The Pale Door

There is nothing very original here. A gang high jack a train and find something unexpected. The cast is a joy and there are some neat ideas here and there. But sadly, it is a slow and slightly boring movie, that never lives up to the premise of cowboys vs witches. You could do worse, but if you want good Wild West horror, watch Bone Tomahawk instead.

I like the plot even though it slightly mirrors the same plot of Robert Rodriguez' 1996 film called From Dusk til Dawn but with witches. Plus acting was pretty fair.

Well, initially all I knew about "The Pale Door" was that it was allegedly some sort of horror movie. And truth be told, that was essentially all that was needed to have my interest. But I must also say that the movie's cover/poster definitely had caught my attention as well.

So I sat down to watch the 2020 movie titled "The Pale Door", not really knowing what to expect from it, so writers Cameron Burns, Aaron B. Koontz and Keith Lansdale had all the possibilities to impress me with this movie.

Sadly, they didn't really manage to do so. Sure, I will admit that "The Pale Door" definitely had potential, but director Aaron B. Koontz just dropped the ball before the movie hit the halfway marker, and the movie never regained its momentum after that. And it ended up being a less than mediocre movie, actually.

The storyline told in "The Pale Door" started out adequately, but it was fast sliding downhill before hitting the halfway milestone, and director Aaron B. Koontz didn't manage to bring the movie back on track. And then suddenly there were crisp and burnt women milling about, just to add to an already befuddled storyline.

It should be said that the acting in the movie was adequate, but it was a real shame that the actors and actresses had precious little to work with in terms of a proper script and storyline. And it reflected poorly on the overall impression of the movie.

I am rating this western horror a less than mediocre four out of ten stars. This was a movie that came quietly in under the radar, and it will leave just as quietly as well, never to be seen a second time. I suppose if you have absolutely nothing else to watch, "The Pale Door" can suffice. But don't get your hopes up for a grand moment in cinematic history.

A bunch of cowboy tough guys on a heist job, now on the run, encounter a brothel with sexy ladies that are more then what they appear...sound familiar? In my opinion, the cast was great. Several B-Listers you may recognize from other films. Its weakest link is the direction, it is amateur at best! I understand this is low budget, so no CGI, and the makeup is not bad, it is just shown WAY too much, and WAY too close...making it laughable and not scary. The very first reveal of the "witches"...why did the witch have to "talk" if the actress can barely move her mouth in the makeup? Come ooon! The old adage "less is more" is prevalent here...keeping the witches in the shadows, barely shown, would've worked better. The pacing is not the best either, a lot of panning "fluff" shots to pad the runtime. At best this film is "average" due to the capable cast, music, SFX, sets, and production value. Where it fails is with the filmmaker. Given the resources seen on-screen, a capable filmmaker would've knocked it out of the park!

Extremely disappointing! Jake the little brother literally killed the movie! The movie could have been much better than what it is. Cheap movie even though the idea was good. You could tell that the producer is not good. I am very disappointed to have wasted time watching this movie.