Sometimes when strolling through this vast wasteland, seeing that broken down ambulance sitting by the gates one’s never sure what they’ll find locating marked and unmarked film grave sites, however when one sees a tumbleweed rolling by, must give it a chase, hence finding this wretched mess. This by no means is this a twisted version of Tombstone (1993) or Silverado (1985), rather it comes from director Paul Winters, with only his second horror film, the previous creation The Freeway Maniac [1989], and even though his latest production is a western influenced film, it doesn’t list itself as a crossover horror-western flick. In fact, this movie initially had the title Cowboy Zombies, playing on the theme reoccurring in the horror, such as Cowboys Vs. Vampires [2010] or Cowboys & Zombies [2011], but settled on one, which might attract The Walking Dead fans. While the concept horror-western may seem unusual to many, it actually isn’t, but narrowing that down to include zombies, shockingly still popular, The Quick and the Undead [2006] and Dead 7 [2016] just to name two. Paul’s movie achieved distribution from Wild Eye Releasing, which notes this type of film quickly appears to many fans of the genre, this best mask itself among the tumbleweeds, which have more interest than the entire film. Many different elements collide in the story, cowboys, zombies, indians, and a meteorite all while battling an absent budget, Winters knows the western genre well-enough, but the mixing of these various elements destines the movie to an early grave.

AUTOPSY OF THE FILM:

Set in 1870s Arizona, the plot sees Marshall Frank Wilcox (Paul Winters) escorting a ruby outlaw to the frontier town of Crumpit, for some hanging justice, noting no appeals process in place, as one cries out for God, please, give these people a sign a meteor strikes, yet they still hung. In the moment of their deaths, the two criminals become zombies; quickly enough slow staggering zombies emerge from multiple directions, craving human flesh. The townspeople, who none of them look their roles, a tad too much fakery, suspension of disbelief require investment for a waning entertaining movie. Soon everyone pulls together, surprise setting aside their personal differences and the varied multicultural backgrounds (not further explored), a black Army Sergeant (A. Calion Maston (Rottentail [2018])), Apache Chief (Lee Whitestar), Jasper (Mark Trombino) among others holdup in the town’s saloon to avoid the dead and as much gore as possible. Joining the survivors, Preacher Black (Greg Bronson (Mimic [1997])) and of course Wilcox, who provides much of the narration and noting the customary clichés whenever possible. When it comes to abandoning their primary location, they pile on a handcar pump trolley, killing zombies in the flimsiest manner possible, aided by a small war party of Indians who amazingly appear out of nowhere. I mean seriously suddenly they are there, uh, it’s not a hard cut, rather the director must’ve thought oh snap we have time so let’s add them in, why not? There just isn’t much to discuss in this terrible film riddled with many bullet holes.

FINDINGS OF POSSIBLE DEATH:

One would think that a movie filled with gunslingers, wild west justice, a saloon and could use the terrific Bone Tomahawk [2015] as a blueprint or even the lesser-known Ghost Town [2006] short film by director Tai Logsdon, however not the case here, rather a slow drunken stupor for the entire movie.  The story-lacked cohesion to the scenes, allowing boredom to set in, in other words, the audience will find themselves shifting on their couch, restless and likely not paying attention. The slow shambling zombie appearances ideally unimpressive, noting a few times the latex makeup applications appear very visible, while the sound works fine, the viewers can hear the undead, especially one of them barking as a dog and their attack sequences veer onto the more gruesome and vicious modern fast zombie depiction. The cast tries their best to carry the film, but many performances present themselves very silly and wooden. Interesting enough the music contains hints of two 1960s films 13 Ghosts and Psycho, subtle but definitely presents for the trained ear and knowledgeable horror fans.

Great teeth for a western and zombie so clean!

SUMMARY OF CASE AND AUTOPSY:

Sadly, this movie doesn’t give much to make it a worthwhile investment of time or cost, rather the illusion of haunted ghost town would carry more weight with the audience than this production as it lacks all the desires for anyone’s serious attention. If you ponder perhaps there’s hidden punchlines, sorry that prospect has ran bone-dry.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2888068/

IMDb Rating: 2.6/10

Baron’s Rating: 2.5/10