Organ Trail

For most of its running time Organ Trail is a relatively grounded Western/thriller with some interesting moments and solid cinematography. There is a certain grittiness to the events - when faced with dangers, characters don't perform heroics but often panic and die abruptly or at least take a physical toll from their big or small mistakes.

Then, in the last act, Organ Trail turns into the pulpy horror movie which was suggested by its title, with a ridiculous invincibile cartoon villain shrugging off an absurd amount of damage.

Now, I have nothing against ridiculous invincible cartoon villains - in the appropriate venue. After the low-key first and middle act, this is just tonally off. It's like watching All Quiet on the Western Front and then suddenly one character starts performing Commando-like shenanigans.

6/10.

I thought this was a western horror. It turned out to be a poorly directed thriller drama with villains and protagonists that are comically super human-although it wasn't funny. Just annoying. The director apparently doesn't care a bit about reality. This is stuff from 80s slasher films in which bullets in the heart don't stop some people but a bullet from the sky kills someone else. Dumb, idiotic and a waste of time. It is not a horror movie. It's a brain numbing sophomoric movie with misleading trailers and miscategorized as a horror. Sadly, some of the acting was very good-hopefully the pay was good because it didn't help their reputations.

I really tried to like this movie because I like westerns, but this movie could have been about hikers, campers, or just people lost in the woods. Scenery and music does not "make" a movie, and although there is some decent scenery the aggravating score does nothing to help this clinker. The story seems to drag and would have made a good 20 minuter TV show, but not a full length movie. There were too many characters to develop in the time it took to drag this movie to a conclusion. A little more actual story and a lot less unnecessary shots of people walking back and forth in the distance might have made this a better movie. The bad guys just need to be bad guys, and not spend every scene proving how bad they are. This director should learn to tell a story, and not waste film. Sad... because this story had some potential but it got lost by actors trying to be evil Clint Eastwoods. There is a great deal of stupid and unnecessary dialogue that make this movie forgettable. A better title would have been Dragging Trail. Not one of my favorites by any means.

My expectations were low. I am a huge lover of low budget films. However this was so wonky with its time frame and how historically things would have been done....its a joke. Not semi-realistic in any sense. What creates true fear is knowing it could have realistically happened. During that time period, your weapon meant everything. That means your most prized possession was your rifle. So people are going west with muzzle loaders when lever actions were all the rage as well as metallic cartridge revolver rounds? Obviously this director....nor does anyone else who has work on this know what the hell they are doing or talking about.

This was a solid western/drama/thriller and a little horror. One plus is it's filmed on location in Montana. It's a nice back drop for a dark and dreary period western.

Overall it's a bit long, some of the scenes are too extended and unnecessary. That being said the film is pretty well acted and directed. A lot of panning shots of Montana and some pretty good sfx, fire scenes and other elements.

There's also some pretty solid character build up and arcs which do take time to develop. It's definitely low budget and most of the actors are all still in their early stages of their careers.

Overall, enjoyable effort that drives some pretty good tension and the score isn't bad either 6/10.