Ghost Town (2023, director:
Owen Conway;
cast: Owen Conway, Robert Sprayberry, Becky Jo Harris,
Brittany Mae, Eva Hamilton)
It's the Old West. A stranger rides into town ...
Well, Solomon (Owen Conway) doesn't actually ride. He's got a saddle
but no horse, so he shambles into town. But he is a stranger. Without
horse and down on his luck, he finds a job as a bartender. And as it's
a small town with few clientele, Solomon spends most of his time
cleaning piss buckets, being yelled at by his boss (Robert
Sprayberry), and hanging with the prostitutes who await customers.
As you might expect with a film called
Ghost Town, strange things start to happen. Solomon sees bugs
crawl out of Stella's (Becky Jo Harris) mouth one moment, but are gone
the next. Stella seems not to notice. Solomon hears a monster outside,
but no one else does. Blondie's (Brittany Mae) eyes glow in typically
demonic fashion, then she's normal again.
Predictably, things get ever more crazy as Solomon's reality spirals
down into ... madness? Purgatory? Hell? Hardcore horror fans might
guess that Ghost Town is yet
another
Jacob's Ladder copycat (e.g., The
Fearway, Bright Hill Road,
etc.), but, well, not quite. Its ending is abrupt and remains somewhat
confusing, despite a heavy-handed attempt to explain it all. I think I
sorta know what's been going on, but while the ending is surprising,
it's not satisfying.
The horror western is not an especially prolific subgenre, but there
have been some interesting entries over the years (e.g.,
The
Burrowers). Ghost Town
combines old tropes from both westerns and horror and creates
something familiar, but with its own twist. Including the Victorian
custom of photographing the dead is a nice touch, and an important
clue to the happenings. Some creepy makeup work there.
Production values are professional, avoiding the cheap "video" look of
some low-budget features. The visual effects are reasonably good.
Make-up does a good job of giving Kate (Eva Hamilton) and Stella an
increasingly sickly appearance (another clue), though the blood on
Solomon's forehead looks too bright (i.e., fake).
Conway, who also wrote and directed, makes good use of
pragmatic aesthetics. I assume he couldn't afford a large Old West
town set and large cast, so he wrote a story that required a small set
and cast. The "town" is tiny -- we only see a couple of houses -- with
barely anyone in it, but there are dramatic reasons for that.
Ghost Town is not the most
original horror film you're likely to see, but few horror films can
claim originality. Yet Ghost Town
does have its share of surprises, and an
engaging character and story that draw your interest and holds
your attention until the end. Horror fans who enjoy supernatural tales
set in the Old West should find Ghost
Town passably entertaining.
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It's the Old West. A stranger rides into town ...