Curse of the Headless Horseman

"A young man inherits his uncle's western ranch and invites his friends to come along and help out with the operation. After arriving, the caretaker explains to the group the legend of the headless horseman who roams the area to seek revenge. Laughing off the legend as the ramblings of an old man, the group are then shocked when the phantom rider appears, causing the deaths of some of the group," according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis… This is one of those films for which even the lowest ranking seems too elevated - but, perhaps it's earned by walk-on Ultra Violet's "Superman" lunchbox.

* Curse of the Headless Horseman (1974) Leon Gucci ~ Marland Proctor, Don Carrara, Ultra Violet

I do enjoy these "seat-of-their-pants", "Hey gang! Let's make a movie" type of films. It's done for cheap, likely with little scripting and shot like someone is think they are making high art.

I really wish the print was better. I want this remastered!

This film is somewhat intestering example of grade Z filmmaker, from a guy who was responsible for something called "Carnival of Blood" before moving on to hard core porno. Some footloose hippie types move out to a western ranch to help a friend, but the headless horsemen starts knocking them off, then there is a surprise ending. There seems to be no script, but the actors do a surprisingly good job just sort of cobbing the scenes together. It's kind of fun if you are in the right mood, the place kind of looks like the Spann ranch, and they sure don't make them like this anymore. The "Something Weird" video comes with trailers and other stuff

Some seventies type guy and his loose friends head to a ranch where he must show a profit. In the process they stumble into a legend of a headless horseman who goes around killing people during a certain moon phase. Every once in a while a film comes along where you can't say anything good about it. Whoever thought this up didn't know what he was doing. The acting is about as bad as you can get. The people speak in seventies slang which sounds absolutely ridiculous (probably did then, too). They all sit around an discuss things on camera, instead of doing anything. Finally, there is nothing campy or fun about the thing either. Toss it.

I don't know how to fix it, but the director is Leonard Kirtman, who also made Carnival of Blood and then dozens of adult films in the 1970s for his own company. Kirtland has his own IMBD page and this film should be listed there instead of under Kirkland.

I suppose the lighting director named Kirkland is somebody else and whoever entered the name missed a letter ore selected the wrong one from a menu.

The film itself is incredibly low budget but worth a look by fans of underground cinema. Especially noteworthy is the presence of Warhol factory superstar Ultra Violet in an non-Warhol project. The cinematography and sound are definitely on the amateur level and the story seems to have been written under the influence of something.