Spaghetti Western Fantasy…
As soon as you begin to watch Gallowwalkers, you can see the strong influence of certain Clint Eastwood classics show through, but as the story progresses, one in particular comes to mind, For a Few Dollars More. With a murdered loved one, and except for the occasional monologue, our main character is as taciturn as Eastwood’s Man With No Name, in many ways. We get brooding with plenty fast draw action, and then it’s mixed with zombie/vampire like characters, to give our western some unusual, but good fantasy type horror. The make-up is good, the performances not bad, and really, this was a fairly well put together movie. Wesley Snipes hasn’t done anything of note in almost a decade (except for his temporary rehousing in a secure environment), with his Blade days, but even a couple of his straight to DVD affairs have been almost watchable. This was a movie that Snipes could do in his sleep, as it contained a similar type of character to Blade, as he also seeks vengeance, thanks to the death of someone he loved, by the evil actions of others.
- Gallowwalkers
- Director
Andrew Goth - Cast
Wesley Snipes, Riley Smith, Kevin Howarth - Release Date
6 August, 2013 - Influx Grade: B-
Because of an incident that happened to a loved one of Aman’s (Wesley Snipes) while he was a young man, he is now hunting down the men responsible for her eventual death. The problem is, if you die in this world, it doesn’t always mean you stay dead. A young white-haired girl is on a smallholding carrying buckets of blood. She sees a figure in the distance, so runs to a small underground shelter. A woman carrying a very long-handled axe, appears at a doorway and watches as the figure comes right up to her. It’s a man with a body, which he dumps on a wooden surface, and looks to be in plenty of use for this type of thing. The woman promptly chops the head right off.
Three men are being driven in a handcar, which is heading straight for a lone figure who appears very nervous. The three men have on burgundy colored dusters, which give the illusion of being holy robes. They have light eyes and white hair, and are known as Gallowwalkers, because they’ve returned from the dead. After they point out an extra horse standing nearby, they discover who it belongs to. A very unhappy Aman, who quickly shoots them all but one, Hool (Hector Hank), who he decides to talk to first. Hool’s lips have been sewn shut (you learn why later on), but Aman asks him if he can recall who he is, and why he wants to kill Hool. Hool remembers exactly who he is — the man who killed Hool the first time for what he, and others, did to his woman. After the first of many flashbacks, Aman rips the head from Hool’s shoulders, telling us why in the process. From here Aman enlists the help of a man who was about to be sent off to die, Fabulos (Riley Smith), after saving his life. they go after Kansa (Kevin Howarth), a man who has no skin, who takes the faces of others to keep his appearance more presentable. Kansa is another of the men Aman seeks for revenge.
The story is a decent mix of horror, fantasy and western, and I think it worked well. It isn’t going to be for everyone, but if you like horror and westerns, then you definitely get two for the price of one. The make-up was good, although nothing we haven’t seen before. the acting was fine, the sets looked good too. All the woman of this place looked liked they worked in a whorehouse, but this is merely an observation. Snipes wasn’t his usual self, but he was still OK. This is the type of role he does well, and it was perfect for him. This had a budget of $17 million, which I think was well spent, as the production certainly looked good to me. As mentioned, this won’t work for some people but horror fans will like the action and blood-letting, and there is lots of it. It’s a tad slow in places, but nothing that should put anyone off, but even so, I had some gruesome fun watching Gallowwalkers. Gruesome fun indeed.
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