Ghost Town

i saw this movie when i was a kid, and it is way cool. it kinda reminds me of movies made in that time like the gate, and the pit. cool late 80s movies ruled. this movie had some cool special effects for the time too. it seems like now, its just forgotten. i wonder if anyone else has seen it who remembers it for being cool. i think it would totally rule to get this out on DVD. it wasn't until recently that garbage pail kids came out officially. we need the monster squad too. does anyone else have any ideas for cool movies that are similar that need to come out on DVD? all of those movies rule. it brings me back to a time when movies were good, these days movies just seem to suck.

My review was written in October 1988 after watching the film on New World video cassette.

The supernatural thriller "Ghost Town" is a better-than-usual fright pic from Empire Pictures, earning a theatrical release this month from TWE ahead of home video availability via New World.

Atmospheric lensing by Empire stalwart Mac Ahlberg on Tucson locations offers a pleasant relief from recent sudiobound (in Rome) product from the late fantasy outfit.

Odd variation on familiar suspense format has pretty blonde Catherine Hickland driving her Mercedes on a remote road out West when she has a flat tire and is suddenly whisked away by a phantom rider coming out of a dust cloud.

Deputy sheriff Franc Luz investigates and finds a liberal ghost town whose inhabitants are undead, condemned to remain same by a dying sheriff's curse. Luz is given the old sheriff's badge and appointed to end the curse by destroying the lead baddie Devlin (Jimmie F. Skaggs) and saving Hickland from the villains' clutches.

Convincing makeup effects by John Buechler enhance Richard Governor's tight direction, which wisely grounds the fantasy in verisimilitude. Stunt director Kane Hodder later played Jason for Buechler in the most recent "Friday the 13th" feature.

Late 80's western horror which has a police officer following up a missing person on a desert highway ending up way off the beaten path. While walking a corpse of a sheriff pops out of the ground telling him that he is their only hope before crumbling into dust. This sets things in motion as he figures out he's not in Kansas anymore. A time warp takes place as he is suddenly doing battle with a demon cowboy at a small town in the late 1800's.

The special effects in this one were pretty good. The demon bad guys rotting flesh was decent. At times this was boring but would compensate with some action. Nothing too heavy in this one.

I remember seeing this movie on a tape with three other movies. A friend of mind had loaned me the tape for the weekend and I kept it for another week or so because I kept watching over and over and over this movie Ghost Town. It dragged me in so deep, I felt there was a personal message for me that I had to get before I could return the video to my friend.

As you know it is a very interesting film that hops back and forth from present day to the eerie past when Devlin and his cronies ruled supreme in this town. It was of course up to our present day sheriff Langley to first of all rescue the lovely heroine and then in order to return to the present day, he had to kill Devlin.

I think one of the great things about this movie was the characters. I feel that whoever chose the characters in this movie did a fantastic job because each of the actors and actresses were quite believable in their roles--no plastic acting.

Maybe that was the thing that kept me watching that movie 12 times or more during the week I had borrowed my friend's video--the 'believability' of the film thanks to the great acting throughout.

Very worthwhile watching!!!

Possibly the most overlooked and under-rated horror movie of all time. An original idea, well put together, should deserve more respect than the 'getting dusty on a video store shelf' this film received. Good movie. 8/10.