Why aren’t there more horror westerns? For two genres that have been around pretty much since the beginning of cinema, it’s surprising that more filmmakers haven’t taken the opportunity to combine horror films and westerns the same way they have horror and comedy or horror and sci-fi. Sure, there are a handful, but most of the prominent entries in this limited subgenre are horror films that are, at best, informed by the tropes and flavor of westerns without being westerns in the classical sense. It’s the rare horror movie that actually features horses and saloons and supernatural cowboys. Ghost Town is one such movie.
Not to be confused with the Ricky Gervais romantic comedy of the same name, 1988’s Ghost Town opens with the disappearance of a beautiful blonde woman (Catherine Hickland of Witchery) at the hands of some unseen force. A cop named Langley (Franc Luz) is sent to find her and ends up in an abandoned Old West town — at least, he thinks it’s abandoned. It turns out to be populated by the living spirits of its original inhabitants, trapped there by a curse placed on the town by the original sheriff when he was murdered by the evil Devlin (Jimmie Skaggs). He now runs the town like some undead Al Swearengen, ruling by fear and impossible to kill. Before Langley will be able to rescue the woman, he’ll have to discover the truth of the town’s curse and take Devlin down…but how do you kill a man who can’t be killed?
Like a lot of the films produced through Charles Band’s Empire Pictures, Ghost Town is a cool little horror film with ambitions that exceed its modest budget. These Empire films knew how to do a lot with a little, making the best possible use of locations and atmosphere and practical makeup effects. The abandoned “Old West” town gives the movie just enough production value that we can forget its limitations. While it’s not an especially gory movie, there are a handful of nasty moments that first-time (and only-time) director Richard Governor stages for maximum impact, whether it’s a shotgun backfiring into the chest of one character or another character having his nails driven through his hands in close up. The prosthetics worn by Jimmie Skaggs — who would go on to become something a regular for Charles Band during the Full Moon days — haven’t aged particularly well and are done no favors by HD, but those kinds of nitpicks don’t matter in a movie like this. You’re either all in for the ghost cowboy movie or you’re not.
One of the issues some of these low-budget ‘80s horror films face is that that they have one or two good ideas, a cool marketing campaign or one well-designed monster but nothing more going for it; the monster hardly shows up or the finished film does nothing to deliver on the promise of the poster. To Ghost Town’s credit, it has a high concept — undead ghost cowboys — but manages to be as entertaining as it can be in living up to its premise. The performances are solid, the direction competently stylish. It’s biggest problem is that it has no clear rules: it hops around in time, sometimes in flashback, sometimes in a dream. Characters can’t be killed until they can. Some of the town residents understand their plight; others seem to be totally unaware. Duke Sandefor’s screenplay (from a story by Charles Band regular David Schmoeller) seems to be making everything up as it goes along, but the movie has enough personality going for it that it still works.
Ghost Town is one of several ‘80s Empire productions being brought to Blu-ray by Scream Factory. Presented in 1.85:1 widescreen in full 1080p, the HD transfer is passable — a little soft, a little bland in its colors (though, this being a western, the palette consists mostly of shades of dirt) but still solid enough to please fans, especially considering the fact that it never even received a DVD release and was previously only available on VHS. The lossless stereo audio track is a nice surprise, balancing the western sound effects well with the dialogue. Though Scream Factory has become a horror fan favorite for packing their releases with bonus content, there sadly isn’t a single extra feature included on the Ghost Town Blu-ray…not even a trailer. It would have been nice for some of the talent or even Charles Band himself to be interviewed, as not enough is known about the making of the movie.
As horror westerns go, Ghost Town is surprisingly good — entertaining, atmospheric and consistently enjoyable when so many other movies like it only work in fits and starts. It’s a reminder of the kind of film Empire did so well in the ‘80s, when enough genre movies were being cranked out at such a quick clip that even a solid little effort like this could go under the radar. Hopefully Scream Factory’s Blu-ray helps the film find a second life, especially when it barely got a shot at a first. Like a zombie cowboy, Ghost Town refuses to die. Long may it ride.
Movie Score: 3/5
Disc Score: 2.5/5
Overall Score: 3/5
Patrick lives in Chicago, where he has been writing about film since 2004. A member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Online Film Critics Society, Patrick's writing also appears on About.com, DVDVerdict.com and fthismovie.net, the site he runs and hosts a weekly podcast.
He has been an obsessive fan of horror and genre films his entire life, watching, re-watching and studying everything from the Universal Monsters of the '30s and '40s to the modern explosion of indie horror. Some of his favorites include Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (1931), Dawn of the Dead (1978), John Carpenter's The Thing and The Funhouse. He is a lover of Tobe Hooper and his favorite Halloween film is part 4. He knows how you feel about that. He has a great wife and two cool kids, who he hopes to raise as horror nerds.
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