In a deserted (well, there’s one dude there who runs the motel but he doesn’t make it very long) Colorado town, sometime in the year of our lord 1887, the passengers of a stagecoach and an enigmatic gunslinger, who just had to put down his horse, run afoul a duo of vicious outlaw brothers fleeing a neighboring town following a bank robbery that ended in a teller’s death. The stagecoach is carrying a youthful deputy from the town where the bank robbery went down, his new wife, a young reporter writing a series of articles on the Wild West, a sassy saloon owner and a reverend… along with the two stagecoach drivers. The town marshal and a super hot tracker he’s recruited by the name of Black Deer are in pursuit of the criminals, heading to the only likely place they can go. Black Deer warns the marshal that she’s had a dream vision of a dangerous Navajo legend called a Skinwalker which coincides with an upcoming blood moon. She warns the lawman that he should postpone his search a couple of days but he dismisses her superstitions and insists they head on out. Black Deer agrees and makes sure she has white ash handy… something that will help with the monster she is sure is out waiting in the wilds for them. Nearby, the hostile pair of rat bastards have some nasty plans in the works for the random group of travelers but, of course, Black Deer knows what she’s fucking talking about and a monstrous hunter is already stalking the group. Upon finding the mutilated corpse of the former mining town’s sole inhabitant, the gunslinger (Calhoun) recognizes that something supernatural is at play but he has a hard time convincing Deputy Norman or anyone else that the unknown has come calling. He doesn’t get much of a chance to concern himself with it when the two brothers open fire on them, killing the Reverend and the coachmen. Sociopathic Jeb and his older half brother Hank take control almost immediately. There may not be much monster action but the impressive cast (especially Shaun Dooley as the cool and calculated Calhoun and Raffaello Degruttola as the psychopathic Jeb) carry the drama and action well. We also have a solid script which keeps the tension thick and never really feels like it’s ambling around, wasting time because it doesn’t have a monster to display. If you’re not a western fan, ya may not get much mileage out of it but I am a fan and I don’t get to sit down with all that many horror/westerns. The bulky monster suit is fun if less than impressive but it’s still nice they have some practical creature and violence on display. It ain’t perfect but considering it’s a low budget werewolf western with a cool folklore you don’t see thrown in the mix all that often, it’s a remarkable feat.
No comments:
Post a Comment