Deadwood Park

Deadwood Park looks promising to start with. The setting is great, a dilapidated town with an old abandoned fairground, a spooky little church and the protagonists childhood home which has been abandoned for some time. Sure the acting is a bit wooden but there's some interesting scenery and a bit of tension with the local sheriff to keep you entertained. Strange things start happening so you are all geared up for a ghost story in this creepy setting.

But then, all of a sudden the writers seem to give up on the story they've been building up. Out go the spooky ghost bits and child abductions and in comes something which just doesn't fit at all. From then on the film drags and the ending is a meaningless shrug of the shoulders. Hey guys we filled the running time, thanks for watching.

I really think that if they had stuck to one story and maybe allowed the characters to express some sort of surprise at the ghostly goings on rather than being totally unmoved by them this could have been a great little movie. As it stands it's halfway there but not really worth your time. I just can't believe they squandered the great locations, which really are the stars in this one.

This is a very low budget, shot on video supernatural "mystery" about a man who returns to his hometown to solve the mystery of his twin's disappearance when he was a child. He teams up with a local girl interested in the small town's history (of unsolved child murders), and together they begin poking their noses into things the town (well, the sheriff) wants forgotten.

The only other reviewer recommended Deadwood Park to "serious fans of intelligent scary movies." He or she must be on crack. Or more likely associated with the production. Whichever the case, you tricked me into watching your movie, so congratulations.

The good: excellent locations, nice use of lanterns to light scenes, decent b/w WWII reenactments, interesting left turn ending that I actually enjoyed.

The bad: I can live with wooden acting (of which there is a good amount) but what kills this movie completely is the dog-slow coma-inducing ZZZZZZ pacing. Shots go on too long, and when the movie should be jumping ahead to the next scene, we get a billion cutaways to scenery. Mix this pace with the out-of-place flashbacks and it's snooze city. Plot hole: in the end of the movie the main character acts on information that we as viewers learned through a flashback but he has no way of knowing himself.

Calling this movie a mystery, as some have done, is a bit misleading. Until the answer to who (or what) killed the kids is revealed, there is no way for us as viewers to have figured it out.

It's obvious that the director has seen a few horror films. (Evil dead, The Changeling, etc.) I liked the last 15 minutes of the film, but this is not a good movie and you will regret renting it unless you were involved in its creation. I even doubt its value as a "so bad it's good" rental because until the end it's just dull.

Oh, and if you're looking for "intelligent horror" that's actually scary, check out the Korean film, A Tale of Two Sisters. Now that's a movie.

This movie was very low budget but storyline was great till the end. Wish they would have found another way to bring the end together. The writer should have not have made the killer what he/she was made into. The last 15 minutes dragged on because of it.

watched a good one tonight, the first for the usual Halloween movie fest. Wasn't expecting that much, but "Deadwood Park" was very entertaining for such a low budget indie movie. Not much graphic violence, but just enough, and a little gore. But, great script, good acting, and well done. Highly recommended.

Its not often I feel compelled to write a review and generally when I do its normally negative so it gives me great pleasure to type these positive words.

For all the trailer park/multiplex indie haters I'm not associated with the production of this film, I'm from the North East of England.

Deadwood Park is not without its flaws, on occasion the acting is a little amateurish and some of the effects are a little cheesy, personally I think the director should not have used visual effects for the ghosts. That said because of what has been achieved on an obviously tiny budget I think its unfair to focus on the few small bad points especially as they in no way detract from the overall enjoyment.

Eric Stanze has made a film that rarely puts foot wrong in terms of execution, story and plotting. Although the ideas and themes are well worn (MR James, Stephen King and possibly Ringu in terms of structure) fresh life is injected into them through engaging and largely excellent performances, atmospheric locations, fantastic pacing and simply beautiful cinematography.

Deadwood Park succeeds through the total commitment and passion of all those involved and its becoming increasingly rare to see such an effective American film let alone a horror that is not a remake of a Japanese classic or one that relies on cheap shocks and expensive gore.

For me personally this film will prove a great influence in my own cinematic endeavours, now where's that firewire cable.