The Wind (IFC Midnight, 2018), Devil Rider (Curb/Esquire Films,
1989), and Luz, the Flower of Evil (Afasia Films, 2019)

The Wind (2018) – Prime

Stand-off with six guns?

A bit of shotgun.

Uncomfortable chaps?

Demons of the Prairies.

Any good?

Yes, very good. A slow burn, ensemble production with stunning cinematography and an awesome soundtrack.

Caitlin Gerard plays Lizzie, a frontierswoman living mostly alone, miles from anyone, whilst her husband does business in town. A pair of new neighbors shake things up, and things descend into madness as Lizzie is seemingly stalked by an evil presence. The story is told non-chronologically, and the edited transitions were smart and jarring. I got a VVitch feel from it, and would recommend it to folks who like ambiguous narratives and bleak prairies.

9/10

Devil Rider (1989) – YouTube

Stand-off with six guns?

Guns ablazin’.

Uncomfortable chaps?

Undying nut job.

Any good?

Nope — dull as dishwater and acted like nobody wants to be there. The titular Devil Rider (played by the fantastically named Tag Groat) is an immortal, grungy cowboy who apparently just wants folks to ‘get off his land.’

A boring prologue sets this up for 20 mins until he is finally hanged, only to come back 100 years later to kill some folks building a ranch on his property. The only one having any fun is Tag Groat, as he cackles and licks his lips while watching ladies in various states of undress. Avoid.

3/10

Luz: The Flower of Evil (2019) – Prime

Stand-off with six guns?

Someone shoots at a bunny.

Uncomfortable chaps?

Religious nutters.

Any good?

A wholly unique viewing experience. Swapping gauchos for cowboys, this ‘Western’ is actually set in Colombia and tells the story of a religious cult led by a preacher who hasn’t delivered on his holy promises. Blind faith is the driving force, compounded by inhuman acts attributed to God or the Devil, somewhat arbitrarily. I saw the film described as The VVitch meets The Sound of Music on acid, and that barely scratches the surface.

The acting and direction are top-notch, and the color grading has been pushed to 11, giving the imagery a hyperreal quality, like over-filtered Instagram photos or shots from a 1960’s viewfinder. The film is a very slow burn, and leaves you with more questions than answers, but if you fancy something different, I’d say give it a shot. Be warned though, there are some grim moments, one involving a pregnancy. Bottom line — stay away from goats and preachers.

8/10

Gallowwalkers (Lionsgate, 2012), and A Knife for the Ladies (Bryanston Pictures, 1974)

Gallowwalkers (2012) – Netflix

Stand-off with six guns?

Lots of stand-offs.

Uncomfortable chaps?

Undead types.

Any good?

A film that was meant to start filming in 2006, but then Wesley got banged up for tax evasion doing three to five selling snout to the screws for phonecards, so they continued production in 2012. A shame they didn’t use the extra six years to figure out what they wanted to make. It’s a basic revenge tale with a supernatural twist, but it really feels like it was written by a 14-yr-old boy who kept thinking of cool things and shoehorning them into the shooting schedule.

The story structure is a mess, the acting is sub-par and the direction is a bit of a head-scratcher, although the cinematography is nice. Some decent gore and prosthetics, but ‘enhanced’ with rubbish CG blood. All in all, a great example of style over substance.

5/10

A Knife for the Ladies (1974) – Tubi

Stand-off with six guns?

Some shootin’ (and some rootin’)

Uncomfortable chaps?

Silent but deadly killer.

Any good?

A strange little movie, this one has a giallo feel, but doesn’t really follow through with the grisliness. A serial killer is cutting the throats of ladies in a small town and, as it’s bad for business, a private detective is called in to solve the case. He is aided by the weather-beaten sheriff (a wonderful Jack Elam) as he interrogates the townsfolk, including various ne’re-do-wells and a supremely shady undertaker.

It’s a bit slow, and not much actually happens, but the opening score, banged out on a Moog, is nuts and the end song is suitably Tom Jonesian enough to leave me smiling. Bonus point for the poor woman who spends the film getting slapped, and then is slapped again while on the mortician’s table. It’s terrible and I shouldn’t have laughed.

6/10

The Burrowers (Lionsgate, 2008), and West of Hell (Youabu Productions, 2018)

The Burrowers (2008) – Prime

Stand-off with six guns?

No time for duellin’ but plenty of other shootin’

Uncomfortable chaps?

Ghastly thingies and terrible humans.

Any good?

I’ve had so many friends tell me to watch this one, and they obviously know what I like. I loved this, probably the first half more than the second, but this film is entirely my bag. A couple of families go missing out on the prairie, and the assumption is they have been taken by Indians (the film’s terminology, not mine). A posse is formed, made up of some halfway decent folk (including Clancy Brown and William Mapother) and some utterly despicable, racist soldiers. So far, so Searchers, but the film takes a hard turn when we learn that generational beasties, half mole rat, half pile of chicken wings, are tunneling all over and feasting on anything above ground. The film is brutal, nicely shot and well written, and I dug it.

9/10

West of Hell (2018) – Tubi

Stand-off with six guns?

A ludicrously close range gun fight in a train carriage.

Uncomfortable chaps?

Demons, bad humans.

Any good?

Though it’s nice to see Tony Todd headlining a movie, it’s a shame that it has to be one so deathly dull. I understand this was probably made on a shoestring, and so suffers the fate of other well-intentioned low-budget flicks, which ultimately end up telling instead of showing.

The story harkens back to the anthology horrors of yore, a bunch of folks, on a train, next stop — HELL! However, instead of individual stories (which might have been interesting) they all sit around debating good and evil. Lance Henrickson turns up at the end and isn’t asked to do much, but then I had a headache so I didn’t really care what happened.

4/10

Part I of The Weird, Weird West is here.

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Neil Baker’s last article for us was Part I of The Weird, Weird West. Neil spends his days watching dodgy movies, most of them terrible, in the hope that you might be inspired to watch them too. He is often asked why he doesn’t watch ‘proper’ films, and he honestly doesn’t have a good answer. He is an author, illustrator, outdoor educator and owner of April Moon Books (AprilMoonBooks.com).