Ye Haw: Western Horror Rides The Range

"The Pale Door" is directed by Aaron B. Koontz and stars Devin Druid, Zachary Knighton, Melora Walters, and Pat Healy. It is a tale about train robbers who find themselves in a town inhabited by a coven of witches that feed off unwary visitors to the town. A pair of brothers caught up in a train robbery and lost their parents when their homestead was attacked are at the center of the story. Melora Waters and Pat Healy are exciting actors to watch, which is a strong recommendation for the film.

"Bone Tomahawk" is one of the more brutal Western horror films. Directed by S. Craig Zahler, it stars Kurt Russell, Patrick Wilson, Matthew Fox, Lili Simmons, Richard Jenkins, and Sid Haig. Russell plays the aging local sheriff who finds out that cannibalistic cave dwellers have kidnapped community members, and he gathers a posse to find them and deal with the cannibals. It has one of the most shocking deaths I have seen in a while, so even though this is a Western, it's anything but old-fashioned.

"Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat" is a bit different, as it is a horror comedy. An ancient vampire Jozek Mardulak has led a group of vampires out to the desert to peacefully find an alternative to drinking blood from humans by building an artificial blood factory. It starred David Carradine, Bruce Campbell, Maxwell Caulfield, and Deborah Foreman and was directed by Anthony Hickox, who also directed "Waxwork" and its sequel. The vampires get points for trying to co-exist with humans peacefully. Still, their idyllic society comes under attack after one of their wants to go back to feeding on people, and a member of the Van Helsing family shows up.

"The Wind" is the first feature from Emma Tammi about settlers in the New Mexico frontier in the 19th century. No one was around in the film, so immigrants could get lonely and paranoid in the flatlands where the wind never stops blowing. It was called " prairie madness." The story is not told in order of the events, and a couple, Lizzy and Isaac, live alone until another couple moves into a nearby abandoned house. Lizzy believes a demon is out on the prairie, and no one believes her, but terrible things happen. The film stars Caitlin Gerard, Ashley Zukerman, Julia Goldani Telles, and Miles Anderson.

"Black Wood" is an independent film directed by Chris Canfield that stars Bates Wilder, Tanajsia Slaughter, and George Thomas Mansel. Dowanhowee, a Native American woman, flees into a forest to escape a gang of killers and thieves. After they follow her, they all find that the forest has a dangerous inhabitant. A wendigo stalks the woods, and the woman and the gang must fight to survive this supernatural, cannibalistic horror.

"Grim Prairie Tales" is an anthology film with two characters, played by James Earl Jones and Brad Dourif, telling each other scary stories around a campfire on the prairie. Jones plays a bounty hunter toting a dead body, and Dourif is a clerk riding home to his wife. There are four stories, only one that isn't supernatural but which is still horrifying, and the segments star Will Hare, Marc McClure, William Atherton, and Lisa Eichhorn. This movie is a beautiful opportunity to watch two great actors work together in a duel of acting talent and the ability to scare themselves and the audience.

"Gallowwalkers" stars Wesley Snipes, Kevin Howarth, Riley Smith, Tanit Phoenix, and Patrick Bergin. It's a little complicated, but Snipes plays a cursed gunslinger whose victims are fated to rise from the dead, meaning he must destroy their brains to ensure they stay dead. It sounds like these people are zombies, but the one thing that happens to them after they turn is that they lose their skin in a week. I haven't ever read that in zombie lore, but okay, whatever works.

The audience's opinion was generally not with Glenn Danzig's previous film, "Verotika." Still, I must include "Death Rider in the House of Vampires" because sometimes, while watching horror, you must have fun. So, "Death Rider in the House of Vampires" is about Death Rider. Yes, that's his name, played by Devon Sawa. As you might imagine, in the film, Death Rider goes to the vampire sanctuary, dare I call it the house of vampires, with a naked woman because you don't get into the sanctuary without offering up a female virgin. Hey, I'm not a vampire; I don't make the rules. This is singer Glenn Danzig's second film; if you've seen his first, you probably know what to expect. This kind of film does have its charms. It also stars Julian Sands, Danny Trejo, Kim Director, and Glenn Danzig.

Oh no, there are more vampires in the old west! In "Curse Of The Undead," young women keep dying, and the cause is mysterious until the local doctor notices bite marks on the latest victim. Edward Dein directed this film, along with the movie "Calypso Joe" and "Shack Out On The 101." It stars Eric Fleming, Michael Pate, and Kathleen Crowley. Crowley plays a character named Dolores, which rarely happens in cinema. The vampire is a sinister gunslinger, so extra points for giving the vampire a gun and marksmanship skills.

"The Burrowers" was directed by J. T. Petty and stars William Mapother, Sean Patrick Thomas, Doug Hutchison, Laura Leighton, and Clancy Brown. It concerns pioneers who suddenly have to send out a posse to try and find a family of settlers who disappeared in the night. They first suspect a local tribe might have killed them, but the answer is much more sinister. The Ute tribe has experience combatting the "burrowers" and has a solution, but will the settlers and local cavalry listen?