie protagonists, so points off for that too. But I will say, that this basic idea would’ve made an OK “Twilight Zone” episode, it’s just unfortunate that the thin story has been stretched out. That, and it’s overall cheapness (poor CGI for instance) drag the film down.
The acting isn’t terrible, but Drago (and his rotten teeth), Gerard, and Rose are the only real standouts, and sadly my man Billy’s not in the film much. He’s good, whenever given the opportunity, whilst Gerard (Buck Rogers, no less) is fine and Rose is certainly pretty and competent. Meanwhile, here’s another film where the back-story is more interesting than the main story. The back-story here is fascinating. The main story? Not so much.
The cinematography, when the camera isn’t shaking at least, is terrific. There’s some truly impressive lighting in this, including one great shot of dust/fog sweeping right through the town, obscuring practically everything, but backlit by the moonlight. It’s gorgeous. There’s also a great shot of Drago and his ghostly crew on horseback riding into town in shadow, backlit by moonlight and fog. Even the poor FX can’t ruin the shot. Speaking of that, there’s also a terrific lasso-assisted decapitation that manages to work despite the lame CGI blood. Very nice.
There’s probably a fun film in here, but this isn’t it. It’s poorly directed, a bit tepid and way too talky. With more emphasis on horror and Billy Drago, and less annoying direction/editing, it might’ve fared a lot better.
OVERALL SUMMARY
It’s watchable, and far from the worst SyFy movie out there. On that scale, it’s not bad, but don’t go in expecting a masterpiece.
