Stageghost

StageGhost is a production that takes one back to the days of their youth. The only movies then for me were cowboy movies i.e. Roy or Dale. This movie is imaginative and took ingenuity to produce. Independent films cannot compete with the multimillion dollar productions of today. The budgets won't allow for it. Smaller productions require real scenes and characters, not digital creations and effects that are unrealistic and fantasy. Seiler has done his job well and utilized some of the best actors that he knows. It is a mysterious movie and entertaining...that is what a movie should be.. entertaining. I especially enjoyed the simulated old west scenery and I assume that Tom Seiler is an enormous expert on westerns. He did well to create the mood of the old west.

How this movie got to be labeled "horror" and "thriller" is beyond me. It was funny from the beginning to the end. There were the "ghosts" killing the good guys and the Indians killing every body. The various characters over emoted and it comes to mind the silent era of film making where over acting ones part was common. The Indians only wanted to have the good guys "give it back" never explaining what it was they wanted. The bad guys wanted the gold and the good guys didn't know anything about the gold and otherwise couldn't figure out what any of them wanted. Counting their ammo and deciding they didn't have much, they even so fired wildly and in various directs at nothing. One scene has two of them supposedly firing at the same object, but doing so in different directions. But the good guys did manage to find the Eldorado gold mine of Coronado, ha right, where they made their last stand against the Indians, but this time it was with the bad guys help. All the Indians wanted was a "relic" from some past time, all the bad guys wanted was the gold and all the good guys wanted was to get the hell out of there. Most of them lived, somewhat, ever after. Except for a lot of uncalled for foul language, it was an entertaining and fun movie to watch.

To the defenders of this movie, all I can say is: "Huh?" This is one of the very few movies I have ever turned off before the end. Pointless, nothing supernatural, laughable "skeleton" outfits on the crooks, bad dialog, you name it. The marshal, or sheriff, or whatever he was, began the movie hating the captured bank robber, then suddenly does a 180 without much motivation. "I hate your guts, you scum. . .nah, I guess you're alright." With few exceptions, the actors could have been replaced with cardboard cutouts. Lots of clichés were thrown in, but not enough to help. Yes, help. One colorful villain thrown in the mix was a lot more like a one-eyed land pirate than a cowboy. But, he either wasn't good enough, or bad enough, to help the movie. I awarded two stars, one for the lovely Dana Barron and one for Christopher Atkins. Both did fine jobs, especially considering what they had to work with. Unless you simply have time to kill, or are curious to see how Audry from the first "Vacation" movie grew up (beautiful!) don't bother with this one.

I have to say that I enjoyed this movie. No, it's not a Hollywood Blockbuster, but it is really worth seeing. It was nice to see some of the stars that we haven't seen in a while. It was great to just sit, relax and enjoy.

I liked this film. I have looked high and low for years for horror westerns. Horror westerns are very rare indeed and have only come across a couple in my search. Overall it is a decent film that gets such a high rating from me because of the boldness of creating this film in a market place that doesn't really have a spot for western horror. Watch this if you are looking for a spooky time. If you are looking for production values through the roof don't bother. Acting is good and the cinematography was acceptable. Edward Albert did a great job as the sheriff although at the beginning he maybe over did it just a little but i suspect that was part of the script so they could show the change in attitude towards his prisoner. Chris Atkins did a good job as the aloof would be criminal. But the cake goes to the actor who played Padro. I have not seen him in anything else and he don't have many lines but the way he carried himself was well done.