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Ghost Town
Todor Chapkanov

Ghost Town

  • Horror
  • Western
  • Science Fiction
RELEASE

2009-10-24

BUGET

N/A

LENGTH

85 min

Description

Reb Halland, who lives in the era of Wild West, has made a deal with the devil to gain immortality alog with his gang. Preacher McCready is trying to protect the small town by placing five totems around the town in the shape of pinnacle. One day, an collector passes by the town and sees one of the totems pinned to the earth and he decides to take it. When the man takes the totem out of ground Halland and his gang arrives and start killing everyone. The film moves to the present day when a group of college students driving back home from another city after a debate contest suddenly find themselves at this town. Soon they start to be murdered one by one, and it will be up to them to find the secret of this town and destroy Halland and his gang.

Reviews

PFP

John Chard

@John Chard

The other Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

After their bus mysteriously gets lost, a bunch of college kids find themselves trapped in a Wild West Ghost Town inhabited by evil spirits.

Not awful by any means, as these budgeted TV productions go, it has some inventive death scenes (death by gasoline vomit a personal favourite here), Billy Drago as a venomous Cowboy spirit and some canted angles used for good atmospheric impact. Hell! The blending of maths stars and jocks, which while not original, makes for an interesting group dynamic and lets the writer (Andy Briggs) set up a decent finale as the remaining youngsters try to work out a way out of hell by using brain and brawn.

Unfortunately director Todor Chapkanov seems to think that jitterycam is the way to go at every given opportunity, something which really hinders the atmosphere trying to get out. Then there is the MTV “R” US musical score/soundtrack that booms out inappropriately like proof was needed that noise does indeed annoy. While the town itself looks like some left over mock up from an American Adventure Theme Park.

Filmed in Sofia, Bulgaria, it ultimately comes down to a bunch of pretty looking college kids (one of whom looks like Vin Diesel) getting killed amid angst, bullying and sexual yearnings. But like the characters in the story, the film seems stuck in a filmic purgatory, not really sure if it wants to slash, spook or yeehaw its way into our conscious. But as Syfy Channel time wasters go it just about passes muster. 4/10